New Build: Brockman Lutherie- 000 Baritone
 

Because of Covid-19 I retired this fall from a teaching career. With that in mind, I can now get back to recording. To accomplish that I want to have a couple of guitars made to fill a few gaps on my guitar rack. I don’t think I have ever posted a build thread before on the AGF. Which is a bit odd, considering I have had several guitars built for me over the years. I guess I just never took the time. Well, now, as luck would have it, I have the time.

I have had a hankering to have a custom baritone made in a dedicated half-Nashville set-up. I think I have found the right builder to do this – Bruce Brockman in Tucson, Arizona. Bruce has made a variety of instruments over the years, which, to my way of thinking, is perfect to undertake this build. We have decided on a 13 fret to the body design and a 000 size body with cutaway. To accommodate and improve some of the tension issues related to the half-Nashville set-up we have also decided to go with a multi-scale of 25.5”-27.” Bruce has a very artistic approach to his builds as you can see in these initial pics of the back. If there is interest, I will continue to update the thread as the build proceeds.
https://i.imgur.com/5DqzJEs.jpg

Looks cool, what exactly is half Nashville?

It basically means that the 3rd and 4th strings are exchanged on a baritone guitar for standard-gauge guitar strings. These are then tuned one active up from normal baritone tunning. There are a few threads about this here on the AGF if you want to search for them.

Congrats on your retirement and your new build!

Looks great so far!

And are you kidding me? Of course we're interested--keep the pics and updates coming! :D

I like the back design. Sounds like it will be a special instrument. Haven't seen any of Bruce's work so I'll be following along. Congrats on your retirement! :up:

Looks good! Enjoy retirement.

I’ve posted about Bruce before. He does beautiful work, and as of yet his prices are more than reasonable, probably too reasonable. I pointed my musical partner, an accomplished guitarist of 30 some years, to Bruce for a mandolin. He received the mandolin last week and loves it dearly. It was a custom, two point oval hole mandolin. If you’re looking for an instrument and can get on his list, do it.

Ribs blocks and first bindings...
https://i.imgur.com/FnGChNE.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UzV5uMQ.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/DmhXZji.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CP9wfQu.jpg

Thanks, I am!
Whoever came up with this retirement idea was a very smart person :D

And the rosette:
https://i.imgur.com/HEUWryL.jpg

Here is the initial design for the head stock.
https://i.imgur.com/YL1JrRh.jpg
The art work is form
Derek Harper, a Haida, Keewaywin First Nation Artist.

Nice design! What's the background to it?

I just happen to see this and several other designs by Derek online so I got in touch and he was very gracious and allowed me to use this design. As far as the loon goes, I have always been a big fan of loons. As a kid, I spent a good part of my summers in Northern Ontario, near Chapleau, and listening to the loons at night was such a cool experience. We happen to be surrounded by lakes here in Northern Lower Michigan and we have a couple of loons of mated pairs that fly and sing around us all summer and fall. Occasionally while I am paddle boarding, I will come across one particular loon that allows me to get pretty close.
When it came to building this guitar, it is a rather odd build with the whole baritone, half-Nashville, multi-scale, 13 frets, thing going on that it just seemed a good fit to go with a loon on the headstock. My McIlroy AJ25cx has a raven on the headstock and Russel Crosby is working on another guitar for me that will have a Sandhill Crane on the headstock. So, I guess I am kind of infatuated with birds.

Thanks. I thought it was first nations but I’d missed the text below the image. Love that style and I remember seeing a lot of it when I visited the UBC Museum of Anthropology on my first trip to Canada, many years ago. We have some amazing birds here in Australia but we don’t have the loon…I’ll have to look out for one in North America when we finally get to travel again.

And there is nothing “loony” about your guitar! Apart from the Nashville tuning it is almost exactly what I would go for if I had another guitar built. For me it would provide a mid-point between the rich bass of my baritone and the trebles of a standard guitar. That’s the great thing about custom build; they allow us to go to such interesting places.

You won't soon forget the call of a loon in the middle of a still night. The same is true of witnessing a loon dancing on the water.

Well, that is the hope:cool: