Langcaster Guitars is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

guitar brand founded by Dutchman Joh Lang. The Langcaster Guitar is distinctive for its unique prehistoric swamp kauri body and intricate patterns made from the roots of the native New Zealand

Kauri tree ''Agathis'', commonly known as kauri or dammara, is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside ''Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being ...

Carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was ...

carried out by the scientists at the University of

Waikato The Waikato () is a region of the upper North Island of New Zealand. It covers the Waikato District, Waipā District, Matamata-Piako District, South Waikato District and Hamilton City, as well as Hauraki, Coromandel Peninsula, the nort ...

in New Zealand and the University of

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

has found wood used in the guitar bodies to be more than 35,000 years old. Notable players of Langcaster Guitars include

Jan Akkerman Jan Akkerman (born 24 December 1946) is a Dutch guitarist. He first found international commercial success with the band Focus (band), Focus, which he co-founded with Thijs van Leer. After leaving Focus, he continued as a solo musician, adding ja ...

, Kara Gordon, and Arli Liberman.

History

The first Langcaster guitar was handmade and crafted in 2000 by

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

-born inventor and luthier Joh Lang. These guitars were further developed by Lang and his son in his home in West Auckland suburb,

Titirangi Titirangi is a suburb of West Auckland, New Zealand, West Auckland in the Waitākere Ranges (local board area), Waitākere Ranges local board area of the city of Auckland in northern New Zealand. It is an affluent, residential suburb located t ...

on the fringes of the

Waitākere Ranges The Waitākere Ranges is a mountain range in New Zealand. Located in West Auckland, New Zealand, West Auckland between metropolitan Auckland and the Tasman Sea, the ranges and its foothills and coasts comprise some of public and private land. ...

native kauri forest. Joh Lang maker of Langcaster guitars and Langcaster Pickups

Material

The Langcaster guitar is made from 35000 year old swamp kauri which can only be found in New Zealand. It is an exclusive wood to the

New Zealand Government The New Zealand Government () is the central government through which political authority is exercised in New Zealand. As in most other parliamentary democracies, the term "Government" refers chiefly to the executive branch, and more specifica ...

and the export of this raw material is forbidden and only allows the exportation of readymade Swamp Kauri goods. Because of its high

density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...

this wood is well suited for the construction of these guitars. The cracks between the

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

s are filled with clear epoxy.

Guitar shape

The Langcaster guitars were primarily a Stratocaster body shape until in 2006 when Lang introduced the limited edition Cobra guitar, which had a Telecaster shape. This guitar was named after the sculptured cobra snake in the lower bout of the body, crowned with a diamond-like eye. This model was also equipped with the lo-impedance pickups and electronics with an added

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

in the switch plate showing the picking force when the overdrive is activated. In 2010, Lang released 25 of the limited edition anniversary model guitars to celebrate 10 years in the making of the Langcaster. Following this series Lang went on to produce 50 uniquely koru designed kauri guitars.

Innovations

The notable feature of the Langcaster guitar is the application of the low impedance Ultimate Lo Pickupshttp://www.artist-site.dk/Langcaster/Langcaster%20pickups%20Bio.pdf which are an impedance of 100

Ohm Ohm (symbol Ω) is a unit of electrical resistance named after Georg Ohm. Ohm or OHM may also refer to: People * Georg Ohm (1789–1854), German physicist and namesake of the term ''ohm'' * Germán Ohm (born 1936), Mexican boxer * Jörg Ohm (1 ...

. The Ultimate Lo Pickups are made by two stacked coils and winding techniques, mounted onto a

PCB PCB may refer to: Science and technology * Polychlorinated biphenyl, an organic chlorine compound, now recognized as an environmental toxin and classified as a persistent organic pollutant * Printed circuit board, a board used in electronics * P ...

board in a

single coil A single-coil pickup is a type of magnetic transducer, or pickup, for the electric guitar and the electric bass. It electromagnetically converts the vibration of the strings to an electric signal. Single-coil pickups are one of the two most po ...

humbucker A humbucker, humbucking pickup, or double coil, is a guitar pickup that uses two wire coils to cancel out noisy interference from Single coil guitar pickup, coil pickups. Humbucking coils are also used in Microphone, dynamic microphones to can ...

or Strat pickup cover housing. The pickups have eight magnetic poles to avoid dead spots when bending the thin strings and have an overdrive option with a gain control pot and do not hum. Lang founded a pickup with all the advantages of a low impedance pickup, being higher fidelity and low noise. However, the output of The Ultimate Lo pickups was that high that a separate buffer amp was needed. Lang used this occasion to develop a small PC board with a buffer amp and an integrated tube sounding overdrive sound, which he called the Ultradrive. All Langcaster guitars are equipped with these pickups and corresponding battery powered

circuitry An electronic circuit is composed of individual electronic components, such as resistors, transistors, capacitors, inductors and diodes, connected by conductive wires or traces through which electric current can flow. It is a type of electric ...

, incorporating clean overdrive switch and an overdrive intensity control pot.

Design

The latest series of the Langcaster guitar features a

koru The is a spiral shape evoking a newly Circinate vernation, unfurling frond from a Cyathea dealbata, silver fern frond. It is an integral symbol in Māori people, Māori art, bone carving, carving and Tā moko, tattooing, where it symbolise ...

pāua Pāua is the Māori name given to four New Zealand species of large edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs which belong to the family Haliotidae (in which there is only one genus, ''Haliotis''). It is known in the United States and Aust ...

inlay at the head of the guitar which is a

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the Co ...

symbol for new live and strength.

Notable players

* Arli Liberman-

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

* Kara Gordon -

References

{{reflist Jimi Kara Playing on Langcaster and see the making of Langcaster guitars on https://www.youtube.com/user/LangcasterPlayer

External links

Langcaster Youtube VideosLangcaster Guitars Official WebsiteLangcaster Guitars Official Website
Guitar manufacturing companies Musical instrument manufacturing companies of New Zealand