Since it launched last month, Tim Henson’s new Ibanez TOD10N nylon-string signature model has been making the rounds. First the six-string found its way into the hands of Polish acoustic guitar wunderkind Marcin Patrzalek, who put it through its paces with a jaw-dropping, Latin-inspired fingerstyle performance.
Earlier this week, Ichika Nito took the instrument – which he dubbed “the coolest guitar” – for a test drive – with an 18-second clip packed with his lightning-quick right-hand chops and smatterings of two-handed tapping.
And now, Manuel Gardner Fernandes, another social media-savvy virtuoso pushing the guitar to new heights, has taken the radical guitar for a spin with a performance laden with his usual gravity-defying, natural harmonic-enriched fretboard fireworks. Check it out below.
Predictably, the guitarist’s video has gained the approval of Tim Henson himself, who comments on Fernandes’s Instagram video: “Beautiful playing brother.”
Tim Henson’s signature TOD10N is based on an old Ibanez design, the solidbody SC500N, but is touted as “very much its own creation”. It features a nylon-string setup, hollow body, Sitka spruce top and sapele back and sides, and a walnut fretboard with a Tree of Death pearloid inlay spanning the length of its neck.
Elsewhere, the guitar sports a Fishman Sonicore pickup, which sits alongside an Ibanez AEQ210TF preamp, and a side sound port which aims to “preserve the clean, modern appearance of the guitar, while also providing clear and accurate acoustic tone”.
After sprouting from the mind of the Polyphia axeman, and in turn finding its way into the hands of Marcin Patrzalek, Ichika Nito and Manuel Gardner Fernandes, we can only assume it’s only a matter of time before the stars align and bring the four horsemen of modern-day virtuoso guitar playing together for a jam.
The paths of Tim Henson and Manuel Gardner Fernandes have crossed several times before. Back in February 2021, the pair joined forces to herald the future of rap-shred with a mind-blowing guitar cover of Drake and Roddy Ricch's In The Cut, while Henson has previously guested on tracks by Gardner Fernandes' band, Unprocessed.
