Build Thread: Baranik Meridian "Aurora"

[Huckleberry]

A couple of pictures of the Colorado blue spruce top taking shape. I was really lucky and managed to secure Mike's last set, by taking over a cancelled order.





The Venetian cutaway section will be removed later. Here's what Mike says about Colorado blue spruce:

The Blue Spruce in my opinion is like German on steroids - it is very similar to Englemann but is stiffer and lighter. It has lots of headroom but responds to a light touch. It is very sensitive to a light touch but stiff enough to handle the extra tension and is particularly well paired with a very dense back and side wood. It is somewhat rare as it is not normally milled for tonewood - the Blue Spruce tree is very hard to find big enough to get high quality sets without a tremendous amount of wasted wood and labor.

I play fingerstyle only, and I use quite a wide dynamic range in my playing. I usually aim for quite a dark, rich, almost mellow tone, and I achieve this by shaping my nails with a slight slant, and angling my attack on the strings. For this to work well, I need the basic tone of the guitar not to be too dark or mellow, but to have plenty going on in the upper mid-range, so that I can control that down with my attack - but it's still all there when I want to brighten things up or get some extra 'edge' for a passage.

So far, my favourite top wood has been European spruce, which works really well for my playing style. It looks like the Colorado blue spruce may be even better, and Mike believes it will couple very well with the ebony back. It's also a bit more of an unusual choice, and I like the unconventional.

[Michael Watts]

Just caught this one!

Sincere congrats on birth of daughter, that is truly fantastic news!

As for the guitar...

Stunning mate, you must be very excited!

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Michael Watts

Just caught this one!

Sincere congrats on birth of daughter, that is truly fantastic news!

As for the guitar...

Stunning mate, you must be very excited!

Cheers, Michael. I've been watching your Kostal build closely too - looks like we're both in for something special on the guitar front this year!

[justonwo]

It's hard to completely dissociate the effect of the top wood from all the other variables that affect the sound, but I will say my new Meridian has plenty of headroom and dynamic range. Compared to my Mustapick, which has German Spruce, it is louder and more focused/punchy. Its response and projection in many ways is similar to a classical guitar. I think these characteristics, as mentioned in another thread, lead to a high degree of note separation and, as a result, clarity in the melody and a great pulse in the bass line.

I would most definitely not characterize the tone as dark and mellow. Quite the opposite, in fact. It's light and lively and sounds just like you would expect from a lightly built guitar designed for expressive fingerstyle. So I think it should work well for what you're after, Huck.

My Mustapick has a bit more overlap in the individual notes, though I believe it makes the guitar sound somewhat warmer and airier, which I also think is a pleasant quality (depending on the song and my mood).

It will be really interesting to hear how the Meridian sound develops over time. The Mustapick already has 100s of hours on it. The Meridian is still pretty much a newborn.

Edit: I played the Meridian again tonight for about an hour and paid particular attention to the dynamic range while playing with fingerpicks. There is just an incredible amount of volume on tap with this instrument. Increased pick attack yields increased volume all the way up to the point where the string is getting ridiculously distorted. The voice is incredibly expressive at low volume and practically thunderous at high volume.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by justonwo

It's light and lively and sounds just like you would expect from a lightly built guitar designed for expressive fingerstyle. So I think it should work well for what you're after, Huck.

Edit: I played the Meridian again tonight for about an hour and paid particular attention to the dynamic range while playing with fingerpicks. There is just an incredible amount of volume on tap with this instrument. Increased pick attack yields increased volume all the way up to the point where the string is getting ridiculously distorted. The voice is incredibly expressive at low volume and practically thunderous at high volume.

Thanks, Juston - this is really good to know, sounds like I'm making the right choices. My Hamblin also has that really linear dynamic range, which enables me to effectively pick single notes out in voicings. I'm hoping for the same from Aurora.

[Ehvamone]

"I play fingerstyle only, and I use quite a wide dynamic range in my playing. I usually aim for quite a dark, rich, almost mellow tone, and I achieve this by shaping my nails with a slight slant, and angling my attack on the strings. For this to work well, I need the basic tone of the guitar not to be too dark or mellow, but to have plenty going on in the upper mid-range, so that I can control that down with my attack - but it's still all there when I want to brighten things up or get some extra 'edge' for a passage."

