Fully hand built in Seattle, Washington, by boutique guitar builder Sean Folan*, the SonicF is a killer axe – the sound of a vintage Les Paul Special, with all the playability of a Strat! All components, from the timbers to the tuners, are hand-selected for each instrument. The model number is also the serial number, as each guitar is a 100% one-off original – the Z3 was therefore just the third of Folan’s SonicF production models.

Completed in June last year, the Z3 features an Alder back with a 2-piece White Mahogany top, Maple neck, a 25.5”scale Rosewood board and 22-medium frets. Pickups are a fantastic calibrated set of coverless vintage-wound P90s, by Guitar Fetish of Westborough, Massachusetts, (bridge 8.8 and neck 8.0k outputs). The neck pickup is reverse-wound for complete noise-cancelling. These killer P90s feature heavy duty, vintage-style, braided leads, and are custom wound with 42-gauge enameled wire, matched to Alnico magnets – the time-honored classic pickup combination that can’t be beat!

Kluson-style vintage nickel tuners, (Grover); combination stop-tail with a Jr Combo tune-o-matic bridge, (see pic # 4); separate volume and tone controls, with 3-way pickup switch; and Folan’s nifty little personal touch – a real silver “Om” on the headstock, (pic # 6). This incredibly stylish package has one more trick up its sleeve – the guitar is finished in stunningly awesome transparent nitro Pomegranate! (That’s right, genuine nitro finish!!)

We recently liberated the Z3 from its role as a display model in one of our favorite Seattle guitar stores, so as a display model there’s some very light playwear and a couple of extremely minor bumps here and there, but nothing of real note, and nothing that shows up in a photo.

As mentioned above, the P90s in the Z3 pack a mean punch, with all the volume you’ll ever need, great tone range, and being a calibrated set, provide exactly what you want and need, when you want and need it. The super-slim neck is an absolute delight, with the double cutaway body design giving you total fret access. And at just a smidge over 6lb, you can play this baby all night without tiring.

Your fully hand built SonicF Z3 – the only one in existence – ships in its original gig bag.


* As well as building his SonicF guitars, Sean Folan is also a producer at Seattle’s famous Low Recordings, a band member of Children Of The Night, Sh!ny, Dorje, etc, and has also provided remixes for artists such as Massive Attack, Air, BT, Future Sound Of London, Meat Beat Manifesto, Thievery Corporation and more

Price: AUD$1975.00 GST Included