The "twins"... Baranik OM and OO ... "Tree"+
 

There are many builds being readied or finished for Memphis, many of them using wood from "the Tree" (Honduran mahogany). At the risk of this just being yet another build thread, I did want to at least get some story and pictures out there.

A few years back, Mike Baranik made me one of his then-new model Meridians using back and sides from "the Tree". I was intrigued with the quilt of the wood visually, and had been a convert to mahogany after several rosewood guitars - through inexpensive amplification systems and with various ensembles showed the problem with that rich "bloom" tonality of rosewood. The mahogany is much simpler; fundamental; with limited overtones; and lends itself very well to ensemble and accompaniment playing - which is mostly what I do.

That Meridian has a 'sinker' cedar top - rich and dark, with the soft attack that cedar lends to a guitar. I have since had one other built from "the Tree" woods - by Tim McKnight, with an excellent Adirondack top. That guitar takes almost any attack and presents it clearly and with great clarity.

I had, however, fallen also in love with redwood tops. John Mayes built an OO with African mahogany and an LS redwood top (Lucky Strike - one of the Carter redwoods) and the Woolson LG 12 has those woods as well as Lutz backing the redwood.

All this to say as I head toward what I think will be the final chapters of builds, I'm pretty comfortable in knowing what woods I'd like to produce the tones I like.

A Baranik Meridian with cocobolo which I owned for several years had a Colorado Blue Spruce top, and although frequently hard to find in a usable size, my experience with the Blue Spruce is that it adds a "crystalline" or "tingly bell" set of tones at a much higher frequency.

A couple of years back Jay was seeking buyers for a few sets of "the Tree" he had, and we were able to put together a deal on two sets - timely for him, and an investment for me. These sets were two he'd had for (10? 15? 20?) years; and were sequential flitch-matched sets (see pic below). They do not have a lot of the super-highly figured "tortoise" but are beautifully figured and perfect for this project.

I had an "almost perfect" set of LS redwood, and Mike Baranik had found some very nice Blue Spruce tops, and picked out one which will complement the LS redwood.

My initial thought was of an actual "Ying-yang" Light/Dark set of twins, but becoming a great fan of smaller bodied guitars, Mike agreed to modify his OOm and one will be the (newly designated OM - previously OOm) and one will be a smaller OO.

The theme of the inlays and appointments I'll leave up in the air at the moment, as we haven't quite fully decided on how much. We will be seeing inspiration from some of the early 20th century designs, but not tied to a specific period nor architectural set.

For now, I just wanted to get this thread started and show a few pictures of the woods. What you'll see is the back and side sets, and the tops (one redwood, one Blue Spruce) being joined.

Cheers all!

Phil

Uhhh... pics?

Excellent! Hope to meet you in Memphis.

yeah, yeah - working on it!! Who would have thought that Photobucket's RT app would not allow bulk upload? And dealing with Google pics down to network storage and then uploading to Photobucket is a pain.

Give me 30 minutes or so and I'll have it solved...

Ta,

Phil

I have been waiting for this thread before my build even started!!! :D can't wait!

The "twins" for Memphis... Baranik OM and OO ... "Tree"+
 

Congratulations on what is sure to be a magnificent pair of Baranik guitars!!!

Ditto. Maybe we can get Mike to switch to photobucket.

Mm, 30min or so?

Waiting patiently in Africa...:D

Waiting impatiently in Singapore. I've checked the forum 7 times since then! D:

Ok, now change the "patiently in Africa" to "impatiently in Africa".

And to think that people joke about "African time", what is the US equivalent of 30min?😀

Finally... between Win8.1 quirks, Google pics, network storage, and WinRT, it's been a hassle...

But, here we go - mostly raw woods and initial gluing of backs and tops at this point:

1. Sequential flitch-matched sets:
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...psz2rmzm1a.jpg

2. Colorado Blue Spruce
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...psae1hmfqz.jpg

3. Lucky Strike Redwood
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...psaadem4jc.jpg

4. The new OO shape (inside a Meridian template)
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...psllysl3az.jpg

5. One of the backs joined:
http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...psl5ltw1sk.jpg

Finally, a Baranik 00. What could be better? Can't wait to see more.

Steve

This is looking very familiar...MORE MORE :guitar:

Looking great already. Can't wait to see what is in store! Are these Memphis bound?

Brilliant Phil, thanks for starting this thread. How do the 00 dimensions compare with the OM?

Col

Marcus - yes, the plan is to have them in Memphis - but of course there may be delays which change the plan.

Col, I'm not sure of the precise measurements, but it will be about the same width reduction from the OM as the OM is from the Meridian - and you can see that the smaller upper bout is staying about the same. The depth may be a bit less - I've given Mike some measurements of other OOs and I'm sure he has access to plenty of shapes and plans. It will definitely be a "Meridian family" or "new Baranik" shape and size, though.

For those not familiar with Mike's instruments, they are definitely in the "modern" guitar family, tonally - balanced across the strings with strong mids; great note separation; and Mike's build quality has always been exceptional and continues to improve. Playability and precise intonation up the fretboard are perfect.

The OM will have a cutaway; the OO will not. Mike has tried a few different styles on the OOm previously - including a scoop. Here's a Florentine cutaway that he's designed for the OOm/OM that he'll be using on this build (this on another OOm):

http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/g...psnxxoyg6o.jpg