Impulse

The Somnium Impulse was designed for one purpose: to be the most comfortable guitar you have ever played. If you sit and practice or record for hours, you know why comfort is important, and most of your standard guitars just don’t deliver. They sit on your leg with the neck horizontal which strains your wrist. If you try to tilt the neck up, they slide off of your leg. Your entire collection of guitars is probably just like that, and most players just do their best to work around the problems.

The Impulse was designed to place the neck at a 25 degree angle and up a little higher off of your leg, with perfect balance. This is achieved with an integrated retractable leg rest which when fully extended gives you that perfect position and balance. Even better, you can lock that leg rest in multiple positions in-between to find just the right position for you. When you play standing up, the leg rest snaps back into the body and disappears from sight. You get the best of both worlds: a sleek modern double-cutaway for stage, and an amazingly comfortable position for hours of practice and recording. Want to see it in action with award-winning studio guitarist John Willis? Click here.

The 4-2 compact headstock was also designed for lighter weight so that there is no neck dive. The compact Impulse body is lightweight and the curves on the right side  and bottom mean you can set the guitar in multiple playing positions with fantastic comfort. With the Somnium interchangeable pickup system you have unlimited tones at your fingertips, so now you’ve got unbelievable versatility and amazing comfort in one guitar.

Our necks feature a zero-fret system for fantastic tuning stability whether you have the fixed Schaller bridge or the Kahler tremolo. We don’t put a string lock on the headstock because you won’t need one. The leg rest is made of machined aluminum and is rock solid when locked into place, becoming an extension of the body. You can pick the entire 7 pound guitar up by the leg rest.

Our standard maple-shaft neck is a blend of old and new with a modern C profile, 12 inch radius and 25.5″ scale but of course we can make it to your own specifications if you prefer. It is available with a several different fretboard options and we can also do alternate scale lengths, alternate woods, etc. Default is right-handed but if you want a lefty guitar, just let us know.

Our modular pickup system is the ultimate in versatility letting you change pickups instantly in any combinations you want. Switch your 2-pickup T-style to a 3-single-coil configuration or dual humbuckers, or just one humbucker, anything you want. Use any pickups you want, active or passive, mix and match to find new and exciting tone combinations. Three cartridges give you six tone combinations so it’s like having six guitars in one! Order more cartridges and pickups and build your tone library like you never imagined you could, and play all of those tones more comfortably than ever before.

Somnium Guitars standard features include:

22 medium-jumbo stainless steel frets, 25.5″ or 24.75″ scale, 12″ radius
Zero-fret system with TUSQ XL guide nut
Hipshot or Schaller locking tuners
Alder body
6-way selector switch
Hipshot or Schaller hard tail bridge
Qijack output jack
9V battery for active pickups
Dunlop USA Straploks
ABS hard case

We include three of our half cartridges, or one full cartridge and one half cartridge. Select “Three Half” or “Full Plus Half” under the default cartridges options. Either way we include two great Kent Armstrong single-coil pickups which can be P90, Humbucker, T-Style Neck, T-Style Bridge or single coil S-style. After you place your order we’ll contact you to verify which pickups you want and to review any final details on your build.

 Video Description of Pickup Cartridges

Please visit the cartridges and pickups pages to order additional cartridges and pickups. Also visit the Guitar Upgrades catalog for additional options. Additionally, if you order the pickups from us (or send us your own) we will install and test them for you at no extra charge.

Current build time is 60-90 days, and the first orders placed will be the first to ship.