Tony Karol Solo Model
 

I have a guitar being built by Canadian luthier Tony Karol. Tony lives in Mississauga, Ontario. I bought my first really good harp guitar from Tony and coincidentally it was the first harp guitar that he built.
Tony has many famous customers that play his baritone guitars, Stephen Bennett, Tommy Emmanuel, Bruce Cockburn, Calum Graham and more. Tony also plays guitar and harp guitar. I met him at one of the Harp Guitar Gatherings, we were both about the same age so we had a lot of things in common and we had plenty to talk about. Over the past few years we kept in touch through FB and occasional emails.
I have experimented with a lot of baritone guitars. I appreciate the B to B tuning and I have a guitar for that but what I also find very useful is C to C or D to D. Some baritone purists scoff at this idea but it gives you a different tonality for fingerstyle playing and more importantly for me it acts as a reverse vocal capo.
So I had this idea to ask Tony if he could make one of guitars that would primarily be tuned one step down with medium strings. We went back and forth a few times and settled on this idea.
The guitar will be based on Tony's "Solo" model.
Fan frets 26-27"
I prefer Mahogany guitars so Highly figured Honduran Mahogany
Italian Spruce top
Venitian Cutaway
Armrest
Sunburst

I keep telling myself that I am done with ordering custom guitars but I guess there's always one more. If things go as planned this will be my last year in my corporate gig so this guitar will be my retirement award.
Here's a few photos. This is a solo model that he did a few years back with rounded cutaway.Attachment 52762

An example of his sunburst, and some photos of my guitar under construction. The guitar should be done late summer/or early fall this year.

Woohoo
 

How many custom guitars does one guitar player need to commission?

JUST ONE MORE! The good news is we hang here on AGF and can sell an older one or two once in a while.

Looks to be a real beauty

Give us all the specs, when you can, please

Have FUN and stay safe too

Paul

Congrats on the (planned) retirement and the guitar! Love Tony's Italian tops, they aged really well too!

I’m totally with you on your proposed guitar, between a baritone and a standard. I have my bari at B-B and I like to capo it to get that baritone “gravitas” at a slightly higher tuning; so I think what you’re doing is a great idea.

So congratulations, and I’m looking forward to more posts.

New batch of photos

Got a few new pictures of this guitar build. Nice looking set of Mahogany!

Hey, Teleplucker--Very cool indeed, and a man after my own heart. If you check out acousticmusicworks.com and scroll through the offerings, you will run into a couple of baritone guitars I had made several years by a luthier named Steve Seville. I have them up for sale now because my house is getting too full of guitars, but I think they both reflect your thinking on baritone guitar design. The Sevilles are great instruments, meant to be tuned D-D and strung with medium strings. Definitely produces a different and unique ambience and resonance. Tony Karol is a wonderful builder, so I'm sure you'll get a great, great guitar. Congratulations!

Yow!
 

Looking SWEET

spectacular Hog! My guitars all live in D (open or concert) or drop C so I too understand the pull of the deep end. Haha

Go Tony, go!

Paul

This looks absolutely perfect. If I ever get a baritone it would probably be with these same woods and scale configuration. Or Italian/Claro Walnut. Enjoy in good health.

Clean work by a fine builder using beautiful wood. A sure recipe for success!

Steve