ShortScale.org

I'm very excited! It's being built by Victor Baker who builds some incredible instruments.

Specs are: 15" solid spruce top, solid flame maple back and side, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, handmade kent armstrong usa humbuckers.

I'm really excited! It's costing me a lot of money (hence selling my Eastman) but hopefully is going to be totally worth it.

Should look some along the lines of this:



His guitars are super cool and he's also an amazing guitarist.

http://www.victorbakerguitars.com/NYCLuthier/

Looks like BacchusPaul's Ibanez Artcore.

what about the ES-175?

The 175s are awesome but having a custom archtop built was my absolute dream. I thought I wouldn't be able to afford one until a few years after I've left uni but the price just worked for me.

oh okay. that'll prolly be better than the gibson then. that's awesome.

Looks awesome. Love how it's kind of a mixture of modern and oldschool for tthe look.

Very nice, those look like the Kent Armstrong USA pickups that the cheaper vintage 12s I have in my Tele are based on.

Beautiful piece

Nice.

But I thought that crazy big expensive jazz boxes were supposed to have floating pickups and such so that the top isn't compromised in any way? I don't see the advantage to having a guitar like this custom built compared to having it mass produced. Also what are the advantages to having flamed maple sides etc? The spec reads a bit like generic, high end custom guitar stuff.

I fully accept that I'm missing something here though, and that there is plenty about this guitar that I wouldn't be able to make use of. You are a much more capable guitarist than I am and if anyone on here can justify this sort of an instrument then I think it's you.

I just don't quite see why this guitar.

Yeah I can see that. However these guitars are designed for modern jazz so have to deal with distortion and high volume hence the smaller body and reinforcement blocks under the bridge to fight feedback. These guitars aren't designed with acoustic volume as the main goal, hence the set in pickups. Also set in pickups work much better when running through pedals and that. In terms of the wood choice, I was going to order a laminate box, but I was offered a deal on a carved body for less money so jumped on it! Carved tops sound quite nice acoustically, like the Eastman I have currently, although the guitars aren't purpose built for acoustic playing, they tend to have a nice sound.

Also I am a sucker for flame maple...

Looks like a serious Jazz Guitar.

Classy, well done Gabe

Fran wrote:Looks like a serious Jazz Guitar.

Classy, well done Gabe

Haha I was going to say it is pretty damn serious

Noirie. wrote:Looks like BacchusPaul's Ibanez Artcore.

True but for the money that guitar is I'm sure it's waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better.

Update!

Photo bomb:

Amazing!

It's exciting seeing it being built. Much more so that seeing comparable pics of a solid guitar somehow.

I'd never seen this process before. It all looks wonderfully Heath Robinson. I'd be awful at this, I'd end up making the guitar out of a bit of my trousers or something.

Looks exciting! Hidden crafts on show. Love it & post maw

It's really cool to see how it's all done. This whole process is the reason I decided to go for a custom order. I watched a tour of the gibson factory on YouTube and seeing their guitars all built by robots really put me off.

Not long to go now!

Wow, that looks great. I love the finish.

Wow... looks way nicer than the one you posted earlier. Lovely