Build Thread: Baranik Meridian "Aurora"

[riorider]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

I'm curious about the pilot holes in the top of the headstock. What are they for, or will that part by cut away in the final product?

EDIT: On second glance, I see them at the lower corners, too. I assume they are some kind of trim guides?

Kyle, I'm betting they are part of the snakewood inlay process that I asked about in my post below. They appear at the "end" of each snakewood binding inlay, and I'll bet they were router beginnings or endings.

Phil

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Kyle76

I'm curious about the pilot holes in the top of the headstock. What are they for, or will that part by cut away in the final product?

EDIT: On second glance, I see them at the lower corners, too. I assume they are some kind of trim guides?

Originally Posted by riorider

Huckleberry - very nice choices. Perhaps something Mike will need to answer - but it looks like the snakewood is inlaid, and that the excess will be removed (by routing, I presume). Is that correct? That seems to my ignorant eye as an extra complex process - routing the inlay channel, laying the inlay wood, then routing the outside; all rather than routing a channel for the binding after cutting the headstock to shape. Curious. Ignorance isn't always bliss. Just wondering.

Beautiful grain; elegant colors in the purfling and all - like all of Mike's work!

Phil

Yes, I'd noticed this unusual construction too - I'll ask Mike about it.

[Trevor M]

Everything outside the white border (or the binding line outside it) will be cut away. I am really looking forward to getting this one but I expect it will be whisked away by Huck before I can get to know it.

[Huckleberry]

I wanted Aurora to have a completely unique rosette, and I'd had a design concept in my head for a while. Mike was happy to depart from his signature rosette design (which I also like very much) this once, and run with my design.

There are some strong influences from Michi Matsuda's work - Mike knows him well and made sure he was happy for us to use this design - but this is combined with my own design and some of the Baranik DNA too. I absolutely love the finished result - hope you do too!

[Trevor M]

Wow! I going to have to persuade you to leave it here at TAMCO.

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by Trevor Moyle

Wow! I going to have to persuade you to leave it here at TAMCO.

You could always order another - it could be the Huckleberry Signature Model

[8th Fret Bandit]

Stunning guitar!

[colins]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

I wanted Aurora to have a completely unique rosette, and I'd had a design concept in my head for a while. Mike was happy to depart from his signature rosette design (which I also like very much) this once, and run with my design.

There are some strong influences from Michi Matsuda's work - Mike knows him well and made sure he was happy for us to use this design - but this is combined with my own design and some of the Baranik DNA too. I absolutely love the finished result - hope you do too!

You'll have to hold the photos for a few days Huck, I am running out of superlatives. I'll just go out and buy a new thesaurus.

Make sure he lets you play it Trevor!

Col

[Trevor M]

With your signature on the fretboard? I like it.

[Lonerstoner]

Excellent rosette.

[Huckleberry]

I thought it may be interesting to share a few mock-ups of the rosette design concepts I worked through before settling on the final version.

The key feature I wanted was a large block on the treble side, looking like it was split out from the main rosette. This was something I first saw on one of Michihiro Matsuda's rosettes, and really liked the effect. As this is a Baranik guitar, I also incorporated the inner cocobolo ring with spalted michinga 'flash' to echo Mike's standard rosette design.



I then played around with this concept with three variations, working towards something that looked somewhat like an exploded technical drawing:





Mike and I really liked the latter of these for its relative simplicity and keeping with the design of the rest of the guitar. Mike made the excellent suggestion of using macassar ebony for the bass-side block, to tie in with the theme of the headstock we had already chosen. So that's what we went for - as you can see from Mike's photos, he's executed the design flawlessly.





And here's a quick view of the geometric structure of the rosette.



The tilt is designed to tie in with the fan-fret geometry of the fingerboard - if the concept works, the visual effect will be of the rosette as a wheel under tension, warping the guitar into the fan-fret configuration.

[riorider]

I'm with Col in re: superlatives - this has gone to a whole new level. Coupled with Mike's asymmetrical body, adjustable neck, and overall "tone monster" Meridian, this is really singing to me.

The next time someone posts a "show me your favorite rosette" I'm going to have to steal these pics and get them posted early, along with pgilmor's Woolson he posted last week!

What a summer!!!

Phil

[justonwo]

That looks awesome. Great idea and glad you decided to deviate from the norm (even though the norm is killer, too).

[Huckleberry]

A quick photo update - the top is braced and voiced. Notice the asymmetry - the X is rotated to accommodate the multiscale geometry, and one side is scalloped while one is tapered (Mike does this as standard for the Meridian).






And one more shot of the rosette - this one really shows off the colouration of the cocobolo ring and some really nice silking in the Colorado blue spruce top.

[drcmusic7]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

I really like that rosette design. It has a nice choice of woods and layout. I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses!

Kindly,
Danny