Ciari Guitars introduces the Steve Stevens Signature Ascender, a groundbreaking travel guitar merging folding technology with elite performance features. Designed for musicians on the go, this innovative model offers premium materials, custom pickups, and unique design elements.
CiariGuitars, the pioneering brand behind the world's most innovative travel guitars, proudly announces its first-ever SignatureSeries model in collaboration with Grammy Award-winning songwriter, guitarist, and rock legend Steve Stevens. Best known for his work with Billy Idol and contributions to music icons like Michael Jackson, as well as culture-defining films such as Top Gun, Stevens brings his unparalleled tone and artistry to Ciari’s revolutionary platform.
The Steve Stevens Signature Ascender™ merges Ciari’s patented folding technology with the high-performance features demanded by elite touring musicians. Designed for tone, portability, and stage-ready aesthetics, the Signature model offers a new benchmark in travel guitar innovation - perfect for stage, studio, and everywhere in between.
“Imagine flying with a truly professional, high-quality guitar and not having to worry about an airline damaging it,” says Stevens. “With my signatureCiari guitar, you just fold it up, stick it in its included backpack, and slide it under your seat. Ciari has changed the game, and I’m proud to put my name on this instrument.”
Crafted with premium materials and custom features handpicked by Stevens himself, the guitar is built for musicians who refuse to choose between convenience and performance. The Signature Ascender features a custom neck profile, premium pickups, and striking visual elements that reflect Steve’s iconic style. The SignatureSeries includes two models: the SteveStevensSignature Ascender Platinum, available in Jet Black Glass and Olympic White Gloss, and the SteveStevensSignature Ascender Premier, available in Jet Black Glass, Olympic White Gloss, and Josie Pink.
The Steve Stevens Signature Ascender boasts the following key features:
Bare Knuckle Ray Gun pickups for dynamic, precise tone.
Coil-splitting functionality for versatile sound options.
LED Selector Switch with Red, Green, and Blue position indicators on the Ray Gun Logo.
Bezel tuners for effortless, accurate tuning.
Premium electronics with stacked pots for seamless control.
Trapezoid inlays and Ray Gun-inspired design elements
Ciari’s patented foldable neck system allows for “Personal Item” convenience on planes.
“Partnering with SteveStevens for our first SignatureSeries is a dream,” said Jonathan Spangler, Founder & CEO of CiariGuitars. “He embodies everything we value — innovation, excellence, and fearless artistry. This guitar is the culmination of that shared vision.”
The SteveStevensSignature Ascender is available for pre-order exclusively on the CiariGuitars website.
Andy Powers’ influence on the substance and style of Taylor guitars has been truly significant. Over his 14-year tenure leading Taylor’s design efforts, he’s introduced entirely new bracing patterns and body profiles—never easy when working for a legacy brand in a tradition-oriented industry. In crafting the new Gold Label 814e Koa Super Auditorium, Powers might have created Taylor’s prettiest body shape yet—a blend of sweeping curves, airy lines, and graceful proportions that, like a river stone, appear as if shaped by water.
Stylish, for sure. But there’s substance in abundance, too. The ever-tinkering Powers reconfigured the V-Class bracing Taylor introduced in 2018 for the new Gold Label 814e guitars. There’s also a new glue-free long-tenon neck—significant news considering how large Taylor’s NT neck looms in the company’s identity. What’s interesting about those moves is that Powers was keen to bake a visceral sense of vintage-ness into this guitar. The Gold Label 814e doesn’t sound much like the old American flattops I run into, but it’s distinguished by sweetness, clarity, balance, and expressive range.
Presence and Proportions
The Super Auditorium body shape that debuts with the Gold Label 814e is a close relative of Taylor’s lovely Grand Auditorium shape, which, at 30 years old, is now a foundational part of Taylor’s line. In fact, the 814e Koa is just 3/16" longer and 1/4" wider than a Grand Auditorium. More obvious is the absence of a cutaway, and the symmetry of the curves highlight lovely, just-about-perfect proportions. It’s a beautiful guitar, but it’s probable the increase in dimensions has more to do with Powers chasing a specific sound. Certainly, more size could align with aspirations to the antique tone glow of a vintage American flattop.
