My trip to Coda was bloody fantastic (5+ hours in the car notwithstanding
:-/ )
Result : see my new (to me) Baranik CX
If you're wondering what one is, me too. I'd never heard of the brand let alone the model.
Despite expecting to buy a Lowden (probably Cedar) I have a cutaway guitar in Colorado Blue Spruce and Panamanian Rosewood.
Some crappy phone pics:
It was a custom order just over 2 years ago by a guy who waited months for it, then on day 1 smacked it against his coffee table and split the top. You can see the repair in one of the pics. It was repaired (possibly by Dave King) at the time then sold by Coda to its 2nd owner who had it for 2 years then traded it in last week.
It sounds, to me, nothing short of amazing. It gives up a big sound with the gentle finger picking, but was still one of the best I tried when cranking out strummed cowboy chords. Obviously I'm firmly in honeymoon period so I won't wibble on, but on the aesthetic front some of things that stand out better in the flesh:
The impossibly thin fingerboard binding, the odd curve to the cutaway end face, the similar figuring/emblem on the headstock and the endpin area, and the spalted maple soundhole.
Very happy Tim.
Red ones are better.
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Oh yeah, and the 'label' inside is made of wood too :-)
I've just been doing some googling re the materials (I wasn't familiar with either of the main woods) - sounds like the Blue Spruce is a quite a hefty upcharge looking at some builders' pages, and that the Panama Rosewood is a bit 'quicker' and physically lighter than EIR which fits with how much I like the sound but sometimes find other Rosewood guitars a bit ploddy.
ah the fabled Dalbergia Tucurensis / Panama Rosewood touted by some esteemed luthiers as one of the best r/woods.
It was well worth the schlepp - despite the gridlock on the way home.
Quite a place you have there, and the guys were fantastic.
Yeah I know I was a bit all over the show over the last 6 months - I admit that I went off a bit half-cocked with the 000 and the Yamaha - on the upside it made it clearer to me the sort of sound/feel that I was after. And a bloke in a Maserati got a good deal on a Martin ;-)
I'm supposed to be going to an open mic next week with a mate - it'll be nervewracking taking this but that's a first world problem and no mistake...