Rick Toone | Luthier

Roger Placer | Dove Baritone (Video)

Met with my friend Roger Placer this week, who kindly agreed to test fly Dove Baritone. An afternoon in the studio, followed by (delicous) Turkish cuisine and a bottle of red. Great time and conversation.

Learning experience for both of us, as the instrument incorporates an unusual list of features: 26" & 28" multi-scale baritone, intersecting plane neck profile (patent pending), hip hole.

For him, a chance to explore some of the technologies I've been developing. Roger plays very clean through a Clarus solid-state signal chain. For me, a chance to watch, listen and take notes as the instrument sings in the hands of a highly skilled musician.

After a few minutes of acclimation to the tonality and ergonomics, Roger was pulled in by the ability to play bass lines mixed with comp chords. We made some adjustments to pickup height, string gauge and intonation settings. Dialed in, the next three hours passed very quickly as I was absolutely treated to a personal concert of looping and latin-influenced jazz improv.

Here's a taste.

Dove Baritone Sound Clips

More than a few of you have written wondering what Dove Baritone sounds like. Yesterday I took a rare moment away from the shop to record several sound clips.

The goal of this recording session was brutal honesty. Real world, low volume, home studio conditions. Amp controls set flat. No compression. No EQ. The only edits are to cull individual takes to listenable segments. Signal chain is Mackie 1202VLZ into GarageBand (Mac Mini soundcard).

At the end, we get playful. Listen through in sequence.

If you're not familiar with how guitar sounds are recorded, this will be an interesting journey. We'll progress from raw sound to studio polish. If you're an old pro, feel free to grab the sound clips and re-amp them into your own sonic bliss...then share them with us. It would be very cool to hear these sounds tweaked.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For the purposes of this demo, we will tune one whole step lower than a conventional guitar (EADGBE). Many baritone tunings are possible with this instrument, including standard BEADF#B or open string alternates.

Acoustic (unplugged) AT4041 Condenser Mic — In the photo above, I'm standing in front of a condenser microphone, about 12" away. The guitar is not plugged in. You can hear my voice, and the sound of the room when I talk. We are listening for the relative volume and sustain of the unamplified instrument. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB AT4041

Next we're going to plug it into my 15 watt THD Univalve amp. We're using the low gain (clean) channel of the amp, played at half volume. Controls set flat. This amp has no reverb.

Close Mic SM57 — Photo above the mic is about an inch from the speaker grille. You can hear the sound of the amp and almost none of the sound of the room. I play the same sequence of chords or notes, changing pickup settings between patterns (click). Neck pickup is a Lace Alumitone, then both, bridge pickup is Joe Barden HB. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB SM57

Close Mic SM57 & Acoustic AT4041 Condenser Mic — This sound is a mix of both of the above sounds. Amplifier (SM57) is panned left and room sound (AT4041) is panned right. Together this creates an illusion of stereo, because it is similar to the way our ears perceive sound. Room sound adds dimension to the recording. This can be used to create interesting guitar effects, for example Jimmy Page's use of an echoey castle stairwell. We will use this combined sound for all of our subsequent clips. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB SM57 AT4041

Let's play some music.

Hard & Heavy — Using the exact same settings as the sound clips above, we're adding Hardwire TL-2 Metal Distortion and Hardwire DL-8 Delay/Looper pedals between the guitar and the amp. Notice what happens to my personality. Heh. More importantly, notice how this guitar maintains clarity and depth through the chord changes, even under massive distortion and tuned down to: DGCFAD

DB Hard Heavy

Bluesy — Replaced the Hardwire TL-2 Metal Distortion pedal with a Fulltone OCD. This gives us a bluesy overdrive that's fun for solos. The neck pickup on Dove Baritone is located beneath the 19th fret harmonic, grabbing this distinctive "hollow" or "bell-like" tone. Would sound excellent with reverb. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB Bluesy

Fingerpicked — Clean sound of the bridge pickup, fingerpicked with my finger tips. Clear warmth with deep bass. Compression, EQ and reverb would add much to this soundscape. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB Fingerpicked