The collective effect of the body dimensions (which live in a sweet spot between grand Concert and dreadnought size) and the modified V-Class bracing means the Gold Label 814e’s voice is distinctive rather than overtly “vintage” (a broad, unspecific term at best). At the risk of disappointing Powers and Taylor, I think the Gold Label 814e exhibits many classically Taylor tone attributes to excellent effect, and the snappy midrange and relatively even string-to-string balance at times evoke an acoustic that’s been EQ’d and compressed by a recording engineer. But what will resonate for many players is the way the Gold Label 814e complements the modern facets of its voice with toasty bass from the 6th string and a little less top-end brilliance from the 1st and 2nd strings—qualities you’re more likely to hear in a guitar with 70 years of toil baked in. In the Gold Label 814e, those tonalities are bookends for a broad midrange that is very present and very Taylor, and whether that whole suits your playing style has a lot to do with how much you can leverage its impressive dynamics. Heavy-handed strumming confirms that the Gold Label 814e is capable of being very loud. It also highlights a pronounced midrange that, for all the guitar’s string-to-string balance, can be a bully if you have a heavy touch. If your approach is more varied and sensitive, though, the extra volume becomes headroom and the midrange becomes a chrome shine set against a dusty desert patina. It’s a killer recipe for fingerstyle. A light touch can still generate detailed, complex overtone pictures, while the high headroom accommodates and inspires high-contrast high-intensity counter phrasings. There’s a lot of room to explore.
Grease the Runway
Playability is, as expected, a strong suit. The action feels extra-easy and encourages hyperactive playing styles as well as languid chording that utilizes the instrument’s sustain, range, and rich pianistic qualities. The 1:21 ratio Gotoh 510 tuners feel ultra-precise, making moves between alternate tunings easy and enhancing an already strong sense of performance stability. Flawless fretwork, meanwhile, feels fantastic and underscores Taylor’s super-high quality. A fatter neck profile certainly would have suited me, and even though you can feel the tiniest hint of a V-profile bump at the neck contour’s apex, it still feels a touch thin. Even so, a lack of hand fatigue and a sense of fleetness in the fingers make the trade-off worthwhile.
Appropriately, for a guitar that costs $4.8k, the Gold Label 814e is a feast for the eyes, but in a sneaky, not-too-extroverted kind of way. The Hawaiian koa back and sides, which are a $300 upcharge from the rosewood-backed 814e, are, along with the Continental inlays, the flashiest element of the instrument. And though the high-quality lumber elsewhere in the guitar (torrefied spruce top, ebony fretboard, mahogany neck, ebony tuning keys) all feel luxurious, the deeply figured koa adds an extra splash of bespoke flash. Seasoned Taylor spotters will also note that the lines of the koa sides are not cluttered with the controls of the Expression System 2 electronics, which have been replaced here by an excellent L.R. Baggs Element VTC system that utilizes controls tucked inside the soundhole.
The Verdict
Though the 814e Koa aspires to 1940s and ’50s American flattop vintageness, it doesn’t always deliver on that count. For the right player, though, the instrument offers a unique and complex voice with a super-wide dynamic range and soft-focus bass and treble tones that temper the midrange. The new glue-free, long tenon neck can be reset fast and inexpensively should that time ever come, which might make the sting of the hefty $4,799 investment feel less risky—at least in maintenance terms. Yep, it’s really expensive. But consider, too, the joys of beholding the 814e Koa’s graceful curves all day—you might be able to justify the cost as a musical instrument as well as art.
Orangewood Guitars introduces the Del Sol Baritone, their first electric guitar, designed in collaboration with TreeTone Guitars. Featuring a chambered mahogany body, 27.5" baritone scale, and dual P90 pickups, this unique instrument offers a vintage-style out-of-phase scoop. Available in Pitch Black and Sandstone finishes for $695.00.
