Design and manufacturing:
We have an in-house designer who understands guitars, builds guitars and plays them.
Together with our knowledge and experience we start by prototyping the design and we continue from there until we decide that model is ready for production, we check it for sound, ergonomics, customization options and of course, appearance.
Polak’s acoustic headstock:
Our research and quest for tone capabilities have brought us to find that an acoustic heads stock construction style combined with single pickups create a real nice overtones and sustain, when first tested by users and ourselves the reactions tend to be:
“It’s somewhat of a Tele combined with a Strat, but more on the Strat side”
“It has the acoustic characteristics I’ve always looked for in an electric guitars”
“Sounds like it has a piezo system, but more natural and organic”
Wood:
We are great believers in the “wood affects sound” argument.
In our experience, we’ve built around 1400 guitars in the past 25 years and we have come to find that using dried wood is a must. Yes, we’ve built guitars from wood that is not fully dried, those guitars had to wait at least 2 years until their sound was perfectly balanced and we could sell them.
We don’t use kiln dry, why? We tried it before and stressing the wood doesn’t have the same results as naturally dried wood.
Israel is well known for its dry weather and great acclimate for drying wood in a natural environment.
Ever since we’ve noticed the differences between these methods, we buy our wood and let it dry in our storage for a minimum of 3 years until we start carving into it and making a musical instrument with truly perfect sound capabilities.
Gluing:
You can have the best wood, but if you glue it wrong, you’ll just have issues with sound later.
We use glue with a certain density and we have an applying method of just the right amount, nothing more, nothing less.
Hardware:
Over the years, we’ve tried all the well-known companies. We have come to find that using Gotoh’s hardware suits our needs perfectly.
They have the best accuracy and when it comes down to tolerance in components, no loose or broken parts over the years.
We use only brass parts which deliver the best sound through the wood.
Fret work:
Frets should never hit you! That means, they should never stick out of the fretboard sides and edges.
Even after years of playing, the frets are going to stay in.
You’ll never see the edge of the frets sticking out on a fretboard, we cover each slot so it will be a “blind fret slots”
The leveling, crowning, and fret ends made only by Edward since he can feel each guitar with its exact fret work needed.
Necks:
Every neck is built from a solid piece of wood, no angular neck joints (scarf joint)
We booked match even our necks and there is a good reason for it too, over the years the wood wants to move and twist, the book match of two pieces grantee that it stay as we shaped it and won’t bent or twist.
Every neck is shaped by hand so it fits perfectly in the player’s hand. The shape is a c shape that round over the edges letting the neck seats in your hand comfortably and naturally.
Body:
Even here we booked match the woods for two reasons:
1.Keep steady with out twisting over the years
2.It is balanced that way and provide the same characteristics for both bass and treble side leaves the rest to the neck and pickup to do their thing.
Tops:
Tops are a pure art of nature, if we find a great looking top, we will make wonders with it, but, we will not settle for undried top even if it’s the most beautiful top on earth because SOUND is more important!