Harmonic Slides — Unlike the previous clips, I've added a slight bit of DAW reverb and compression to this clip. Just enough to hint at what a professional could do. Notice how the sound becomes much more dimensional and enveloping. For this segment, I just got lost in noticing how chords could be bent in upper registers. Multi-scale fretboard combined with polished tall stainless frets makes it very easy to bend notes, including whole chords. It's not quite music, but the tonality is beautiful, rounded and sweet. Both pickups, middle position. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB Harmonic Slides FX

Bends — Playful clean note bends kick into brain-drill distortion. Bridge pickup. Multiple DAW effects added: compression, eq, flange, echo, delay, reverb. Despite signal processing and heavily layered sounds, the baritone maintains sweetness and clarity without ever giving back mud or harshness. Tuned: DGCFAD

DB Bends FX

Ergonomic Baritone Guitar

Interesting camera angles to better appreciate some of the complex geometry in the Dove series of guitars. This multi-scale Dove Baritone features patent pending Intersecting Plane Neck Profile combined with Fretboard Flare and (partial) Hip Hole.

Baritone Guitar

EDITOR'S NOTE: Ladies & Gentlemen...introducing trend setting run-on paragraph descriptions. I toss out a pile of words. An absolute jumble. You decipher them as best you wish. It's the latest form of online interactivity. Does anyone even read text anymore, or do we all just scan for pictures?

Ahem.

Baritone. 26.5" & 28" multi-scale (fanned fret). Swamp ash body. Walnut accents. Dove ergonomic body shape. Curly maple bolt-on neck. Stainless allen bolts into captive nuts. Hickory fretboard. Fretboard flare. Walnut side markers. Slotted headstock. Waverly bronze tuners. Bone nut. Stainless frets. Aircraft grade aluminum neck core. Patent-pending trapezoid neck profile. Titanium bridge saddles. Polished bronze bridge plate. Forged stainless plates, screws, strap buttons. Joe Barden pickups. Antiqued distressed gunstock finish.

Not yet promised to anyone. Email me if you're interested.

Fanned Fret Compensating Bridge

Fanned frets on Dove's trapezoidal neck profile complicate the bridge mechanism significantly.

I remain concerned about the long term ergonomic considerations of fanned frets that use a non-perpendicular nut, as previously discussed. Over-rotation of the wrist is a troubling requirement, unless the neck is played in a near-vertical position.

(play air guitar at your computer to explore)

Fanned fret systems have strong ergonomic potential (for less vertical neck positions) when using a perpendicular nut. Frets angle progressively toward the bridge along the bass strings. Wrist rotation is intuitive, natural, and comfortable when playing Dove. Particularly when chording. As always — in the balancing act that defines lutherie — new factors emerge:

• Fanned frets are highly suitable for string bending, due to the mathematical interaction between string and fret. For a given amount of string movement, pitch change is more than what we expect from conventionally fretted instruments when strings are pushed, less when strings are pulled. This sharp/flat progression is mathematical (exponential) and requires some adaptation in playing technique.

• Bridge design must progressively compensate for string length differences. Dove's low E is 0.5" longer than high E. Intonation compensation adjustment requirements remain, but the intonation point now changes for each string.

After attempting and rejecting several failed bridge designs, I've decided upon the successful system you see here. Each string has an individual "turret" which auto rotates in order to allow the string/anchor point assembly to self-align with its corresponding nut slot. Much like my Libertarian principles, each string is free to act as it best sees fit.

Heh.

The saddle and turret are titanium. The screws and springs are stainless steel. The bridge plates are machined bronze, and will be engraved to match the pattern of the tuning key plates. Strings pass through the top plate and anchor on the back bridge anchor plate, which also aligns the turrets for precise rotation.

All metal decisions optimized toward ultimate tone.

Below are a series of photographs showing the design and machining steps involved.

DOVE SERIES:

Dove Takes Flight
Dovetail
Hip Hole
"Black & White" vs. "Shades of Gray"
"Explosive, sustained action!"
Fanned Frets
Fanned Fret Compensating Bridge