{"id":134906,"date":"2023-03-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-01T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=134906"},"modified":"2023-05-31T20:09:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-01T03:09:57","slug":"great-acoustics-linda-manzers-sunflower-guitar-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/great-acoustics-linda-manzers-sunflower-guitar-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Acoustics: Linda Manzer\u2019s Sunflower Guitar for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Linda Manzer felt hopeless and wanted to do something\u2014anything\u2014to help. So the renowned Canadian luthier, who over a four-decade career has built custom guitars for the likes of Pat Metheny and Bruce Cockburn, turned to what she knows best. \u201cI made a guitar,\u201d she says. \u201cThat was my therapy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Linda<\/a>
Linda Manzer with her Sunflower Guitar for Ukraine<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ukraine\u2019s national flower, the sunflower, has become a symbol of resistance in the war. The name for the guitar came to Manzer after watching a news clip of a Ukrainian woman defiantly offering a heavily armed Russian soldier a handful of sunflower seeds to put in his pocket, so that flowers might grow on his body if he died on her country\u2019s soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manzer built the Sunflower Guitar in just 29 days using materials she had on hand, including a set of Indian rosewood sides and a European spruce soundboard. While she says that it\u2019s an ordinary guitar in a lot of ways, there are details that set it apart from anything else she has built. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Symbolizing the flag of Ukraine, the fretboard markers are blue and yellow, as is the intricate headstock inlay, featuring a Van Gogh\u2013inspired sunflower, which Manzer hand-painted with watercolor pencils. The inlay also includes 23 pieces of mother-of-pearl, along with the luthier\u2019s signature. \u201cI spent almost as much time doing the inlay work as I did making the guitar,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n