Acoustic power for electric players.

A popular model from Adelaide’s Lauda Guitars workshop, the Night Owl Hollowbody is the merger of time-honoured hand-building techniques and the latest in modern technology. Each Night Owl is precision-built via CNC, using a laser-scanned hand-carved master body template, to the finest tolerances possible and then finished by hand.

As soon as you pick up a Night Owl you’ll notice it’s weight at less than 3 kilograms. The moment you play it you’ll notice its balanced acoustic tone – before you plug it in. Once you get going, the Night Owl’s ease of transition between pure clean tones and robust gain will become obvious. In fact this guitar has a bit of surprise under the hood – it’s ability to deliver huge, fat sounding high gain sounds is refreshing. But singing sustain and rich clean tones are a tweak away. After a few sessions you may well wonder how you ever did without it.

The reverse-graduated top, enlarged F-holes, solid milled back and sustain blocks under the bridge and pickups allow for maximum acoustic volume with minimum feedback. The lightness and acoustic properties of this instrument achieve extended dynamics and rich tonality, offering an expressive playing experience.

Each Night Owl is as individual as the person who plays it. After a lifetime journey of playing and building electric guitars, luthier Chris Lau &  inlay artist/cad/cam technician Cat Johns have merged their crafts and unique building techniques, utilising the latest 21st century tech to enhance 25 years of hand built experience. At Lauda Guitars every instrument has a story – the Night Owl is the latest chapter. Be part of the story.

Price for Standard Model: $4995

The standard model comes with a solid colour and all over satin finish. Extra is charged for gloss tops, full gloss instead of satin back and sides finishes, figured/exotic tops and custom inlay. Extra may be charged for other custom options.

At the moment all our builds have been pre-ordered. As soon as we can, we will list individual Night Owls for sale!

Pre-Order your Night Owl to specify wood choice, pickups, custom inlay and more! Call 0466 320 395 or email service@LaudaGuitars.com to talk about your next guitar!

Light, acoustically resonant true hollowbody with solid milled back, three piece laminated quartersawn set neck, generous carved top and two humbuckers.

The sustain blocks are part of the solid back, not inserted, and glued to the carve-top.

The whole guitar weighs under three kilograms, but with the light strong titanium truss rod and careful machine head choice, the guitar is always balanced.

The process is started with CNC machining, yielding reliable results every time, but the neck shaping, detailing, fretwork and importantly setup is done carefully by hand.

 

 

BODY

Body Shape Single cutaway, carve-top, belly contour
Top Solid Carved Rock Maple, or Baked Rock Maple
Back  Solid Mahogany or Queensland Maple
Sustain Blocks Solid part of  back, not inserted
Binding  Natural
Finish  Light Polyurethane Satin with Gloss Top, or all Satin
Weight Average less than 3 kilograms

NECK

Construction Set neck, 3 quartersawn laminates
Material rock maple outer, mahogany/meranti inner
Profile Custom C Shape
Scale Length 25.5” (647.7mm)
Truss Rod Full Titanium 2 Way (76 grams)
Fingerboard Maple/Baked Maple/Macassar Ebony/Black Ebony
Fingerboard Radius 12″
Number Of Frets 22
Frets Medium Jumbo 6150
Nut Material Graph Tech Tusq
Nut Width 43mm
End of Board Width  57mm
Inlays Shell Dots or Blocks, Custom available

HARDWARE

Finish Nickel, Black, Chrome, Gold
Bridge Tonepros Wraparound AVT2
Tuning Machines Kluson or Gotoh w/ Keystone Buttons
Control Knobs Metal Dome/Speed Knob

ELECTRONICS

Neck Pickup Brierley Hand Wound ’50s PAF or custom choice
Bridge Pickup Brierley Hand Wound ’50s PAF or custom choice
Controls Dimarzio Custom Taper Master Vol/Tone, Paper & Oil Cap, Switchcraft 3 Way Toggle

MISCELLANEOUS

Strings Gauge .010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046
Case ABS Moulded Hard Shell Case

The NightOwl Does Heavy Too

Strap in for a 7 minute journey torture test / demo of how the NightOwl handles some prog-heaviness

Stunning attention to detail...

Each guitar is hand finished by the luthiers at Lauda Guitars, fret levelled and set up with care.

Custom Inlay

You could get your Night Owl personalised!