2004 Kirk Sand nylon 7-string high-A classical electric guitar

**Hammertone** · 05-15-2024, 05:25 PM

For those 7-stringers, here's a lovely instrument that's NOT in Norway.
It's a wonderful Kirk Sand nylon 7-string hi-A electric guitar for sale, in excellent condition.

Kirk Sand was a well-known and well-loved guitar builder, who passed away on March 17, 2024 at the age of 71. Over the years, Kirk made nearly 800 custom handmade guitars, including those played and endorsed by Chet Atkins, Jose Feliciano, Jerry Reed, John Knowles, Paul Yandell, Doyle Dykes, Earl Klugh, Lenny Breau, Richie Sambora, Lauren Hill, Steve Wariner, Tommy Emmanuel and Richard Smith.

Kirk supplied Lenny Breau with two hi-A 7-string guitars. One was a modified Aria nylon-string with a Sand-built 7-string neck; the other was a steel string Kirk built from scratch.

This guitar was commissioned from Kirk in 2004, and is for sale by the original owner. Kirk said it was the first high-A nylon 7-string he had made since the one he made for Lenny Breau. The Aria had a longer scale length (650 mm) and they could not find a guitar string that wouldn’t break on the high A, so Kirk used fishing line (!) instead. In order to solve the issue of string breakage, for this instrument Kirk experimented with scale and wound up with a 24.125” scale length. This works fine with a D’Addario Pro-Arte NYL018 or 019 on top.

The guitar was commissioned after the owner had tried out a low-A nylon 7-string that Kirk had made. Here is a note from Kirk that he sent while working out the specifications for this guitar:

“I am glad you had a chance to play one of the mahogany model guitars. If you like the thin line body (2.5") I really suggest you change to that style. The difference in sound is very little. Actually the mahogany model is better for a jazz sound. If Lenny Breau were alive today, he would be playing one of my Mahogany model guitar with a hi A. I call the routed out body guitar the "mahogany model” and I call the acoustic bent sides, two piece back guitar the "rosewood model." I think of the rosewood model as more of an acoustic guitar and the mahogany model as more of an electric guitar. For this 7string hi A guitar, I think the mahogany model would work better. As for the nut width, I agree with you that the wider spacing 2& 3/16" would be better. I also like your idea of putting the hi A string on its own volume control and putting E & A together. These boards have 6 inputs only so we have to double up on one of the inputs, this is not a problem.”

Some specifications:
- One-piece mahogany body (routed hollow), 2.5 inch depth;
- Spruce soundboard;
- Brazilian rosewood bridge;
- Wooly mammoth tusk ivory nut, 2 & 3/16 inches wide;
- 24.125” scale length;
- 5 slider controls on the body (volume and eq);
- Sand-branded hard case in very good but scuffed condition;
- RMC active electronics (takes one 9-volt battery). The onboard preamp has just six inputs; Kirk wired the E and low A strings to one input so that the high A and other strings each has its own volume control switch on the preamp block in the battery compartment.

The guitar is in excellent condition with some minor playwear. It’s a really gorgeous and very playable example of Kirk’s work, that is not getting played enough.

For sale at $6,500. USD. Ships to US addresses from within the US. Ships elsewhere from Canada. Payment via Paypal Friends & Family, wire transfer, cash, IEMT (in Canada, converted to CAD). Happy to ship anywhere for the cost of shipping.
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**Jim Soloway** · 05-15-2024, 05:30 PM

That's probably the perfect guitar for someone wanting to cop what Lenny Breau was doing late in his career. Kirk was a remarkably talented and creative builder. His recent passing was a real loss to a lot of people in the guitar world.