Ark New Aera Senorita s-6 , 2021

Around 2017 or 2018 I did something , that is supposed to be a cardinal sin for a collector.

When making my offer public, I received emails from fellow collectors that said „don’t do it, its a sacrilege! Keep it!

But yes, I gave away my 1956 Gibson J-185 , not beeing aware that this was my only maple bodied guitar. Soon I missed that bity sound and clearness..but it was gone. For a very good price, indeed and that was the reason I gave it away, somehow I needed the money.

There are some of them out there, fewer each year and most of them with issues or alterations or simply in bad shape. But I had made my choice. To acquire another one from the early fifties would have been ridiculous and way too expensive. 

I have been looking for an original Bacon & Day Senorita S-6 for years and I still do. I have been emailing with Tony Klassen several times before, mostly to get his expertly advice on Larson guitars that I had been offered. I knew that he was building wonderful copies of Larson guitars and also the Bacon&Day Senorita S-6 under his label ARK NEW AERA. So how about a Senorita-Copy, built by Tony with maple body? He liked the idea from the beginning, telling me that he himself had owned and loved an original 12-fret, maple body version of that model.

We found nicely figured maple wood for the back and sides, decided to go for a 14fret version and soon after, he began building the guitar according to the specs of the old original Senorita S-6 by Bacon & Day and was supplying me with pictures of the building process regularly. In April 2021 the guitar was finished and he was very happy about it.

“Great guitar , light and responsive “, he emailed me, beeing very proud having manufactured such a well looking and sounding instrument. And I received my new S-6 soon after, beeing also very happy to have a really wonderfull maple bodied guitar again that is, apart from its tonal qualities, a serious eye-catcher.

Sadly enough , Tony Klassen passed away at the age of 62, way too early in March 2022 and the guitar world lost one of its most skilled and visionary luthiers , but also a wonderful person.  

in memory of Tony Klassen