We've seen a number of attempts at making guitars that cater to the ever-changing moods of players recently, including the Somnium snap together six strings and the 20:14 range from Barcelona's Aclam Guitars. And we stay in Spain for another take on modular music making, this time in the company of brothers David & Óscar Pons. The Pons Revolution offers two body cores and a growing number of snap-on body shapes, to satisfy a player's need for a mid-performance style or tone change.
A Revolution guitarist can opt for a Jan body core sporting three proprietary single coil pickups and a Strat-inspired headstock, or a Pol core with twin Pons humbuckers and a Les Paul-inspired headstock. In either case, the travel guitar-like body is fashioned from maple, has three volume/tone knobs and a 3 or 5 position rotary pickup switch, and is attached to a maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.
The Jan core has dot inlays in the neck, a tremolo bridge and 22 medium frets, while the Pol core has trapezoid inlays, Tune-o-matic fixed bridge and jumbo frets.
The all wood outer body shapes come in a number of color and style options – from a glossy red SG shape to a sky blue Tele and a black Flying V to a white Strat. The core and shape are simply pushed together and snapped into place for an instant style change, going from Santana-like rock to Metallica metal in seconds or keeping the same shape but changing the core for a different sound.
The Pons Revolution guitars are on show at the Musikmesse in Frankfurt this week. The video below demonstrates the kind of experience on offer. Sadly, we've no word on pricing or availability as of writing.
Update April 12: We've just received pricing confirmation. The Revolution core modules are expected to sell for around €450 (US$480) each, with snap-on bodies costing €200 a pop. Though the company is looking into offering cheaper and more expensive snap-on module options in the future, to suit customer tastes.
Source: Pons Guitars