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My impression of the only Oregon (Calif.) Myrle or Pepperwood guitar I have ever played was that it was a medium bright tone with some what complex overtones, some what like Black Acacia in response. I would think that would be a nice compliment to the baritone range.

OK - I'll go with Mrytle.

Is there anything I should know about top selection - woods to avoid or use? I'm thinking cedar but I'd love to learn if there are better choices with a longer scale length.

Thanks!

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

MichaelP will be working on the bracing layout for the longer scale.
Thanks Michael!

I'm getting excited about this one. Too bad I can't start it until I finish the other 2 I'm working on.
OK - These are the specs so far - Please let me know if you have any suggestions - like binding. I'm not thrilled with the maple choice. Carpathian spruce is real light and here is a picture of the myrtle.



Size – OLF SJ deep bodied - 4" at heel, 4 5/8 at heel
Top – Carpathian Spruce
Back/sides – high figured myrtle
Binding - maple
Kerfing – sitka spruce.
Back bracing – sitka spruce.
Top bracing – sitka spruce
Bridge plate – rosewood
Bridge -Macassar Ebony 2 1/8 spacing.
Bridge pins – Ebony no dots.
Fretboard – Macassarr Ebony
Fretboard binding – None.
Headplate – Book matched myrtle
Headplate binding- none.
Neck – 5 piece laminate - mahogany/walnut/maple
Nut- 1 13/16" bone.
Saddle – bone.
Tuners - gold.
Tuner buttons – Black
Rosette - Segmented Spalted maple .35 "with .010 maple outline
Soundhole binding - one 010" maple strip.
End Graft - Spalted maple
Purfling – fine herringbone
Back strip – none
Fretboard side markers – white dots.
Fretboard inlay – Celtic Cross
Headstock inlay – wood "S"
Pickup system – none.
Scale length - 27.5"
Bottom wedge – Spalted maple.
Cutaway – None.
Fretboard radius - 16".
Neck joinery - mortise and tenon bolt on & bolt on fingerboard ext.
Truss rod - double acting (access from sound hole).
Top radius – 28.
Back radius – 15.
Bracing – x scalloped
Finish - Gloss water based
Strings - medium.
Soundport - None

_________________
"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve,

Carpathian and Myrtyle will be an interesting combination and should work well. The bloodwood binding on Peterm's sitka/myrtle guitar in the post I linked to above looked mighty tasty to me.

I'd seriously consider a soundport like this one:



I think they work really well with baritones.

I wouldn't scallop the bracing but that's just me - I'm sure it will work fine.

As you are using European spruce (which is what Carpathian is) I would use Euro spruce bracing on the top rather than sitka - or some Lutz spruce bracing from Shane as this is pretty close to Euro. But again these are just my personal choices. Your spec will work just fine.

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Bloodwood is a great idea and may i suggest purple heart, i think either of the 2 would work well but i'm such a noob with so much posts!

I built a baritone a few years ago on an SJ body, close to a J-185. I used a 28.75" scale (which I think was a 34" bass scale with the first few frets chopped off); neck-body join at the 15 fret, which bumped the bridge back a little bit but not all that much.

The calculations I did at the time suggested string tension reasonably close to standard tuning for a 25.4" scale, though that varied with the string gauge and tuning, of course. After it was built, I played with several string combinations to get the right feel.

I used roughly the same top thickness and bracing as usual, but I closed the X-brace somewhat to increase load bearing along the axis of string pull. I also built it as deep as I could stand (maybe 5.5" when done -- I'd have to check my notes) because a larger volume would better be able to make the low notes we're after.

I used a stiffer adirondack top and osage orange b/s and was pleased with the result. Still seems to be holding up just fine.

Myrtle is lovely stuff to work and should be fine.

I found a couple pics, which I'll include if I can. The appointments are all African kingwood; the uneven ebony pins were temporary as I had yet to turn a few from kingwood.

Bob,
Thanks. That is beautiful.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Great looking guitar!

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

[QUOTE=Bob Steidl]

I also built it as deep as I could stand (maybe 5.5" when done -- I'd have to check my notes) because a larger volume would better be able to make the low notes we're after.
[/QUOTE]

Bob,

That's a lovely looking instrument. Nice choice of woods that work well together and the Kingwood is lovely.

How did you think the extra depth worked out in terms of supporting the low notes?

What tuning have you settled on?Dave White38982.5828009259

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

Thanks guys, sorry for the marginal pics but they were a last-minute thing.

There are several papers that detail "scaling" of stringed instruments, mostly in the violin family, but a general rule is that you need a bigger box to produce lower frequencies which I think makes sense. So I don't have any rigorous basis for calling the instrument more or less successful than a more shallow one, but it seems to work fine.

The instrument was commissioned, so I only got to play it for a week or so. But the tuning you want to target will depend on the scale and string gauges you use.

with the bracing layout