Sounds like we are on the same page. I also slant my nails, file very fine, and position my hands for the same effect. I would love to hear your playing and I will be watching this thread very closely! Congrats!

[justonwo]

What is the origin of Aurora? Did I miss that somewhere?

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Ehvamone

Sounds like we are on the same page. I also slant my nails, file very fine, and position my hands for the same effect. I would love to hear your playing and I will be watching this thread very closely! Congrats!

I had to dismantle my studio (it's now a nursery!) but I recently retrieved my Zoom H4n, which can achieve pretty good quality. So I'll try to get some recordings down and share.

Originally Posted by justonwo

What is the origin of Aurora? Did I miss that somewhere?

It's the Latin word for 'dawn', and the Goddess of the Dawn in Roman mythology. The last year has seen a lot of new beginnings for me, and this is my first custom built guitar - Aurora seemed a fitting name for it.

[steveh]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

I had to dismantle my studio (it's now a nursery!) but I recently retrieved my Zoom H4n, which can achieve pretty good quality. So I'll try to get some recordings down and share.

Please do - I, for one, would appreciate it.

Shame about the nursery...Are you in London? I had to move out of the centre of town in order to get enough space to swing the proverbial cat in. Oh, and somewhere to store guitars!

Cheers,
Steve

[Huckleberry]

So, I got to meet Mike Baranik on Saturday, at the "Meet the Luthier" event at TAMCO. It was a fantastic day, and I got to spend lots of time with Mike and Kent Hamblin.

Being able to talk through the details of the design and kind of voice I'm after for this guitar was invaluable, and increased my confidence that Aurora is going to turn out just as I'm hoping. We're doing quite a few non-standard things with this guitar (different woods and modifications to Mike's basic design), and being able to talk through these in person and scribble on paper was fantastic.

I really like this collaborative approach; through bouncing ideas off each other we've chosen some different woods (for the rosette, highlights and inner sides) and will be using higuerilla and michinga. We may also use something a little different for the neck, as an alternative to mahogany, but no firm decision there yet.

Here's a quick photo of some of the spalted michinga we'll be using:



Thanks to Trevor at TAMCO for organising the event!

[Huckleberry]

My Celebes ebony back is now joined and braced, and looking good to me.



There's been some discussion about asymmetry on the Custom Shop forum recently, and this is one of the features I like about Mike's guitars and wanted to explore in my original design. As well as the body being physically asymmetrical, the back bracing is fanned, and due to the multiscale geometry the top bracing will also be asymmetrical.

Many of the luthiers I've spoken to strive to reduce standing waves within the guitar by using asymmetry (either structurally or through thicknessing/vocing - for example scalloping braces on the bass side while leaving them tapered on the treble). I believe the fanned bracing on the back can help with the tonal balance of the guitar, since the unbraced segments are all of different size and can help with more complex modes of vibration. Mike believes there is a tonal benefit to building this way too.

Here are some photos of the notches in the back strip being cut:





And here it is braced. The perspecive in the first photo makes the braces look straight, but you can see the fan clearly in the photo showing the vacuum clamp.

[riorider]

Very nice, Huck! And although I've visited Mike's shop and seen the new woods, I'm glad to put some names to them!

This is looking great... Thanks for posting!

Phil

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by riorider

Very nice, Huck! And although I've visited Mike's shop and seen the new woods, I'm glad to put some names to them!

This is looking great... Thanks for posting!

Phil

Thanks, Phil. Mike showed me some photos of the Healdsburg guitars in their early stages on Saturday - looks like there's some really special stuff about to come out of his shop!

[colins]

Originally Posted by riorider

Very nice, Huck! And although I've visited Mike's shop and seen the new woods, I'm glad to put some names to them!

This is looking great... Thanks for posting!

Phil

And here was me thinking a spalted michinga was a small African parrot.

Looking good Huck, and it will get even better!

[Michael Watts]

That looks lovely so far. Very interested by the fanned back bracing.