Undercurrent+ Mountain High

"As each of my guitars is built, I'd like to think I give it life"--- Zi Guitar

Undercurrent

Pau Ferro has garnered interest, fame as of lately since big name instrument manufacturers started using it as a replacement for Rosewood starting a couple years ago. However, its use in the guitar world goes much farther back than many know of. One of my favorite examples is the early 1990s Stevie Ray Vaughan Signature Strat. These guitars were built with either Brazilian Rosewood or Pau Ferro fingerboards. So, with that in mind, some manufacturers found Pau Ferro to be the perfect alternative for Brazilian Rosewood both in terms of looks and tonal performance.
However, visually Pau Ferro also can offer much more interesting, undercurrent like wood grain patterns, color variation, color stratification, and uniform density than a lot of the rosewood we are seeing today. Sometimes it's equally as good looking as the finest Brazilian Rosewood. Personally, I love the way that figured Pau Ferro looks as a drop top guitar even as fingerboards. I was lucky enough to found this beautiful visually spectacular, exhibiting figured Pau Ferro top and it has inspired me to build "The Undercurrent" to truly showcase this beautiful wood.

Mountain High

In acoustic guitar world, favored by classical, baroque and flamenco players, ziricote’s allure comes from its rich, booming bass response, matched only by its luminous treble. Often compared visually to Brazilian rosewood, but with inky black lines and darker, ghostlike grey tones, ziricote also boasts a natural reverb that surrounds both player and audience. Visually speaking ziricote is also very beautiful looking with unique, stunning natural wood grain patterns and colors variance. Often my build inspirations are from the wood itself, not only considering the tonal aspect but also the look, texture, different combination and etc.
For this Mountain High Ziricote top telecaster, I choose mahogany as body wood and combined with slightly brighter tone maple neck to achieve a overall tonal balance.