I'm nearly two months into owning and playing my IRIS DF with sinker mahogany back and sides and I'm really digging it! I LOVE the look of my DF. Their satin burst top finish, edgeburst on the back and neck combined with the aged body binding gives the guitar a retro/vintage vibe that looks fantastic. Even the tiger stripe pickguard which I normally hate really works on these burst guitars.
I have done several modifications including installing a front strap button, swapping out the tuners and just today I installed a K&K Double Helix combo pickup system. Details on that below. I'm very excited to take it to an open mic and see how it performs. If you missed the original NGD post and want to read that (warning - it's looonnnggg!) you can view that here:
NGD: IRIS DF with Sinker Mahogany
When we last left the original post for this guitar I had made the decision to either trade or sell it off after owning it for barely more than a week. Why? Two main reasons. 1.) The scale length appeared to be aggravating my dodgy left shoulder. 2.) The wide string spacing was a bit of an issue compared to my two gigging guitars. But I continued to play the guitar almost daily.
I also performed with it several times and I gradually overcame my concerns. First, the shoulder got better. I suffer with an issue where my repaired shoulder builds up calcium a few times a year and it then becomes VERY painful. But then it gets better for several months. So it was not the guitar's scale that was bothering me but rather the shoulder issue flared up shortly after buying the guitar. Bad timing.
Then there was the string spacing issue. The more I played it the more I came to like the wider spacing. This guitar is going to primarily be my 'fun' guitar that I take to open mics and things like that. We tend to play a lot of ballads and cool eclectic songs of a mellower nature and that extra string spacing became like a dear old friend once I acclimated to it.
But there were still a few things that needed to happen. First, those terrible Golden Age tuners needed to go. I decided to go with the Schaller GrandTunes which are a recommended replacement by IRIS. I bought a set off Reverb that are in their 'Ruthenium' finish which is a dark, smoke grey chrome and they look fantastic. They are a marked improvement over the Golden Age tuners.
Then I installed a K&K Double Helix Combo system which uses the Pure Mini combined with the Double Helix Solo magnetic soundhole pickup into the K&K Dual Channel Pro ST preamp which splits the signals allowing separate EQ and gain control (internally) and volume control (externally). This system is currently favored by the likes of Molly Tuttle and Billy Strings and for good reason.
Here is a demo video that I recorded playing the guitar strumming and fingerstyle acoustically and then amplified using the K&K DH/PM combo in the varying modes. Note that I just recorded with my mobile phone so the audio is only so good. I played through my Bose S1 Pro, everything set flat, ToneMatch off. Listen with good headphones or speakers for best results.
Thanks for taking the time if you made it this far.