Xenos
The Xenos is my fully hollow archtop built outside the boundaries of traditional guitar design. Its unconventional styling and modern construction create an instrument with a character all its own.
About the Xenos
The Xenos (ZEE-nohss) is the most out of this world model from DGN Custom Guitars. Xenos is greek in origin and loosely translates to Stranger, Outsider or - even looser but more perfect for this situation -Alien.
Designed on a Saturday with a good friend, our goal was to create something new, unique and very much outside of the box.
The inspiration for this shape came from my 6-Inline headstock most notably used on the Kalos Simple. The curves of the horn and body were taken directly from it. We simply, or not so simply, filled in the gaps and tweaked the shape until we ended up somethig we both knew was "the one".
The Xenos construction is a variation on the traditional style archtop style. Rather than thin bent sides, the body rim assembly is similar to the Kalos. The perimeter is as wide as traditional kerning, around 3/8", and the neck, tail block and horn blocks are built into the rim. The top and back are glued to the rim directly. The final touch is multiply binding throughout the entire instrument.
The tone of the Xenos is slightly more aggressive than the Kalos. The body and sound box are smaller, which shifts the mid hump up a bit and makes it a little brighter overall. This gives you a mid push in just the right part of the spectrum to cut through any mix, clean or heavily overdriven and everything in between.
What I'm most proud of with this guitar is the neck joint. The heel is offset towards the bass side. This creates the perfect pocket for your hand to slide right up to the last fret effortlessly. In other words, the upper fret access is exceptional!!
The remaining features of the Xenos are distinctively DGN. Hand made wooden pickup rings, bridge, tailpiece and truss rod cover all match the fingerboard. It also features all of the same electronics options as the rest of the DGN line.
Standard Specs
Construction | Full Hollow, Parallel Braced Top |
Body Rim | Maple, Spanish Cedar or Walnut |
Top/Back | Flamed Maple |
Neck | Multiply Laminated Flamed Maple |
Neck Joint | Full Width Tenon |
Bridge | Hand Carved Wood |
Saddle | Brass Pre Compensated |
Tailpiece | Hand Carved Wood w/ Aluminum Underframe |
Fingerboard | Rosewood or Ebony |
Pickups | DGN Tru-PAF |
Pots/Caps | Bourns 500k Mini Pots, NOS PIO Capacitor |
Knobs | Hand Carved Wood |
Pickup Rings | Hand Carved Wood |
Nut | Bone 1 11/16" |
Tuning Machines | Gotoh Die Cast 6 In Line |
Scale Length | 25.5" |
# of Frets | 24 |
Fingerboard Radius | 12" |
Strings | D'Addario EXL110 10-46 |
Case | Deluxe Flight Case |