Each Makassar instrument is entirely hand-made with the best materials available.
The focus is always the musician: his personal search of the sound, his taste, his sensitivity. Each instrument is totally designed and customizable according to the musician's requests.
The instrument is conceived as a means of expression of the musician himself, the intermediary between his mind and his heart, just like a continuation of his fingers.
» List and options of the components
Any option like resonance strings, double neck, sitar bridge or other devices that you may wish on your instrument, can be ordered.
Working by hand allows me to achieve whatever you have in mind. The same high quality materials and components adopted for the construction of Makassar instruments are also used to restore instruments of other brands.
Contact me for any quotation and to know the delivery time.
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Design
Types of contruction
Body
- Makassar line entirely customizable
- Line inspired to famous instruments with the possibility of changes to make the instrument itself more responding to the needs of the musician
- Design proposed by the customer
Types of contruction
- Bolt on
- Set neck
- Super set neck
- Neck true body
Body
- Size, features, and ergonomics
- Solid or with tonal chambers or semi-acoustic
- Wide choice of woods, possibility of top made with rare and exotic woods
Neck types
Hand-made neck and fretboard options
- Completely hand-made
- Warmoth
- Moses Graphite
- Headless made of graphite or wood
Hand-made neck and fretboard options
- Diapason (length of strings and consequent distance of frets) The choice of diapason also modifies the tension of the strings
- Dimension and neck profile
- Wide choice of rare and exotic woods
- Radius
- Wide choice of different frets
- Double action trus-rod
- Neck reinforce of graphite or steel
- Inlays and decorations made with mother of pearl, abalone, wood and Cernit-fimo
- Wood or vinyl Binding
Wood
- To make a high quality musical instrument, the choice of wood is essential. All Makassar instruments are made with natural dried up and selected wood
- The wood is selected and cut so that the fibers are straight and parallel (quarter sawn and flat sawn). Instruments made with this kind of wood are strong and stable over time
- These woods are considered "live", as they are dried naturally in the open air. The natural drying process makes the sap contained in the wood flow away gradually leaving the pots completely free. So the pots are like micro tonal chambers where the sound can flow. It is a process that requires time (years) and patience but that guarantees an excellent timbre. The instrument literally vibrates under the fingers of the musician
- On the contrary, artificial drying is usually a choice of mass brands that produce huge numbers of instruments. Artificial drying is obtained in furnaces with high temperature and controlled moisture. The sap contained in the wood dries too quickly, the sap hardens and leaves the vases clogged. This procedure does not allow the vibration produced by strings to move freely along the fibers. The sound of the guitars made in this way usually is dingy and opaque
Nut
Finishing
Machine head
Passive electronics
- Different materials: bone, Graphtech, brass, snake wood, ebony, synthetic ivory
- " 0" fret
- Block-nut
Finishing
- Various types of lacquer polyurethane, acrylic, and nitro. Solid and transparent. Glossy and matte
- Reproduction of vintage finishes (Sunburst, gold top, Duco color, custom color)
- Realization aged and relic finishes
- Natural oil and wax
- Hybrid synthetic and wax
- French polish (shellac)
Machine head
- Schaller, Grover, Kluson, Sperzel, Hipshot
- Locking or traditional
- Available in chrome, black and gold
Passive electronics
- Any possible configuration, made with high quality components
- CTS potentiometers and parts
- Swithcraft, Fender and Schaller switch
- Switchcraft Jack
- Sprague orange drop and All-parts capacitor
Bridge
Pickups
Bass active electronics
- Schaller, ABM, Hipshot, Kahler, Gotoh, Steinberger
- Custom Makassar bridges can be made of steel, bronze, brass and graphite. Each bridge is milled out of one single piece of material thanks to high precision CNC machines. Finished and polished by hand
- Mobile and fixed, with or without piezo saddles
- Available in chrome, black and gold
Pickups
- Mama for guitars and bass
- Mama is an Italian artisan factory that produces passive high quality pickups, totally hand made. In addition to the already rich catalog it offers, there is also a custom shop service. Mama makes pickups on request in different shapes, materials and characteristics
- Restore service for vintage pickups: magnetize coils, vacuum wax potting, rewire (Polysol, Formvar, Plein enamel)
- On demand Seymour Duncan, Dimarzio, Bartolini, EMG, Curtis Novak, Van Zandt and Randall Wall pickups
Bass active electronics
- Aquilar, Custom Works, Mama, Bartolini, EMG
Booster and onboard preamplifier for guitars. Designed and made by the engineer Giuseppe Leotta
- Acoustic simulator - Excellent alternative to piezo system. Installed onboard an electric guitar it filters and modifies the pickups signal, simulating the sound and the behavior of an acoustic guitar. Contrarily to the piezo system, the Acoustic simulator interfaces very well with valve amp. Bright high frequency, dig medium and deep bass. An excellent natural compression and a major acoustic attack. The active tone of the preamplifier makes the guitar very versatile and it allows to switch from open and airy registers to creamy and soft acoustic jazz sounds
- Germanium booster - Activated and controlled directly by the guitar. It allows you to switch from a slight increase of the bottom volume with addition of harmonics to a light saturated sound. Germanium is a conductor used in 1950s - 1960s and it is less "efficient" than the modern Silicon conductor. In music applications Germanium is sought after a lot for his talented timbre and for his musical distortion, soft and warm, too. The booster is provided with a gain potentiometer controlled directly on the guitar top. Volume of the preamplifier are programmable through mini-trim inside of the electronic device
- Germanium Overdrive - Activated and controlled directly by the guitar. It allows you to switch from a slight increase of the bottom volume with addition of harmonics to a powerful and compact saturated sound. Germanium is a conductor used in 1950s - 1960s and it is less "efficient" than the modern Silicon conductor. In music applications Germanium is sought after a lot for his talented timbre and for his musical distortion, soft and warm, too. The booster is provided with gain potentiometer controlled directly on the guitar top. Volume and tone of the preamplifier are programmable through two mini-trim inside of the electronic device.
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