2013 Gil Yaron Bone-I Lemon

2013 Gil Yaron Bone-I Lemon Flame Top Brazilian Rosewood Electric Guitar

Gil Yaron is one of those builders whose name carries serious weight among players and collectors who obsess over great late-’50s-style electric guitars. His reputation was built on an almost fanatical study of vintage construction methods, materials, electronics, finishes, and the tiny details that make exceptional old guitars feel and respond differently. Guitar.com has described Yaron as a builder whose vintage-style instruments rank among the finest available, and the Bone series represents his effort to take everything he learned from studying golden-era guitars and push those ideas into his own design.

This is a 2013 Gil Yaron Bone-I finished in a gorgeous Lemon finish over a highly figured flame maple top. More importantly, we were able to obtain information directly from Gil Yaron regarding this specific guitar:

91018
Aug/2013
Basic build
Options: BRRW board
NOS

That Brazilian rosewood board is a particularly desirable option and gives this early Bone-I another layer of appeal for the serious Yaron collector. The guitar also carries the unmistakable hand-built details you want to see on an instrument of this caliber, including Yaron’s signature and “12/13” handwritten beneath the pickup, along with the stamped “3 0009” marking visible on the rear of the headstock.

The Bone-I is much more than another Les Paul-inspired singlecut. Yaron designed the model around a lightweight mahogany body shell with a lightweight internal core and carved maple top, essentially retaining the fundamental ingredients and response players associate with a great vintage singlecut while changing the construction to produce an exceptionally lively and resonant instrument. Yaron describes the Bone-I as covering classic ’50s LP territory while adding more of what he calls a “Tele On Steroids” quality — more attack, clarity and openness than you normally expect from a dual-humbucker singlecut.

The electronics are another major part of the equation. This guitar features Yaron’s own AirGap humbuckers, a pickup concept he developed specifically to retain the character of vintage PAF-style pickups while offering unusually broad tonal response and balance. Yaron went far enough with the design to patent the AirGap system, and these pickups were created as an integral part of the Bone concept rather than simply being an aftermarket set dropped into the guitar. 

Visually, this one is killer. The Lemon finish lets the flame maple do the talking without burying it under a dark burst, while the black pickguard, cream binding, gold top-hat knobs and nickel hardware give the guitar an understated vintage appearance. The open-back tuners complete the boutique, old-school presentation beautifully. It shows only extremely light evidence of handling and presents exceptionally well overall.

And this is really why someone buys a Gil Yaron: you can buy plenty of expensive singlecuts, but very few come from a builder who has devoted this much time to figuring out why the great old guitars work the way they do. Even professional guitarist Pete Thorn has written about his Yaron-built guitar capturing the feel, openness and response he associates with genuine late-’50s examples. 

This is an early 2013 Bone-I with direct builder documentation, the desirable Brazilian rosewood fingerboard option, Yaron's proprietary pickups and an absolutely beautiful Lemon flame top. It is the kind of guitar that makes sense for the player who already knows what a great singlecut is supposed to do and wants something considerably more uncommon than another production-model instrument.

The neck dimensions are another big part of what gives this Bone-I its substantial, vintage-inspired feel. The nut measures approximately 1.71 inches wide, with a neck depth of .91 inch at the 1st fret and a full 1.00 inch at the 12th fret. Those measurements point to a fairly robust neck carve rather than a slim modern profile. It has real depth in the hand, especially as you move up the neck, giving it that solid, authoritative feel many players associate with great late-’50s-style instruments.

At .91 inch at the first fret, it starts out comfortably chunky without feeling excessive, and by the 12th fret it fills out to a full inch. That gradual increase gives the neck a very natural taper and makes it feel substantial all the way up the board. For players who like a neck they can really grab onto rather than something thin or flat, this profile is going to be a major selling point. Combined with the 1.71-inch nut width, it should feel spacious without being unusually wide, with enough room for clean chord work, bends, and lead playing.

• Nut width: approximately 1.71"
• Neck depth at 1st fret: approximately .91"
• Neck depth at 12th fret: approximately 1.00"
• Brazilian Rosewood fingerboard
• Gil Yaron AirGap humbuckers
• Flame maple top
• Lemon finish
• Set-neck construction
• Gold top-hat knobs
• Open-gear tuners

The neck is straight and the truss rod turns in both directions. It plays beautifully up and down the neck, and the combination of the lightweight Bone-I construction and Yaron pickups gives it the clarity, resonance and muscular singlecut character that made these guitars so special in the first place. Whoever ends up with this one is getting a genuinely special piece from one of the most meticulous builders in the boutique guitar world. Once you have it in your hands and hear what it does through a good amp, you're probably not going to be in much of a hurry to put it back in the case.