Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hi folks.
When someone mentioned an "8 string baritone" to me a couple of years back, I kept quiet & googled it rather than admit my ignorance. When I came across a couple of demos of Taylor's offering of the concept, I was immediately smitten.... Such an incredibly satisfying sound..... Once again I just had to have a go @ one of those! I used the basic dimensions re scale length, general body size etc, crossed my fingers & made up the rest. I had this particularly lovely rosewood B&S set waiting for something a bit special so this is the result. It's been referred to as "The Cassowary" for most of the build but you may have to rotate the picture of the back to see why.

whoa whoa whoa , I really like it and I am now inspired to start the design phase for a similar instrument.
Seems like you have a rosewood neck.. how difficult was the shaping process ?
Cheers Valter

I am happy to admit my ignorance about 8 string baritone. But I do know that is a lovely looking instrument.

Beautiful! What scale length did you run with?

Beautiful result. Very interesting looking rosewood back & sides.

Wayne
https://wjguitars.wixsite.com/mysite-1

Thanks for the encouraging comments chaps.
I followed Taylor's lead & used a 27" scale length as it was the sound of theirs that inspired me in the first place.
It's proved to be a good choice as this one has a nice balance of enormous bottom end power with that lovely 12 string like jangle on the 3rd & 4th strings.
The rosewood was a delight to shape for the neck with a bit of care needed with end grain tearout.
Nothing too unusual however.
And oh my, what a smell.......

Lovely instrument Jim. I built an 8 string also and love the 12-string lite feel and sound.
Tell us about the bracing that you used. Did you make it any heavier for the extra couple of strings?
I also like the partial rosette style. Did you use CNC (like Allen does) or is that some fancy work by hand and router?

Excellent craftsmanship Jim, love the scalloped bridge, mild bling & clean fret board works well!!!
How are the 4th & 6th strings secured beneath the bridge...bead on end of string??

Gaz

Thanks Mark.
Bracing was pretty much standard X but I did indeed beef them up a bit from my previous attempts, as much for the heavier strings as the 2 octaves that are only very light.
I also used some carbon fibre in the x braces.
I'll bore everyone with a photo.......
So far the top has been very stable after the initial bit of pull up.
I did have the rosette ready to cut with CNC help, but then my machine didn't want to play, so I ended up doing it by hand with a circle cutter.
Thanks to you too Gaz.
As I've admitted before, the bridges are "heavily influenced" by Mr Somogyi's.
I haven't managed to come up with anything I like more......
The octave strings don't actually go through the body but come out of the rear of the bridge.
You can just see the holes in one of the pics.
It seemed like a more elegant solution than extra pins.