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A client decided he wanted 2 baritones, similar but different.
Both of these are EI Rosewood with koa bindings, koa and EI Rosewood rosette, 27.5" scale, EI Rosewood radial purfling and Waverly tuners.
The wonderful finish is by Joe White.
The difference is that one is red western cedar and the other is Carpathian spruce.
I was sad to see these go.

Here are some pics.
(I am so disappointed in these pictures. I sure helps to take the pictures when you have enough light.)

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve, I'm going to go out on a limb and be a critic.... but then again maybe I can let you borrow my lights?

Now seriously, they look nice but a lot of detail got lost in the picture quality. Can you try again?.....in daylight?

Either way I can tell you are making great progress and it definitely shows.....

Well done my friend.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Very nice! Love the shape and the color combinations. The detail comes through if you look for it. Hard to photograph glossy surfaces it is.

They look good Steve. My photography is kinda hit and miss too. Mentioning lighting has give me an idea. I've got a stand with a couple really bright quartz lights on it. I wonder if they'd help with pictures. Maybe YJ John will do a photography tutorial sometime.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

WOW . I am liking those mucho. SWEET !!! what tuning and strings at 27.5 ???

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

Nice work Steve. Wow folks are pumping out guitars faster n weeds sproutin in a new garden. And here I am still working on some shop upgrades instead of cuttin shapin n gluin.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Looks like gorgeous work.

They sure are beauties. I, too, wish I could see em better. It does look like you are pumping out some exceptional instruments, Steve. How do these sound?

Thanks Tony. I'm using medium strings and tuning is dropped one whole step from standard.



I like them a lot. The gentleman that ordered them posts occasionally here, maybe he'll talk about tone.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

hi Steve
as John Kinnaird said,
“Love the shape and the color combinations”
thats my kinda guitar, what is the shape?
great work
best regards
Geordie

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some tunes on acoustic and guitar synth.
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheGeordieAdams
http://www.myspace.com/geordieadams

steve,
gorgeous work.
but please tell us that the checks didn't bounce!! it was just a few months ago that howard klepper gave us the heads up on a customer that used check fraud - and just so happened to have ordered multiple instruments from multiple luthiers. the fraud wasn't caught until the guitars were delivered. the luthiers got burned.
sorry to be the potential wet blanket, but your scenario sounds too much the same for me not to bring it up.
phil

Man, those are beautiful. I love the shape too. They look very comfortable.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Hello, One and All--I'm the guy who just received these wonderful guitars from Steve Saville. They are truly beautiful instruments, showing great attention to detail and pride in workmanship. Having never played a baritone guitar before, I can say, as I wrote to Steve, that to my mind baritone guitars really are an entirely different instrument from the normally-tuned guitar. I think you have to have a bit of a different mindset when approaching playing. Some things I play in standard tuning just don't make it on these guitars, but then some things, especially the more mood-driven pieces, sound quite haunting and intense. I like the contrast very much. Also, I think these guitars open up entirely new areas of composing, which I find really exciting. If you encounter clients who perhaps have two or three exceptional guitars and are looking for something a bit different, you might want to steer them in the direction of a baritone. Just a thought. And, for the record, with extreme sympathy to Mr. Klepper, who got ripped off, I sent the last payment to Steve in December and have never written a bad check in my life. Best, Jack Wills

Phil,
Thank you for your concern. Everything is more than fine.

Geordie,
The shape/contour is the OLF SJ. The bracing, sound hole position, bridge position, body depth is all changed to accommodate a 14th fret placement of a 27.5" scale.

Jack,
Thank you for chiming in on these guitars. I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to post sooner about the payment question. I was hoping you'd love these baritones. They are a substantially more different than one would think. I completely agree that the mood of the piece to be played is substantially different than a standard guitar. The darker flavor of tone, the deeper, slower reacting nature of these instruments requires a different approach. That different approach is greatly rewarded with an entirely different musical mode.
Thanks you for your kind words. I'm truly humbled by them.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Very nice Steve, wish I were there to play them.

Cheers,

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Gwaltney Guitars

Steve... beautiful man, Love the finish!

Dave

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God, Family, Carreer

beautiful

lars

Wonderful work, Steve!
What's your take on the differences between the spruce-topped and the cedar version?

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

two thumbs up Steve, great looking guitars...

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Steve,
I'm surprised no one asked this before because I thought this was a real cool part of this build. I built them identically. The back and sides were from the same billet. Everything was the same except the tops. I thickness my tops to a deflection value and these tops were identical in deflection, although the cedar was thicker. (I build pretty thin and I think these were in the .085 - .095 range)
I have not seen many cedar topped baritones. Being a player myself and one that loves cedar beyond all other tops, it was so exciting to to this. The tops were as stiff (across the grain) as I could find.
The cedar top was typical when played, it was warm with good bass and nice overtones. The Carpathian top was not as warm, did not have the bass or the overtones of the cedar, it was more crisp, with a stronger fundamental, but not to strong. I liked it a lot, more than I thought I would, but my preference is almost always going to be cedar.
Although the tops were lightly built, these baritones take their sweet time responding. The longer strings make it so that the guitar is in no hurry. The same top in a 25.4 scale would respond much quicker. (I make my baritone slightly more stiff than standard scale.)
Does that help? Any other more specific questions?

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I had some better pictures that I took with my older inexpensive camera.
What a difference good lighting makes!

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

WOW! beautiful.

Good stuff, Steve, thanks.
I wonder which one is louder?
And, I wonder which one you will like better in two years time?
And, since you evaluate as a player (which is a good thing), have you been able to sit out in front of these baritones while you play to hear how they differ to an audience?

I appreciate the comment about the response time. Makes sense.
Do you think that's possible to speed up, or is this just the way it is w/ baritones?

Thanks,
Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Steve,
Really nice guitars and I see something I must ask you about. The purfling on the top...is that a segmented purfling? How did you do that? It looks like a million pieces of EIR that have been staked and then inlaid....I want so bad to do something like that on my next guitar but have no idea where to start.

Thanks,
Chris

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There is no difference between the man that thinks he can....and the man that thinks he cannot.

These guitars are very impressive! Congratulations!

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http://www.booneguitars.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stephen-Boone-guitar-builder/488208541257210