Roll Out The Barrels

Let Paoletti transport you to the rolling hills, history and culture of Tuscany with a direct link to a classic wine or two. Oh, and the company makes rather fine guitars! Time for a taste…

- Dave Burrluck

PAOLETTI 112 LOFT SERIES 2P90 £3,639
CONTACT Barnes & Mullins PHONE [phone] WEB www.paolettiguitars.com

It’s not the first time Guitarist has featured a bashed-up looking offset based on Fender’s late-50s classic – and we doubt it’ll be the last. But to dismiss Paoletti as yet another bandwagon-jumping boutique builder is rather unfair. Based in Tuscany with family roots in the winemaking industry, Fabrizio Paoletti creates designs based on chestnut wood reclaimed from wine barrels.

These Paoletti instruments are available worldwide, and have some impressive users and signature artists – plus, they seem endlessly customisable. Our Loft Series 112 is just one example that can be ordered in a wide range of colours and different pickup configurations. Paoletti’s build, however, is simple and straightforward and, of course, centres on chestnut body wood that forms an immaculately jointed three-piece spread here. It doesn’t look dissimilar to an ash, although the grain lines appear more regular, with a wavier appearance on the rear rib-cut contour; they’re lightly ridged, too. Where the Candy Apple Red finish is worn through it looks like the chestnut is deep tan in colour, but that’s hard to determine with the worn red-over-gold paint.

What You Need To Know

1 Paoletti? That’s a new one. 

Not as such. Fabrizio Paoletti founded his company in 2005, with its original premise centred on using chestnut wood reclaimed from wine barrels more than a century old to make the guitars’ bodies.

2 Interesting, what else?