Orangewood Guitars has introduced the Del Sol Baritone, the brand’s first-ever electric guitar, designed in collaboration with JoshForest, the founder behind Connecticut-based TreeTone Guitars. This new model blends TreeTone’s signature offset shape aesthetic with Orangewood’s mission to build affordable and performance-ready instruments. This release marks a major milestone for the brand: Orangewood’s first electric guitar and first collaboration with an outside designer since its founding in 2018.
Orangewood Launches First Electric Guitar: The Del Sol Baritone
The Del Sol Baritone features a chambered mahogany offset body with a bass-side f-hole, striking an ideal balance between weight and resonance. With a 27.5" baritonescale, it's tuned to B-standard, delivering deep, articulate low-end tones. A pair of passive P90 pickups offers a broad tonal palette—from smooth cleans to gritty growl—while a mini phase switch, active when in the middle pickup position, unlocks a vintage-style out-of-phase scoop.
The guitar is available in two finishes, Pitch Black and Sandstone, and is priced at $695.00.
Key Specs
Baritone electric guitar with 27.5" scale, tuned to B-standard with Ernie Ball Baritone Slinky Electric Guitar Strings
Chambered offset body made from mahogany, featuring a bass-side f-hole
Roasted maple neck with a C-shape profile, rosewood fretboard, jumbo frets, TUSQ nut, and block inlays
Dual P90 pickups with volume and tone controls, plus a mini toggle phase switch that adds a biting, vintage-style quack
Grover Roto-Grip Locking Vintage Turners, Tune-O-Matic bridge, and stop tailpiece
Unique brushed aluminum front control plate and a back neck plate with TreeTone logo
What began as a cross-coastal collaboration evolved into a bold take on an electric—a chambered, baritone-scale guitar that fuses East Coast sensibility with West Coast attitude. “We’ve been fans of Josh’s work for years,” said Eddie Park, co-founder of Orangewood. “His unique vision and attention to detail made him the ideal partner as we entered the world of electrics. After years of conversations, prototypes, and a shared obsession with character and tone, the Del Sol Baritone is finally here. It marks a turning point in Orangewood’s evolution—a fresh, distinctive kind of guitar that feels like the perfect introduction for those that only know us for our acoustics.”
"After working on the first prototype together, it was immediately obvious that we were onto something really cool. Not only did the guitar look like a Del Sol I’d built, but it felt and sounded great, too,” said Josh Forest about the product development. “We went through a couple rounds tweaking the prototype, and the whole collaboration process just felt really natural and fun—like it came together exactly how it was meant to. What excites me most is getting my designs into more players’ hands, which is something I couldn’t make happen all on my own."
Wanna talk about rabbit holes? Well, few are deeper or darker than one that awaits when you compare the virtues, shortcomings, and construction peculiarities of Big Muffs. Make no mistake, I love the things. And studying real, audible differences among Big Muff variants is fun. But I would happily take back many hours I’ve spent contrasting Ram’s Head, Triangle, and Sovtek versions, and their clones—all to arrive at the conclusion that they all sound awesome in their own right. One dude that has spent about a million hours dissecting Muff tone minutiae is EarthQuaker Devices founder Jamie Stillman. Hisefforts to reverse engineer his pal Dan Auerbach’s unique-sounding Sovtek Muff begat theHoof, which remains among EarthQuaker’s most enduring and successful products.
Just as Auerbach’s Muff possessed a certain something missing in otherwise identical Sovteks, so it was with a Version-6 (V6) Electro-Harmonix Big Muff used by James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem for his band’s fuzz-bass tones. As 40-something pedals will, Murphy’s V6 Big Muff got a bit fussy for tour life, so Stillman and EQD were tasked with crafting a replacement. But like so many vintage pedals that have become notorious and legendary, Murphy’s V6 Big Muff is distinguished by construction inconsistencies that made it a quirky and unique thing.
EQD’s interpretation of this formula—made manifest here in the Chelsea Low End Fuzz Driver—is a Big Muff-style voice that leans more Ram’s Head than Sovtek. In strictly sonic terms, that means lots of grind, presence, and a delectable balance between air and aggression that make the Chelsea soar. Like a vintage V6 Big Muff, it features a tone-bypass switch which removes the tone pot entirely. The midrange-heavy result is appealing and impressive in its own punky way. But the rangeful tone control, and the oxygenated sounds that live in its treblier zones, in particular, are highlights of the pedal’s vocabulary that make it distinctive.
