My NOS Baker B1

[trucks]

A great number of things converged and I became the proud owner of a NOS Baker B1. It was sold to me by none other than Gene’s brother-in-law, Jim Lovinggood, from Wild West Guitars. Jim was exceptional and it was an excellent buying experience. If it looks familiar, then you probably saw it featured in WWG's ad in the August Guitar Player (believe it or not, I only saw that ad a few minutes *after* I sent an inquiry). In fact, Jim got Gene to sign the ad and sent it to me.

So after nearly 4 years in a vault, serial WW004 was delivered on 8/4 to finally become someone’s Number 1.


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/gwtrucks/ww004.jpg

What a voice she has!

[Timster]

nice score
:AOK

[matte]

Congrats on what I am certain is an extraordinary instrument built by an extraordinary group of peeps.

[drezdin]

Congrats! That's a beauty.

[Dave Orban]

I just got a B1 and am digging the hell out of it... Enjoy yours..!

[trucks]

Thanks, everyone!

Dave, congrats on yours as well! I read about it, but the picture was already gone. I would love to see it! Which set of SOB strings did you use? Nickel or Rock formula? How was the first gig?

Regards,

Gary

[Dave Orban]

Originally posted by trucks
Thanks, everyone!

Dave, congrats on yours as well! I read about it, but the picture was already gone. I would love to see it! Which set of SOB strings did you use? Nickel or Rock formula? How was the first gig?

Regards,

Gary

Gary, I'll take a few new pics tomorrow and will post them as soon as I can.

I use nickels, and the first gig with the guitar was a REAL treat... I used my '53 175 for the first set-and-a-half, and then I could wait no longer... LOL!

The Baker played effortlessly, and covered a huge sonic range. I REALLY enjoyed playing it, as I'm sure you will yours...! :dude

[trucks]

Originally posted by Dave Orban
Gary, I'll take a few new pics tomorrow and will post them as soon as I can.

I use nickels, and the first gig with the guitar was a REAL treat... I used my '53 175 for the first set-and-a-half, and then I could wait no longer... LOL!

The Baker played effortlessly, and covered a huge sonic range. I REALLY enjoyed playing it, as I'm sure you will yours...! :dude

Thanks again, Dave. I look forward to the pics.

Effortless is the word! I am amazed at my lack of hand fatigue even with the increased playing time. LOL!

[esoteric pete]

im waiting for my baker jr. and its killin me........

[Jon Silberman]

Major congrats - that's some score! :AOK

[The Eristic]

:faints:

[hemlock]

Originally posted by trucks
A great number of things converged and I became the proud owner of a NOS Baker B1. It was sold to me by none other than Gene’s brother-in-law, Jim Lovinggood, from Wild West Guitars. Jim was exceptional and it was an excellent buying experience. If it looks familiar, then you probably saw it featured in WWG's ad in the August Guitar Player (believe it or not, I only saw that ad a few minutes *after* I sent an inquiry). In fact, Jim got Gene to sign the ad and sent it to me.

So after nearly 4 years in a vault, serial WW004 was delivered on 8/4 to finally become someone’s Number 1.


http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/gwtrucks/ww004.jpg

What a voice she has!

Very cool! That's a great color.

[joeh77]

She's a beauty! Congrats!

Joe:D

[trucks]

Thanks, guys! Your comments are much appreciated! :)

Originally posted by esoteric pete
im waiting for my baker jr. and its killin me........

Congrats! You are going to be very happy! Well worth the wait. I look forward to hearing about her.

[jcground]

Very nice!

[Chun13]

Awesome !

My Baker is my number one and I don't expect it to change untill my Thorn is finished :)

[Yossi]

I REALLY like that guitar!
Play it in the best of health!

shalom,
Yossi

[trucks]

Originally posted by Yossi
I REALLY like that guitar!
Play it in the best of health!

shalom,
Yossi

Yossi,

Thank you for such a nice post!

