Paul’s been pretty busy as of late wrangling new builders for the shop, and as a result we have some powerful new additions to our lineup. Enter: Noemi Schembri, an Italian builder with an original aesthetic and loudly expressive guitars. Here we have a new 2016 Baritone which Noemi built for the Santa Barbara show and was an instant hit at the event. We’re not surprised: this Baritone is a great feat of contemporary design.
The voice is rich yet balanced, with treble strings that are dripping with juicy goodness; try a Cadd9 chord in standard and you’ll see what we mean. Set up to Ab standard, this Baritone has an easy playability and smooth setup, and the notes that pour out of its elliptical soundhole are huge and airy, thanks to the Koa back and sides and Adirondack Spruce top. In further dropped tunings, this guitar held up wonderfully, even thrived–the equivalent of DADGAD made this Baritone an almost cosmic force.
Even though this guitar has a larger than average body, the weight is incredibly light–we’ve played many regular steel strings that are half again as heavy as this Baritone. Add to that a Manzer-style body wedge, and you’re looking at a uniquely accessible Baritone guitar. For us it was love at first sight (or strum).
It was lovely to meet Noemi for the first time at the Santa Barbara show. We received two of her guitars, this Baritone and an SJ, from that trip, and I can't wait for more! This Baritone is remarkably light, and all of that translates into the Adirondack Spruce top having a fierce projection and none of the muddiness that plagues lesser Baritones. 
I tuned this one to Bb standard but I felt it could go probably easily go up to B. It's really fun to play and the unusual shape of the sound hole sets it apart from the crowd. | Scale Length | 27.5 in |
|---|---|
| Nut Width | 1.75 in |
| String Spacing | 2.19 in |
| Woods | xx, Koa |
Paul's been pretty busy as of late wrangling new builders for the shop, and as a result we have some powerful new additions to our lineup. Enter: Noemi Schembri, an Italian builder with an original aesthetic and loudly expressive guitars
It was lovely to meet Noemi for the first time at the Santa Barbara show. We received two of her guitars, this Baritone and an SJ, from that trip, and I can't wait for more
I tuned this one to Bb standard but I felt it could go probably easily go up to B. It's really fun to play and the unusual shape of the sound hole sets it apart from the crowd. 