Baritone backstory
If I recall correctly, my first proper baritone encounter of any length (beyond a brief noodle on Don Ross' in 2007) was with Thomas Leeb’s Lowden at his Bootcamp in Austria in 2008 (in those heady days of having hair):
This was very much the vibe. Ever since, I’ve been besotted with baritones.
Pretty much immediately, I started speaking to a few different luthiers about a potential custom baritone project. Given my preferred specs, to quote Matty Groves, it was going to cost me deep in the purse. Whilst I’ve (rather belatedly) come round to the “buy well, buy once” mentality, I was nervous about spending big money on something I wasn’t sure would get much playing time. So…
Early lowlands explorations
I initially experimented by stringing a Lowden jumbo (originally a 1988 S7, then a Newtonards O12 – both sitka over mahogany jumbos) with baritone strings. This worked surprisingly well. But the intonation on the lower strings was, predictably, a bit of a problem. So David Anthony Reid made this fantastic ultra-compensated saddle for my O12 (I was keen to avoid having to permanently modify the guitar itself).
Some years later (around 2011, I think) I took the plunge on a Lowden Baritone (sitka/Bastogne walnut), having stumbled upon the (then incredibly rare) opportunity to pick one up second hand.
More photos
here.
The presentation on the 27.59” scale was quite different to that on the 25.56” – a bit more bass like, and less “guitary”, than the short-scale baritone experiments.
I was enjoying playing and composing on the Lowdens enough to make me think it might be worth taking the plunge on a bespoke baritone.
The whole project got a bit sidelined as towards the end of 2011, I put down a deposit on my first proper custom build: a fantastic
Jason Kostal MDC (German over Claro), which arrived in August 2016 (as did, about 4 months earlier, in a fit of over indulgence, a lovely
Euro/Madrose Kostal OM, originally owned by Steveh).
Jason, as most of you will know, apprenticed with the master of the modern lutherie that is Ervin Somogyi. I’d had the pleasure of meeting Ervin in 2014 at an inspirational talk he gave at The Acoustic Guitar Music Co (TAMCO) in Brighton, which was also the first time I had the pleasure of playing on of Ervin's guitars.
Meeting the maker
It was at that talk that I first met Tom Sands, who was sharpening his chisels in preparation for an apprenticeship with Ervin. I remember at the time being extremely excited that someone would be bringing back that knowledge and expertise to England, and thinking that I ought to give Tom a deposit then and there… I wish I had!
What with becoming a father and changing jobs, I slightly lost track of things. But in 2017, some of my friends (
Adam,
borborygmus,
ianLP59, and later
Steveh and David) were waxing lyrical about fantastic guitars they’d ordered or received from an extremely talented builder… none other than that very same Mr Sands. It occurred to me that he might well be the man for the baritone job.
I must confess to being a little apprehensive about ordering any bespoke instrument, for various reasons. There’s always something a little nerve-wrecking about ordering a guitar rather than first playing the actual one you’ll be buying (although I've done that many times over the internet); but all the more so when you’re planning on something very specific and high end. Plus this would be not only Tom’s first baritone, but – as far as I’m aware – the first Somogyi-camp baritone.
But several emails and phone calls later, I felt like I was in safe hands. Tom was confident, knowledgeable, passionate and a pleasure to talk to. What I’d seen of his work was sublime. Hardly surprising, given his background honing his woodworking skills from years working on award-winning luxury furniture, his eye for aesthetics and design developed during his time as a scholar and graduate of the prestigious Glasgow School of Art, not to mention his apprenticeship with perhaps the premier steel string builder of all time. But I'd yet to actually play one of his creations.
Meeting Tom’s guitars…
Somewhat serendipitously, a few weeks later I had the pleasure of meeting a quite few of Tom’s guitars -
numbers 3, 4, 8 and 9 - all in the same room.
They all looked and sounded stunning, were ultra-responsive and had a warmth to them that was beguiling.
So I quickly found myself sending a deposit to Tom in July 2017 for his 17th guitar…
The nitty gritty
Right from the get go back in 2008, what I’d really craved was a custom baritone.
I only really feel comfortable playing guitars with wide string spacing (60-61mm at the saddle) and a wide nut (45 mm minimum, but ideally 46-48mm or more).
As someone who ventures away from the money making fretboard positions to the dusty end, I was also keen to have a cutaway.
Given the sorts of tunings I tend to use (often variants on CGDGAD, but on a baritone tuning down from B standard, that puts me at a low G (!)), I could see the sense in fan frets.
And as baritones are typically large-bodied instruments, and as I'm a guitar hugger who kinda wraps themselves around it when playing, I was keen to have some features that would make it seem smaller and more comfortable: a Manzer wedge and arm (and maybe also rib) bevel.
Body shape wise, given the thunderous bass that Modified Dreadnoughts put out, Tom’s own take on that model (his “L” – for Large) was the natural choice.
There’ll be enough going on in terms of features, so visually, “understated elegance” was the brief – let the woods speak for themselves.
But what would those woods be…? I'll leave that to the next installment.
All the best,
Dan