Lag guitars
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Lag is a French guitar manufacturer based in Bédarieux (southern France).
Founding of the company
In 1978 the French rock musician Michel Chavarria, with the help of his friend Daniel Delfour, now one of the most brilliant French violin manufacturers, decided to open a workshop that would specialize in repairing and converting electric and acoustic guitars .
In the old workshop of Michel's grandfather, a master upholsterer, a meeting point was created for guitarists with defective guitars and special requests, who had their instruments set and tuned to special needs.
After great success and increasing popularity of this workshop, the first guitar prototypes with their own lag label were created from sketches.
Model range
In the 1990s, Lag delivered, among other things, affordable models made in Korea, including the Hotline and Rockline lines. However, the brand disappeared almost completely from the perception of the instrument shops and distributors for a time, as the distribution company Music Connection, which had been selling the instruments since the mid-1990s, was shipwrecked. So the comeback with the models currently available was quite surprising. Even if the company never really disappeared, it was almost impossible to buy a lag guitar in German stores until the beginning of the new millennium.
Today approx. 1500 electric guitars and approx. 800 acoustic guitars are handcrafted in the factory in Bédarieux . The manufacturer's model range is divided into a standard and a master series. The models of the Master series are handcrafted and priced in the upper mid-range.
The standard series consists of cheaper entry-level and middle-class models made in Korea and China, which are based on the design of the Master models.
Lag guitars are characterized by high quality materials and workmanship, as well as quality components such as pickups from Seymour Duncan and EMG .
Current models
Electric guitars
- The Jet series is available as a standard (high-gloss finish), matt and as a New Vintage (with pickguard). The shape of the guitar is reminiscent of the guitar that Brian May of Queen built and played. But it has a shaping function for the right forearm. The guitar is equipped with a vintage vibrato system and is available with three single coil pickups or with a humbucker pickup in the bridge position and two single coils.
- The Arkane is a Stratocaster- style guitar , but has deeper cutaways, such as those from the Ibanez RG series, which makes it easier to play the high frets. It is available with two humbucker pickups or HSH (humbucker-single-coil humbucker) and has a Floyd Rose vibrato system. They are available in high-gloss (standard) or matt (matt design) lacquered.
- The Roxane is a guitar based on the Les Paul , but it has two cutaways, with the upper cutaway being slightly larger than the lower. The shape can also be described as a mixture between Les Paul and SG. They can be purchased with a high-gloss (standard) or matt finish. All models have two humbucker pickups and a Tune-O-Matic Bridge and either a Short Stop Tailpiece or Tear Drop Tailpiece with a String Thru Body string guide (the strings are pushed through the body).
- The Imperator is a modified copy of the Les Paul. It is only available in a high-gloss finish, has two humbucker pickups and a Tune-O-Matic bridge with a short stop tailpiece.
All models are available in different versions. They are marked with numbers. The quality can be borrowed from the number, the higher the number, the better equipped the guitar. The simplest model carries the 66, then it goes up to 100, 200, 500 up to 1000 as the best equipped instrument in the series models. The numbers 1000 and above are only given to models manufactured in France.
Acoustic guitars
- The acoustic guitars all bear the model name Tramontane and are qualitatively labeled using a similar number system (66, 100, 200, 300, 400) as the electric guitars. The program includes the forms dreadnought, jumbo, auditorium and stage as western guitar and nylon as concert guitar. There are guitars with and without a pickup / preamp system. Lâg also has a series of ukuleles in its range.
Endorser
Well-known endorsers of the Lag brand include Frank Zappa's son Dweezil and Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell as well as the guitarist of the band around Liv Kristine Dimi Argyropoulos and Pete Doherty from Babyshambles .