Cole Clark Guitars have made a name for themselves in the guitar market as a manufacturer of outstanding acoustic guitars for live performance. Their 3-way pickup system is unique—and the look of each Cole Clark guitar is even more distinctive. Yet, there’s currently a wave of innovation happening at Cole Clark. With the Studio Series, the Australian brand is entering a more affordable price segment, and with the True Hybrid Series, they’re offering a line that functions equally as an acoustic and an electric guitar. A brand at the intersection of innovation and transformation. Cole Clark CEO Miles Jackson will be speaking about the ideas behind the brand and its latest developments during his workshop at the Summit. Here are the four most important questions from our brief interview: 

What is the mission of Cole Clark Guitars?

The goal of Cole Clark Guitars is to deliver the best live sound in the world. We build guitars that sound great—but sound different from anything else on the market. This tonal distinction comes from our use of Spanish heel construction and an internally carved top. All our guitars are made from solid wood. We also have a patented preamp system that uses a crossed face sensor. Combined with our live-performance-focused construction, this makes our guitars the best you can plug in and play. 

Our latest mission is to add a loud-sounding acoustic guitar line with the Studio Series, aimed at people who want the second-best plugged-in sound while still getting a great acoustic guitar. 

What is the new Cole Clark Studio Series?

The Studio Series is partially built in China and partially in Australia. All models feature a solid top, back, and sides. This allows us to hit a price point that wouldn’t be possible with a guitar made entirely in Australia. Our Touring Series offers the best pickup sound in the world. To achieve that, the guitar is significantly quieter when unplugged. The tone is excellent, but the volume is lower than many other guitars. That’s different with the Studio Series. It delivers the typical Cole Clark tone, but with a loud acoustic sound. 

The Australian-made version of the Studio Series is the new Studio Recording Series, which is just launching. This series is fully made in Australia and is our loudest guitar with the best tone. It may not be quite as strong when plugged in as the Touring Series, but many people will still use it as their main performance guitar. 

What’s the idea behind the True Hybrid Series?

The idea behind the True Hybrid Series is to create a guitar that’s uncompromising in both acoustic and electric plugged-in sound—and allows both to be used simultaneously. The biggest challenge here is the strings. For a balanced, great-sounding acoustic tone, the guitar needs to be strung with phosphor bronze strings. But those strings aren’t ideal for electric guitar pickups, as they produce uneven volume across the strings. We wanted to offer musicians a magnetically balanced pickup that delivers the same volume for each string—even with phosphor bronze. We’re close to receiving a full patent for this invention. The goal was to provide pickup configurations that electric guitarists want, with two separate outputs so each signal can be processed optimally for its respective pickup. 

What’s your current favorite model in the Cole Clark lineup?

That would be the True Hybrid models with humbucker and single-coil configurations. These guitars are just incredibly fun to play and they work fantastically. The range of tonal possibilities is huge, and all the sounds are genuinely usable. Very inspiring instruments.