Gary

[De - Fre]

What's the color of the back?

Fred

[trucks]

The back is green. I will post some pics by tomorrow.:)

[De - Fre]

thx!

[trucks]

Here are a couple of the back as well as one more shot if the front:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/gwtrucks/baker2.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/gwtrucks/baker_h.jpg

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/gwtrucks/baker4.jpg

[De - Fre]

Sweet!

Thx!

Fred

[TheGrooveking]

Mighty nice guitar!!!! Cool that it is one of the originals, which in my mind only are the guitars that Gene Baker made.

TheGrooveking

[esoteric pete]

Originally posted by TheGrooveking
Mighty nice guitar!!!! Cool that it is one of the originals, which in my mind only are the guitars that Gene Baker made.

TheGrooveking


thats because they are the only ones gene made!

i suppose one could argue about the unfinished bakers that were auctioned off...i guess those would be half real? lol...

[trucks]

I had the Baker plek'd and a bone nut put in by Phil Jacoby at Philtone. Now she plays better than she looks believe it or not! :dude

[matte]

Just wait til you see what Gene has up his sleeve for 2006.

[trucks]

Originally posted by Matte
Just wait til you see what Gene has up his sleeve for 2006.

I had better start saving!

[Tube Guy]

Originally posted by trucks
Which set of SOB strings did you use? Nickel or Rock formula?
I've just got my first Baker B1 as well as was wondering about string choice. When I restring I'll either use:
- Sadowsky nickels (a brighter string like d'Addarios)
- SOS Rock Formula (brighter wound strings, less bright unwound)
- SOS Nickels (less bright all round)

Anyone have any preferences on their B1s?

[trucks]

Tube Guy,

I ended up putting SOS Vintage LN (10-46) on my B1 per Dean's advice. I am very happy with them. I have a set of Rock formula for my shred guitar, but I'm waiting for the honeymoon to end with the Baker. That may be a long time...

Congrats on your B1. I would love to see it!

Gary

[Tube Guy]

Originally posted by trucks
Congrats on your B1. I would love to see it!

http://www.guitarheaven.biz/ProductImages/big_9355.jpg
As requested, mine's the solid one at the back. It had been in the shop since 2003, I managed to get it for close to the US price so I'm really pleased.

[trucks]

Tube Guy,

Very nice! I bet that quilt looks awesome in person.

Did you decide on SOS?

Gary

[Tube Guy]

Yes the quilt's great. I'm blown away by the tone though. Having always been a Fender player I thought I'd struggle with the woods and scale length but it's superb. I can't get over the natural sustain.

On the string front I'm still undecided. I just spent a week away from home so took some Elixirs, d'Addarios, Sadowsky, SOB Rock and Vintage sets to choose for my Strat (Ash/ Maple Suhr). I decided on the Vintage SOS for that guitar. Dean makes me a custom 9.5,12,16,25,34,44 set that works well for me.

For the Baker I'm thinking that I'll start with the Sadowskys which are brighter and also won't need a truss rod tweak the way SOS do.

[Axdoctor]

If I'm not mistaking those guitars were fetured on the cover of Guitarist Magazine and were review by our friend Dave B..... enjoy as I remeber those were/are tone monsters. Both of those tops came from one billet of quilt.:dude

[Tube Guy]

Originally posted by Axdoctor
If I'm not mistaking those guitars were fetured on the cover of Guitarist Magazine and were review by our friend Dave B..... enjoy as I remeber those were/are tone monsters. Both of those tops came from one billet of quilt.:dude
Exactly, one of the few guitars to score a perfect 10.

The quilt is indeed one piece.

Who is our friend Dave B by the way?

[Axdoctor]

That would be none other than Dave Burrlock I hope I spelled that right. He is the co-author of the PRS book and a great person too boot!!:cool:

[trucks]

I would love to see that review! Any online copy?

Tube Guy, nice score!!!