As the “Low End Fuzz Driver” handle and Murphy’s historically bass-oriented usage suggest, the Chelsea’s tone profile is a great tool for crafting gnarly, nasty, bottom-end sounds that have a trace of almost saxophone-like honk and grit on top of mere mass—a sound composite that gives bass and baritone riffs lift and definition. But as sweetly and swaggeringly as the Chelsea gels with bass, guitarists will find it a source of rich and blistering tones, and a distinctive alternative to early Triangle-, Ram’s Head-, and V6-style Big Muff sounds.
Question:What’s your favorite guitar scene in a movie?
Guest Picker Boyd Holbrook
Boyd Holbrook is a fan of “Dueling Banjos.”Photo by Leo Jacob
A:Deliverance. The dueling guitar and banjo scene for me is the most eerie and unique scene ever in a movie. What a wicked movie. Everyone always thinks the film is set in Kentucky. It comes up a lot once people know I’m from Kentucky, but it’s set in Georgia. Maybe it’s the banjo that reminds people of Kentucky.
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Obsession: I’m obsessed with open-C and open-G tunings right now with Travis-style picking. You can pop and pull all sorts of stuff. My guitar coach, the great Bret Boyer who got me spun up to play Johnny Cash, keeps on blowing my mind with new styles. I think next we’re gonna crack how R.L. Burnside played his sound. That one for me is sacred.
Matthew Wang is a Nigel Tufnel fan!
Reader of the Month
Matthew Wang
A: I love Crossroads with Steve Vai and the guitar scenes in the first Back To The Future movie, but I think Nigel Tufnel doing his Rig Rundown in This Is Spinal Tap is the greatest guitar scene in film. It made me want a Les Paul. For the sustain!
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IK Multimedia’s powerful tone-generating machine.
Obsession: I’m really loving IK Multimedia’s TONEX and u-he’s Zebrify. In terms of other hardware I really want an Industrialelectric RM-1N pedal to make some drones. I’m also obsessively watching video demos of Old Blood Noise Endeavors pedals and really want to get some soon, in particular the BL-44 Reverse.
Our John Bohlinger is a fan of the devil’s guitar player—as portrayed by Steve Vai.
A: The final guitar duel between Jack Butler (Steve Vai) and Ralph Macchio from Crossroads remains the greatest cinematic contribution to guitardom ever. The year was 1986 and Vai, fueled by incredible innate talent and the blessing of Satan, was kicking Macchio’s ass until Ralph whipped out Niccolò Paganini's Caprice No. 5. Of course, Vai played both his parts and Ralph’s Paganini part while Ry Cooder supplied the funky, swampy slide stuff. It was not a fair fight.
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Bohlinger’s current favorite plectrum
Obsession: I’ve been experimenting with different plectrums. It’s amazing how much variety you get from that one tiny ingredient. My current favorite is the V Pick Traditional.
R.L. Burnside backed by our editorial director, Ted Drozdowski.
Ted Drozdowski
Editorial Director
A: It’s the outrageous performance of “Stack-O-Lee” by Samuel Jackson inBlack Snake Moan. a greasy, nasty nod to ’60s/early ’70s exploitation movies. Jackson’s character, Lazarus Redd, is loosely based on my old friend and mentor R.L. Burnside, and while Redd’s foul-mouthed, murderous rap is totally gangster, the music is authentic Mississippi hill-country blues, anchored by R.L.’s old family rhythm section of his grandson Cedric Burnside on drums and “adopted son” Kenny Brown on guitar. And the juke joint atmosphere is thicker than an alligator’s hide.
Obsession: Amps! Again! Recent guests have included a Friedman Plex, StewMac’s upcoming Valve Factory 18, and an Orange O Tone 40. Just plugging in and cranking up is too much fun!
Orangewood Launches First Electric Guitar: The Del Sol Baritone
Boyd Holbrook is a fan of “Dueling Banjos.”Photo by Leo Jacob
