Our sister publication Guitar Aficionado recently featured a review of the Teye El Dorado Solidbody Guitar. Built by Austin-based luthier Teye, the El Dorado is inspired by the work of Tony Zemaitis and firearms from the Sahara desert.
“I first saw these enormous Bedouin rifles in the southern Spanish town of Granada, and their image has always stayed with me,” he says. “They’re made from dark, polished rosewood and inlaid all over the place with mother-of-pearl and brass studs. Everything is done by hand, so they look kind of rough but have so much soul.”
The guitar shown here is one of just two El Dorados ever made. The first, which has different inlay and engraving patterns along with gold hardware, was built to accommodate a special challenge. “I have a customer in Canada who bought my La Perla model, which has a 500-piece mother-of-pearl mosaic in the center,” Teye explains. “He started stoking the flames under my butt, asking me to outdo that guitar. So I came up with El Dorado.”
Click here to read the rest of this review.
Main photo by Massimo Gammacurta
“Vintage looks and performance at an accessible price”: Epiphone expands its high-end Inspired by Gibson Custom Collection – and introduces a key upgrade to its 1959 Les Paul Standard reissue
“I must’ve played hundreds of Les Pauls, and I can safely say this is up there with the best sounding of them – it even gives my own Gibson Les Paul Standard a run for its money”: Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom 1957 Les Paul Goldtop review
