This is an incredible piece we bought from Tao and sold last year. Due to the buyer moving to Europe, he needed to sell some of his guitar collection. So we were able to purchase it back from him. The guitar is in excellent condition and plays beautifully. Only some light wear to the ultra thin matte finish, but nothing to write home about. See pictures.
Here we have a beautiful specimen of a Tao Guitars Disco Volante. This instrument was built in late 2018, but was kept in the Tao workshop until late 2019. It was never owned by a player until we sold it last year and it has been kept in very good, original condition since. The guitar is completely original and comes with all original documentation as well as its original MONO protective Gig-Bag.
The Disco Volante is a highly chambered Semi-Hollow Body model, meticulously designed and hand-built by John and Serge of Tao Guitars in Brussels Belgium. This Disco Volante in particular is named the "Ando" and is only the 13th ever built out of 14. It is inspired by Tadao Ando, a famous Japanese, self taught Architect responsible for many highly regarded buildings built all around the world, from Asia to Europe. He wanted people to easily be able to experience the spirit and the beauty of nature through his architecture and architecture in general.
The "Ando" Disco Volante features a Maple Top on a Spanish-Cedar body for both an incredibly balanced, lightweight and tone-full guitar, with this one weighing in at only 6lbs 11oz. The incredibly lightly applied satin/matte Nitro finish feels like silk against your skin. This guitar has some of the most outstanding pickups we've ever heard. They are called their "Slim Ribbon" Pickups. They are hand-wound by Benedetti Pickups and feature handmade metal covers with Silver-Foil inserts in a very stylish pattern. The pickups themselves are both split-able via push/pull volume pots and are ever so slightly slanted to give the low strings more treble and the high strings more bass. (sort of the opposite of a Tele's bridge pickup orientation) When in full Hum-Bucking mode they deliver a full and rich low-output PAF mixed with a vintage Gold-Foil type of sound. When spit into Single-Coil mode they get very "Strat" or "Tele" like, without ever sounding harsh or brittle. Many incredible tones can be summoned depending on how you split or blend the two together. They're quite magical.
The neck of this beautiful Disco is built out of Cedro wood, Cedro is a lightweight wood. It is very stiff in comparison to its weight. Cedro is also very resistant against warping. Between that and the 2-way truss-rod, adjusting the neck relief never becomes an issue. The truss rod opening is also very cleverly placed in-between the last two frets, for easy access. Tao has made adjusting your guitars neck even simpler by including a hand-made truss-rod adjustment tool, that fits right into the hole. This guitar also features Tao's progressive fretting, where the frets become thinner as the player travels up the neck to make sure that the player never feels cramped while playing complex chords or fast passages in the upper registers of the fingerboard.
Here is what Tao has to say about the Disco Volante on their website:
"Strange name for a guitar you say? Not for us at Tao Guitars by John and Serge. The reference to the Italian automobile design had so far not yet found it into our line. And it’s now something done. But why “Disco Volante” then..?…
We pay a certain interest to any adventurous designs of people who attain respect in their desire not to play it easy by following the trends.
In 1952, Alfa Romeo set the new aesthetical & aerodynamic landmark of the time with a Touring Carrozzeria Superleggera design called Disco Volante (Italian for “flying saucer”); his lines prefiguring the iconic jaguar type E by almost 10 years. An anniversary version came out in 2012, designed by Louis de Fabribeckers, head of design for Carrozzeria Touring, and a fellow Belgian as well.
Our Disco Volante guitar is also our desire to reconnect ourselves with the genesis of what was once call the “Electric Spanish” guitar– the first ES guitar/non-cutaway body shape, and give it a ticket for the new century; creating a mix of cutting edge styling and old world craftsmanship. A toneful object of design"
Tao Disco Volante "Ando" Specs:
Color: Translucent light Grey top/ Dark Grey Back
Body: 2-Piece Spanish Cedar
Top: Flame Maple
Neck: Quartersawn Cedro
Fingerboard: Indian Rosewood W/ white & grey circular side dot markers.
Pickups: Benedetti "Slim Ribbon" Humbuckers W/ Coil Taps
Electronics: Volume, Volume, Tone
Bridge: Solid Brass Wraparound
Scale Length: 24 3/4"
Nut width: 1 & 5/8" a hair wider)
Neck shape: Modern Med C .84”-88" (extremely
comfortable)
Radius: 12”
Serial # 13
Magnetic Back-Plates
Weight: 6lbs 11oz
Case: MONO protective Gig-Bag
COA: Included
