I don’t believe this is a new guitar, but it’s new to me. In my ongoing search for guitars to add to my Another 52 guitars series, I often come across a luthier I’m not familiar with. Sometimes, they have something in their collection that blows my mind and makes me drool—not a desirable thing to do over a PC keyboard. The AVA Guitars Coal Skin is one of those guitars.
Regular viewers will know that I’m looking for guitars to include in this list that offer features few other guitars in my own collection have. The Coal Skin nails that requirement. I’m also a fan of guitars that have a certain amount of design features in them. Another requirement met.
For my own collection, I focus on black and/or white guitars. Another box ticked.
The Coal Skin is quite simply a beautiful and functional guitar. Featuring the classic single cutaway body shape, and twin humbucker pickups—Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers—this guitar looks ready to rock.
Where this guitar stands out from the Les Paul styled clones is in the body material—among other things. This guitar is all carbon fibre and looks beautiful. Some of those looks come down to the design features I mentioned earlier. Features such as:
- Gold and metal black hardware
- Unique fretboard markers
- A beautifully styled control panel that mixes Les Paul and Telecaster functionality/layout
- That bridge!
Looks are great. What about sounds? Well, I couldn’t find much on YouTube—which may just be a search issue I was experiencing—but I did find this video on Facebook that blew my mind. It seems the guitar can sound great as well.
I’d love to get the opportunity to play one of these one day. It looks to be a lot thinner and presumably lighter than your standard all-wood single cutaway electric guitar. The Coal Skin looks flawless.
All boxes ticked. I love the look of the AVA Guitars Coal Skin.