Andreas Pichlers' "Fierce Shark"

2000 Andreas Fierce Shark.

This highly unusual 'Fierce Shark' weighs just 6.70 lbs. One-piece elongated asymmetrical, chambered and contoured 'Burned Western Larch' (sandblasted, stained and burned) body. One-piece 'Select' maple (matt finish) neck with a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a very fast thin profile and a scale length of 25.59 inches. Shark-fin shaped aluminium headstock with 'Shark-Fin' cut-out and black "Andreas Guitars" decal.  Six-in-line individual Schaller M6 matt chrome tuners with octagonal graphite buttons. Aluminium fretboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and black 'Groove' side position markers. Two Schaller HSS Single-coil pickups with satin chrome covers in the neck and middle position with outputs of 13.24k and 13.25k.  Schaller HSS Humbucker with satin chrome cover and output of 11.96k in bridge position. Three controls, two tone (one with push-pull coil-tap) and one 'blender' volume control plus a five-way pickup selector switch, all on treble-side of top. Aluminium control knobs with domed tops and knurled sides. Combined fully-adjustable six-saddle bridge / tailpiece unit. Serial number "2000 1053" on rectangular white label on back of body (under pickup cavity cover). The back of the body is also signed "Andreas Pichler" in silver marker. This Fierce Shark is in mint (9.50) condition. Housed in the original 'Galaxy' black soft case with black plush lining (9.50).

Andreas Guitars were designed by Austrian Luthier Andreas Pichler and made in Vienna, Austria 1995-2004. The Andreas factory was located in the Tyrolean region surrounded by the highest mountains in Austria. They used a 5-axis CNC machine and employed three workers in the production process. They used selected, uniformly dried woods, which were stored in a custom-made dry-room. The Andreas soft coating finish was applied using a special process and is one of the trademarks of the Andreas instruments. At the peak of production they produced around 30 guitars per month, and an estimated around 400 instruments in total. The international distributor of the instruments, Austrian string maker Thomastik-infeld, acquired the brand in 2003 but no more instruments were made. Aria distributed these guitars in Japan.

In 2008 Andreas Pichler was in Los Angeles designing acoustic guitars for Baden guitars.