More On Sebastian

In doing a follow up search last night, I stumbled across Mr. Apollonio selling a similar instrument to the one he made for Noel Paul Stookey in 1968.

I copied the advertisement and a picture of his guitar.

Bell Citern

Mr. Apollonio states the shape is slightly different than the original Sebastian and he goes into great detail in his description. The following are his words.

"This odd looking guitar was custom made for Noel Paul Stookey in 1968 after a chance meeting in Camden, Maine. It was only my 15th guitar and at the time was rather crude and basic, due to my inexperience. It did not hold up to string stresses, although it had a very stellar career with one of the most popular performers in America at the time."

Its delicate and haunting sound, though not as deep and powerful as a full size regular shape guitar, inspired Paul to write The Wedding Song on it, for his lifetime friend Peter Yarrow. Over the decades the song has been the crowning music of nuptials for countless thousands of people who still write about it.

After 41 years and many hundreds of instruments, I decided it was time to rebuild and update; to make it even better than new, with all the features that keep my 12's user friendly and more playable than most any other.

The neck has a short scale for extremely easy playing, with a user friendly exterior adjustment for optimum action in any climate and a bridge calibrated for exact intonation of each string. The tailpiece removes forward tension on the bridge allowing for lighter (though stronger) bracing, to boost sound.

Glen Heggie with "Moby"

Materials are: AAA western red cedar top with a compass point inlay around the sound hole. Native walnut body (original) and a new neck of dark walnut aged 60+ years. An ebony fretboard and bridge with pearl position dots and brass side markers.

The headstock has a pale abolone "A" for Apollo logo inlaid at the top. The tuning is set up for 2 frets low with medium strings or concert pitch with light guage.

The body length is 19"; width is 13 3/4; depth is 4". The instruments scale is 24 7/8th."

The neck is heelless. This 12 string comes with a padded gig bag.

Below is Barbara Schultz playing a Apollonios 10 string citern.