'Eternity lost' by Ulrich Teuffel

'Gold is Godlike. There is nothing else like gold since it has been discovered by humankind. It is so simple, but so difficult, so horribly difficult. So for me to take this step is really very meaningful.'

Ulrich Teuffel

'My approach to the theme "gold" was to question our impression of the eternity and flawlessness of gold. So I didn't want to just cover the whole guitar with gold leaf and seal it with a translucent varnish. The guitar shows the counterplay of perfection (the glossy fire-red neck) and imperfection (the roughly structured body and the antiqued metal parts). The gold on this guitar shows up as a signal, a message coming out of the center of the body. It spreads its message over the body but the message is vanishing. The gold leaf is not protected and so it will vanish the more the guitar is being played. But it won't completely disappear: in the grooves and nests in the surface of the body the gold will withstand the wear. So there will remain some gleam of the message from the beginning.'

Gold is God (in terms of Ulrich Teuffel’s approach)

At first, when we decided to use ‘Gold’ as the common theme I thought gold is really catchy and so it would work out. But then I realized that I never used gold on my guitars — except in older times for custom orders or hardware — because I simply have too much respect for it. Gold is god in terms of my approach, it is too high to understand, too much of a challenge to cope and get along with. So intuitively I always avoided using it. Even in the 20-year anniversary Birdfish guitar it was mostly hardware driven, and since it related to the event it was much easier. Now it turns out that it is really, really difficult for me. When you look back to the social meaning of gold you find that it was almost equal to food or existence. There was nothing else like gold since it has been discovered by humankind. It is so simple, but so difficult, so horribly difficult. So for me to take this step is really very meaningful.