From past Ronin and Pensa Custom guitars luthiers Izzy lugo and his mentor Vinnie Saccocio comes Fiam Guitars. This guitar is their new take on one of Izzy’s most loved creations, the Ronin Mirari. Now featuring Fiam's new Fiambucker (aka F5) pickups which were designed in close collaboration with David Torn. This model is now referred to as the Fiam Mirari F-5.
This particular Mirari F-5 is finished in Aged Firemist Red with a brushed silver acrylic guard. Physically the F5 features many of the same ingredients found in the original Mirari. Such as a body built from 900 + years old Old Growth Redwood and a Honduran Mahogany neck, keeping these instruments both lightweight and resonant. Each piece of wood used is hand chosen by Izzy and Vinnie for the best possible weight, rigidity and of course tone. Even the Rosewood used for the fingerboard is of very high quality, with a nice tight grain and beautiful hues of both dark and light brown. The fretwork and setup as always on the guitars Izzy builds is impeccable.
The pickups in this guitar can't easily be described, luckily David Torn has made some great demos that can be seen both on YouTube and his Instagram channel, as well as at the bottom of this listing.
Similarly to the Foil Bucker, they possess tonal qualities all their own. They have a unique spongy and ethereal characteristic some would say "airy" while at the same time sounding very substantial and full. They are a medium out-put pickup that can really drive a tube amp if you want them to, but wont ever overload you with to much bass, muddying up your tone. They are powerful like a P-90 but with a much wider tonal range due to the coils of the pickups being asymmetrically wound and much further apart from each other than most traditional pickup designs.
Winding one coil much stronger than the other allows for the humbucking tones to still sound crisp and bell-like and also allows you to split each pickup without a noticeable drop in volume. They can have a near acoustic-like quality and are highly sensitive to your pick attack. These pickups also love drive and fuzz pedals. They can be meaty and fat, but with the push of either one of the two coil-split buttons or one of the two high pass filter buttons; they become brighter and more focused. It's as if you have three different gain stages at your fingertips. Start out with your full hum-bucking tone, then press one of the coil taps and then try incorporating one of the HPF buttons. The great tones are near infinite and the control layout becomes very intuitive, once you are seated with the instrument.
Here is what David Torn has said about his Fiam Mirari's tone:
“This guitar is more USEFULLY broad-in-scope
than any guitar I've ever played. Fantastic
base tones & outrageous responsiveness.
No useless tones, the pickups can feel
super-powered or they can feel like they’re
wide-open low-outputters. + the magic
button!” - David Torn
Another great addition to the Fiam Mirari F5 is the Vega Trem system. It is set up with two balanced, low friction springs. This guitar features Fiam Guitars standard trem route, however with the Vega system you can pull back quite a bit (a minor 3rd to two whole steps, depending on the tension of each string) It's a pretty wild and incredibly inspiring experience. These guitars also stay in tune absolutely beautifully, even with heavy use of the tremolo system
Last but not least we have a piezo-contact pickup (aka "The Magic Button") hidden in the guitars body, under the bridge pickup. This button allows you to get an acoustic or dobro like sound out of your guitar. You can also get much more experimental with it and tap on the body for rhythmic looping or scratch at the springs for an unusual sound effect.
These guitars are built with great passion and that passion certainly translates to whomever picks one up. With this new F5 being serial # 14 we are glad to say that our loyal base of past Ronin customers are extremely happy with their F5’s and we couldn't be more thrilled to offer them to you.
Specs:
Body: Old Growth Redwood
Neck: Genuine Honduran Mahogany
Fingerboard: Rosewood
Scale Length: 25 1/2"
Neck Profile: Soft V to C .88”-.93” w/ 154 Fretwire (same fret wire used on all past Ronin guitar models)
Nut: Hand-Cut Bone
Nut Width: 1 11/16"
Bridge: Vega Trem
Tuners: Hipshot
Pickups: Fiambucker Bridge and Neck
Control Layout: Vol, Tone, 2 Coil Split buttons, Magic Button, 3-way Toggle, HPF Neck, HPF Bridge
Pickguard: Brushed Silver Acrylic
Finish: Aged Firemist Red Nitro Lacquer / Medium Relic
Options: Magic Button / Piezo / Wine Cellar Reclaimed OG Redwood
Case: Reunion Blues Protective Gig-Bag
Weight: 7lbs 2oz
Comes w/ COA & Spec Sheet