[meangene]

Guitar Review (http://www.meangene.org/Guitar%20Buyer%20big.pdf)

Yo guys, after seeing the post I remembered I had this article on my personal Mean Gene.org website, anyhow I went to go fetch the link and the page was gone, my bad, so I just reloaded it.

Enjoy there Tube Guy, those two siblings were built for very special reasons so theres some extra love in them there woods, umm hmm. Is the hollow gal still at the store? Hmm Twins.....

[Dave Orban]

Originally posted by meangene
Guitar Review (http://www.meangene.org/Guitar%20Buyer%20big.pdf)

Yo guys, after seeing the post I remembered I had this article on my personal Mean Gene.org website, anyhow I went to go fetch the link and the page was gone, my bad, so I just reloaded it.

Enjoy there Tube Guy, those two siblings were built for very special reasons so theres some extra love in them there woods, umm hmm. Is the hollow gal still at the store? Hmm Twins..... Hey, Gene...

When do you expect to be up and running again...?

[Axdoctor]

Damn was I way off it was Guitar buyer and yeah...........

[Tube Guy]

Originally posted by meangene
Enjoy there Tube Guy, those two siblings were built for very special reasons so theres some extra love in them there woods, umm hmm. Is the hollow gal still at the store? Hmm Twins.....
The hollow one sold quite a while ago I believe. Mine I got about 5 weeks ago.

So, special reasons, tell me more? Being twins, does that mean they play the same harmonies even when they're apart?

On a more practical note, would you personally favour nickel or nickel steel strings on the gals?

[trucks]

Originally posted by meangene
Guitar Review (http://www.meangene.org/Guitar%20Buyer%20big.pdf)

Yo guys, after seeing the post I remembered I had this article on my personal Mean Gene.org website, anyhow I went to go fetch the link and the page was gone, my bad, so I just reloaded it.



Thanks, Gene. I enjoyed this article quite a bit.

[trucks]

Originally posted by meangene

Enjoy there Tube Guy, those two siblings were built for very special reasons so theres some extra love in them there woods, umm hmm. Is the hollow gal still at the store? Hmm Twins.....

Tube Guy, wow! Nice bit of history as well as extra love. You got a thoroughbred!

Do you have that amazing orange form fitted case pictured in the article as well? Mine came in the "traditional" colored form fitting case and I've seen the orange rectangular one, but this took my breath!

[Tube Guy]

Originally posted by trucks
Do you have that amazing orange form fitted case pictured in the article as well? Mine came in the "traditional" colored form fitting case and I've seen the orange rectangular one, but this took my breath!
Yes I have orange form fitted case. I certainly have no trouble finding it amongst my guitar cases :D

[meangene]

Yo Dave, I am soooo close to actually building, I have my first employee (Danny-boy) working with me as of this past Monday so now were getting the recently expanded shop dialed in, since we have six hands between the two of us, that’s 3 arms per guy, I need to trademark that...... I have my CNC 90% tooled up for fiddles and I am jonesing hard to smell some Mahogany dust in the air.

I will be spitting out some fresh news in the very near future regarding who my two dealers are, the new logo and whatever else I think of that you all need to know about. There’s plenty of ideas up the sleeve and I am so excited to start busting out some mojo unto all you mofo's. I can’t thank you all for keeping in contact with me and being a big part of the cheering squad to help refuel the Phoenix for lift off.

String wise - I most often use DiAddario XL's because they have been very good to me. Another string I like a lot are the Thomastik Power-brites which are a nickel string and they use a metal that acts sort of like the Elixirs where they don’t rust on you, its not a coat deal which I am not very fond off and I found I break Thomastik’s far less than any other string I have tried and they sound very nice acoustically too.

As far as the terrible twins, I'm sure their singing for each other and longing to be married at the hip but the question will be, will they ever find each other again in our life time or a future life..... If you want to check out a cool fiddle movie rent "The Red Violin" Samuel Jackson at the helm and follows the life of a very special instrument and all that it touches.