Hand-built acoustic instruments made entirely from traceable timbers.
Every guitar is uniquely numbered and carries its own digital passport.
The collection
The endemic one. Ten timbers that grow nowhere but Australia, in a modified body with golden ratios and recycled timber with nail holes and all, an embedded digital passport records the full provenance story of this unique instrument.
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The hero of this instrument is Padauk, a blazing, vivid orange-red timber from Africa. This is a “Chameleon” wood, as it will change colour over time through the natural process of light exposure.
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Using reclaimed sequoia from the west coast of the USA. The soundboard of this guitar stayed submerged in the mud for decades before it was recovered and ended up in this instrument.
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Digital Passport
The maker
Laszlo builds these instruments himself, one at a time, in a small workshop on the Walsh Bay wharves at the edge of Sydney Harbour. The work sits where curiosity meets discipline, and science meets art.
Sustainability is the constraint the rest is built around rather than a label added at the end. Timbers are carefully selected, recycled or reclaimed wherever they can be, every species is recorded, and each instrument leaves with a passport that says where its material came from. That interest is not confined to the bench: Laszlo is also the CEO of OriginsNext, and the thinking about provenance runs through both the business interest and the creative passion.
With thanks to the makers who publish what they learn:
Casimi, Tom Sands, Michihiro Matsuda, Michael Bashkin, Ervin Somogyi, Trevor Gore, Driftwood Guitars, Toscano Guitars (David Gibson) and Pablo Requena. None of them is answerable for what happens here, but the standard they set is the one being aimed at.