Renaissance Guitars • Shoreline Music

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Rick Turner's Renaissance Guitars are the culmination of a lifelong odyssey of designing and building musical instruments and the means to amplify them. His resume is a mile long--in addition to starting his own line of Turner guitars 25 years ago, he founded Alembic Basses, Highlander Pickups, served as president of Gibson's research labs, and personally developed guitars and pickup systems for some of the biggest players in the business, including Lindsey Buckingham, David Crosby, and Andy Summers. With Renaissance Guitars, Rick has built a line of instruments designed to meet the needs of demanding stage pros, but at prices that you don't have to be a pro to afford.

Here's the story: The handmade guitars we sell on the rest of this website are works of art, wonderful to play and to hear. But to take one up on stage inevitably entails some sort of compromise. As discussed in our FAQ, when trying to amplify your guitar, the closer you get to reproducing the truly warm, full tone of that full-bodied instrument, the more likely your guitar is to feed back. One solution is to use a pickup that resists feedback, but many pickups that resist feedback produce a tone that is far from natural. Renaissance guitars are built from the ground up with this understanding: The pickup is a Turner-designed undersaddle pickup, but since the feedback resistance comes from the body design (no soundhole, plus a center block to support the bridge), the pickup is free to be as acoustic as possible.

The cedar and walnut tonewoods of the standard RS6 are reminiscent of our best-selling Mcilroy A25, and, really, it's no accident--Rick's experiments with tonewoods led him to this combination for its acoustic properties. Further improving the acoustic tone of the Renaissance guitars is the cedar block that supports the bridge. It is of course there to resist feedback, but more important, Rick found that cedar tilted the scale in the direction of acoustic tone, so he stuck with it.

These guitars will never be mistaken for typical acoustic guitars, nor should they be. You'll never take a Renaissance to an unplugged singalong with a bunch of friends. With no soundhole in the guitar, all they'd hear is your singing, and depending on your voice, that may be a risky proposition. But if you're looking for a handmade stage guitar that will solve your feedback problems and sound incredibly good at the same time, then you've found your answer in Rick's guitars. I should add that I have put this guitar through extensive stage use, and I can say that it is more than up to the task. In both quiet fingerstyle and heavy strumming, this guitar goes wherever you want it to. Part of the explanation for the tremendous dynamic range is the 18-volt DTAR preamp built into the guitar. With twice the voltage of normal onboard preamps (and a nifty slide-out drawer to house it), this preamp is designed not to give up when you start hitting your strings with a pick.

Renaissance Guitar Models:

RS6 - The RS6 is the standard Renaissance stage model. The "S" stands for "steel-string", and the "6" designates, of course, the number of strings. This guitar is a joy to play, and when plugged in it sounds better than many full-bodied guitars. It has terrific response, sustain and clarity, and it performs equally well fingerpicked or strummed. It even lights up in dropped tunings, which is more than I can say for some regular acoustic guitars. This is my main stage guitar, and although I use it in live worship with a full rock band, I never have even a hint of feedback. I also occasionally use it in smaller venues where fingerstyle guitar can actually be heard, and again, it sounds fantastic. And here's a pleasant surprise I discovered recently: When plugged into a Line 6 Flextone III, it's the best-sounding electric guitar onstage. It sounds great clean, but with a bit of overdrive, it reminds me of Neil Young's electric guitar on Harvest (like in "Alabama" and "Words"). You can check out a more detailed review of the guitar in our Guitar Spotlight Archives. 24 1/2" scale length, 1 11/16" nut standard; a 1 3/4" neck can be ordered upon request. (picture)

RN6 - This is the nylon-string version of the RS6. This is the perfect crossover guitar for someone looking for the tone of a nylon-string guitar, but not the feedback typically associated with amplifying one. Although the RS6 is by far our best seller, it's the nylon model that generates the most drool here in the shop. 650 mm scale length, 1 15/16" nut. (picture)

RN6-H - Lots of steel-string players want to make the crossover to playing nylon strings live, but are put off by the wide, flat neck on classical-style guitars. For them, the RN6- H (for "hybrid) is the guitar of choice. This guitar is identical to the RN6, but it features dimensions more reminiscent of a steel-string guitar, with a 25 1/2" scale, a 1 13/16" nut, and a radiused fingerboard.

RB4FL and RB5FL - These are Rick's fretless basses, and they are so good at what they do, it's hard to imagine that they cost well under $2000. I played the 5-string at Winter NAMM this year, and was blown away. My preferred bass tone is very smooth and acoustic, and this fretless model captures that nearly perfectly--at times the thing nearly sounded like an upright. Also available in standard fretted designs. (RB4FL) (RB5FL)

Renaissance Guitar Models and Prices
Steel String	Description	Price*
RS6	6-string, cedar/walnut	$1600
RS12	12-string version of RS6	$1750
Nylon	Description	Price*
RN6	Nylon string guitar, 1 15/16" neck width	$1600
RN6-H	Same as RN6 with neck dimensions closer to steel-string guitars	$1700
Basses	Description	Price*
RB4	4-string	$1700
RB4-FL	Fretless 4-string	$1700
RB5	5-string	$1850
RB5-FL	Fretless 5-string	$1850
Satin Series
RS6-S	RS6 with laminate woods, sunburst	$1200

*All Renaissance guitar prices include padded gigbag and free Express Mail shipping in the US. CO residents add 2.9% sales tax (7.4% in La Plata county). Please see our Shipping page for additional shipping information.

Renaissance Guitars