NAMM 2023: The ultimate string bend? Ciari Guitars’ Ascender P90 folds right in half

NAMM 2023: Nashville luthier Ciari specializes in producing foldable travel guitar designs and it’s just announced its latest model, the Ascender P90.

A single-pickup build with a slightly offset body, to our eyes it looks a little like Gibson’s Les Paul Junior reimagined by Ernie Ball Music Man, which is no bad thing. It’s a full-size electric with a Gibson-like 24 ¾” scale length, though it is not a set neck design – in fact it’s about as far from it as you can get. 

The body is constructed of basswood and heavily chambered to accommodate the folding mechanism. There’s a mahogany neck, ebony fingerboard and it’s loaded with a Seymour Duncan dog-ear P90 pickup. As with an LP Junior you get a single tone and volume control, while elsewhere you’ll find Ciari’s custom locking tuners and tune-o-matic roller bridge. 

That is all by-the-by, of course, because what we all want to know is how the hell this thing folds in half. In one of the slicker folding systems we’ve seen, Ciari’s latest Ascender designs essentially have a mid-neck fold with two rear hinges positioned near the 12th fret.

In the playing position, the neck is secured by a locking strut. When it comes time to travel, the strut slides out and the neck folds. The clever part is a floating tailpiece recessed in the rear of the body that moves up and down and clamps into position for travel or playing.

The effect of this is that it stops the strings wandering out of position while folded and maintains a level of string tension, which alongside the locking tuners, supposedly ensures “everything stays crisp and in tune when unfolded for play.”

We’ve seen a lot of travel guitars and a lot of creative responses to the ultra-portable guitar challenge, but this remains one of the more elegant options. That said, a lot will rest on how the neck hinge feels to play across and, of course, how that tailpiece mechanism holds up.

The Ascender P90 carries a list price of $1,599 and a left-handed version is available at the same price point. For more information and orders, head to Ciari Guitars.