New Faithful

In among a range of copies is Maybach’s Little Wing – the company’s only original design and a rather fine slice of classic guitar craft from central Europe

- Dave Burrluck

This writer’s head hit his laptop keyboard with a resonant thump after a request to review another copy guitar. As if our market doesn’t have enough of those already, here are some more. Maybach’s range covers the bolt-on and set-neck classics in some style, which are pretty similar to Eastman’s more ‘inspired by’ instruments, not least on price. Yet Maybach’s instruments aren’t made in Asia. They’re constructed in the Czech Republic and Germany and, from what we’re told, in a pretty old-school fashion, too. Sensing our reluctance to review what are pretty straight copies, however, brand CEO Toni Götz quickly suggested a more original model: this Little Wing with its cutaway 00/parlor-size body. The Little Wing is available with a flat or arched maple top in both cutaway and non-cutaway styles (see Range Options in the final spec), and, like B&G or Wide Sky, imagines a sort of prototype pre-50s electric guitar.

Far from futuristic, then, this lil’ Maybach looks and feels like something made a few years ago. Quite a few years, in fact. The nitro lacquer’s cracking and relicing is relatively light, which makes it all the more believable. Numerous times during this test we glanced at the guitar and thought, “Oh no, a ding!” until we remembered it was (hopefully) there by design. But there’s plenty more to the Little Wing than a realistic finish.