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Beard DecoPhonic Highball 137 Deluxe in Black with Texas Headstock Inlay

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Presenting the all new Beard DecoPhonic series Highball 137 Deluxe, this one custom done for us in Black with Texas Headstock Inlay.

Steeped in tradition, obsessed with innovation.

It may be easier to play it safe and just repeat something that has already been done, but it takes a different kind of person to blaze a trail into the unknown. Few time periods are more renowned for this type of free thinking and bold behavior than the prohibition era of the 1920’s and early 1930’s; a time that birthed some of the greatest guitars in existence. Their creation coincided with the rise of aviation, the repeal of prohibition, and the ratification of the 19th amendment which extended voting rights to women. The innovators of this time dared to think differently, to try new things, and fight back against the antiquated preconceptions that had defined their lives for so long. Call these people rebellious or call them crazy, but these are the few who first proved that men, women, and machines could fly.

Aesthetically, Beard's Deco Guitars are a shameless love letter to a time gone by. Their classic colors and familiar details strike a natural chord while the refined body shapes add a subtle yet fresh stylistic perspective. The soft, almost V-shaped necks and aged tuners pay homage to the well-loved instruments cherished by many. With so many traditional elements, it would be easy to write these classic instruments off as simple copies of the great guitars of yesterday.

Yet ask anyone who has played one, and they will tell you the difference. The thin flat-backed bodies are more compact and approachable for a wider number of players. The volume and projection is outstanding and noticeably disproportionate to a guitar of this size. The way each string comes alive with even the lightest touch is intoxicating and opens new sonic possibilities.

The Highball is a full-bodied dreadnought with a full-bodied sound, yet the slim tapered “SSD” shape body makes it much more comfortable and approachable than a standard dreadnought. The solid spruce top with mahogany Aero bracing provides a powerful sound that is slightly scooped in the midrange with thunderous low end. This makes the Highball great for accompaniment and strumming. If you are a singer/songwriter, the Highball is for you. As always, all Deco guitars are handmade in small batches in Hagerstown Maryland.

At the heart of every Deco acoustic guitar is Beard's innovative Aero Bracing. Spruce is the traditional material for acoustic guitar bracing. It is used because it is very light and has a decent amount of stiffness in proportion to its weight. However, spruce presents some challenges as well. It is extremely soft with inconsistent density, which makes it difficult to work, and it’s not actually a particularly stiff wood, which means the braces need to be relatively large to properly support the top. When designing the bracing for the Deco acoustic guitars, Beard knew they had to think outside the box in order to achieve their goals. Beard selected Mahogany as their material of choice for top bracing. It has very high stiffness and very even density, but, is naturally slightly heavier than spruce. They compensated for this difference in weight by making the braces narrower and taller. Then they took a cue from aircraft design and carved out the inside of the braces to maintain stiffness and reduce the weight even further. This type of complex shaping would never be possible with spruce. What we ended up with were braces that have the same or higher stiffness than traditional spruce braces, with noticeably reduced weight. The entire set of mahogany braces for a Sidecar model can weigh as little as 15 grams. This noticeably impacts the volume and projection of the guitar, as well as the responsiveness and touch sensitivity of the strings.