tplyons' Alis Baritone Acoustic Progress Thread

First of all, I'm not good at keeping secrets I'm this excited about. I'm having a guitar custom built!

It's being made by Alis (pronounced like Elise) and is being made to the following specs:

Alis Baritone Acoustic Guitar:
Top: Lutz Spruce
Back/Sides: Primavera
Fingerboard: Ebony
Neck: Honduran Mahogany w/Purpleheart and Carbon Fiber Lamination
Bindings: Snakewood
Single Cutaway shape, Florentine Cutaway (pointy)
28-5/8 Scale, 14 frets cleared from body

And my progress pics so far:

Snakewood Blocks for tail wedge


Top joined, planed and rosette installed.


Primavera back and sides.

 

Me neither... I can't wait for more progress pictures, it's been over a week

 

And it's a funny story how this all started:

I grew up a metalhead. My first guitar was a Epiphone Les Paul, sold that and picked up an Ibanez 7 string. Liked the low tuning, but didn't find it useful. That was the end of my B string for a while.

But then I saw Warmoth's baritone conversion necks. I since fell in love with everything Fender, especially the Telecaster, and always wanted a Baricaster. One day, I picked up a CIJ Tele body (fully loaded) locally and got a Warmoth conversion neck from the Showroom, just arrived, called Eric Wylie at Warmoth (and a member here) and had it on the way. Fell in love with the tuning and the tone, but I simply came to the conclusion that I'm much more of an acoustic player.

Then, I stumbled across Alis guitars, and he was more than interested in building my baritone, and we started talking. Then before we knew it, I sold my Baricaster to jmb7183 to send a down payment. And now we have what we have.

And that's the origin of the 28-5/8" scale. Darn you Warmoth.

 

As far as that, I told my builder what I wanted, and he's been more than gracious with suggestions, and I'm trusting him on this a lot... I'm not too familiar with acoustic guitar construction, where that's his forte. I'm largely a fingerstyle player with a tendency to strum, so it doesn't require too heavy of a bracing... not to mention this thing WILL BE BABIED at all times.

But he does have a unique bracing design utilizing carbon fiber reinforcements.

 

This is one thing I can't do. I'm sworn to secrecy on the price. Only my mother (she's paying a good portion of it as my Christmas gift) and I know.

 

He's working on that, the company is a work in progress. I'll get you his contact info, though.

 

Yes, Sam, like yourself, I'm very much a traditional guy... Fender Jazzes, a Fender P... it took me years to switch to Neodymium speakers and biamping. I still use a cable from instrument to amp, and may be the only 19 year old who despises what cell phones have done to the world.

Anyway, since it's a baritone acoustic, a bit of an odd combination to begin with, I figured I'd go all out. My builder wants to trademark this type of bracing, I'm all for it. I'm loving that my guitar is one of the first under the brand name, and there's a tad bit of experimentation with my guitar. I'm actually trying to get him to make more of the decisions as far as construction, because he knows my goals well enough already. I'm trying to put the ball in his court to do what he does better.

 

Hamburglar?!

 

Steel... I've only found variety in the scale length and gauges I need, and fortunately for me it's D'Addario. EXP's.