![]() ![]() The 22 medium-jumbo 6105 frets are stainless steel, and unlike even most cutaway flattop acoustics, the Cielo design allows playable access to all of them on the plain strings. ![]() The body echoes these details in its tortoise outer binding and multi-ply purfling, double-bound tortoise sound-hole rosette, and tortoise pickguard and neck-pickup cover. Ringed in multi-ply faux-tortoise/black/white binding, it sports art deco inlays of mixed abalone and mother-of-pearl, with a mother-of-pearl b3 logo in its ebony headstock overlay. The latter is where the decorative enhancements of the Cielo Deluxe model first shine through. The neck is solid mahogany, with a sculpted heel that merges seamlessly with the mahogany of the body, and features a rosewood fingerboard. So I needed to get that guitar off the mountain for its survival and find a suitable replacement. ![]() I had a very nice boutique acoustic that was coming nearly unglued once we relocated to Tehachapi, whereas it survived perfectly for almost a decade in all other places we’d lived. “Tehachapi, California, where we now live, is a high mountain desert town where it’s very dry and we experience over 24 inches of snow per winter. “The design was inspired by a special purpose,” he says. When I propose that the Cielo model is a little different from what most people have come to expect from b3, Baker explains its origins. But the Cielo Deluxe we’re checking out this issue comes from entirely elsewhere, while still – perhaps counterintuitively – screaming “Gene Baker creation” from top to bottom. After being named a Master Builder at the Fender Custom Shop following a tenure building for Gibson, then moving on to head up the acclaimed Premier Builder’s Guild, Baker needs no introduction. Building under his b3 brand and other banners that his guitars have worn in the past, Baker is far and away best known for alternative takes on classic solid-body electrics, an arena that his pedigree certainly reinforces. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |