Phil,
As much as I want to PM, I am using someone else's ID. So, I got it for 5150 (Hey.... Van Halen .... which amazingly this guitar has no problem doing) plus 40 shipping in the US via DHL. Best to contact Cliff by phone but I only email and his response is prompt. Phone is the way to go based on vhunter's experience because madaldal si Cliff and I guess based on his experience, you will learn so much more in 30 minutes compared to gazillion hours spent on so many gear forums. Plus you are in the U.S. which means cheaper National rates?
To all,
I forgot to mention something. This guitar has some addicting mojo to it. As my close friend Arie would joke, its gots some weed thing going on... This guitar is the opposite of most high end guitars which seem to have a great initial impact on you but gets disappointing as the days go by.
When I and Arie first saw the guitar, we were UNDERWHELMED. It is not what you expect out of a guitar of that price in the looks department. Ang joke pa nga ni Arie, Korea lang yata ito. At that point in time, I was ready to switch to Plan B -- which was to dispose. Physically, the flame is only obvious at specific angles. I also did not like the headstock shape initially -- more on that later. So, it was Arie who first plugged in and he was immediately stunned. Naka CONNECT raw siya immediately. Never was there a guitar in his whole life that made him CONNECT in less than a minute. So, Arie actually played the guitar several hours more soulful than I and his people ever heard him play his whole life and we ABed versus his Strat which in the end sounded more harsh and thin -- despite the fact that his NO.1 Strat was more distorted and gained out. There was at least a good hour of jam tracks in a PA system with the Baker B3 thru his solid state Yamaha which was a funny sight for me because he never could stand Les Paul type guitars with a mid hump. But the mid on this B3 just sounded so good. I think he could not work that day. So, I brought it home and plugged it thru some tube amps and was not immediately impressed other than the hiyaw factor which was really was off the scale. You could bend for days without choking or sounding flat. It got richer as you approached the top of the bend. I was also having a problem with the set up because I was not used to higher action on a chunkier 59 sized neck. So, I tuned down a half step just to adjust. It took me about 3 days to adjust playability wise. Another difficulty I was also having was the settings on my amp because it was just then that I realized I needed less gain on the amps because the amount of string vibration running thru the pickups was driving the amp much more on my usual settings. At first I suspected that lollars were high output but switching to clean disproved that because clean felt like it was an acoustic guitar on chorus with volume pot at half way. But the clincher came when I started comparing it to my other guitars. It was the worst AB of my life because it demonstrated each guitar's shortcoming relative to the B3 regardless of type.
The next victim is vhunter. He was the 3rd guy to play it in the Philippines. To summarize, he was NOT that impressed but did acknowledge that it was a great sounding guitar. We played it thru his gear --- love his stuff --- and he felt it did not approach his gold top. But yesterday, he texts and misses it. So the score is arie -- 1minute, alex -- 3 days, vhunter -- 8 days.
Fourth victim is steve with an hour or two on the guitar. All I can say is: there were moments wherein steve was having an out of body experience when we were testing at vhunter's house. I only realized this when steve was doing some jazz and CLASSICAL stuff. Huh? Classical. But it sounded so good with classical.
Fifth victim is lito. Lito acknowledges its an airy guitar that you makes you forget that you need a strat but for him is not worth the dough because he thinks it looks kengkoy. Parang below his expectations because he was expecting a new body shape.
Right now, I am adjusted and the guitar is NO struggle whatsoever. The amps now have new settings and new parameter because as I said before using the super high gain setting puts this guitar into a distortion with a fuzz feel without ever needing a fuzz pedal. Everyday I look forward to playing it. On the looks, the neck joint heel is really a set neck. I believe it beats the current Gibson and PRS joints in terms of looks and accessibility. In fact the the neck joint to the horn is slanted in a way that makes you grab the neck joint and wrap your thumb over the fingerboard. If however, you tend to play the higher register with your thumb in the center of the neck classical style, mas tama ang PRS neck and chamfer on the lower horn. Despite its assymetrical looks, this is more balanced than a PRS most probably due to the wood weight distribution and upper and lower horns which are more sharp and better looking than PRS. Also, I and vhunter believe that this 9 pound guitar feels like an 8 pound guitar because of its design. On the headstock, if you look at it from the front i.e. with the whole guitar facing you parang there is something wrong with the headstock. However if you actually sling the guitar you will notice that there is a slight angle on the headstock that actually makes the headstock look bigger than it should and thus looks correct parang ibanez na RG. I actually took a shot of this in one of the pics in the first part of this thread. Initially, I love how the PRS headstock looks from a frontal position but once you sling the guitar, I suddenly get the feeling that the PRS headstock feels small relative to its neck and body. Not so with the B3. The assymetrical side of the headstock facing you when slung is much longer than the lower side of the headstock and thus making it feel as if the headstock length is ok. Hard to explain but somehow like everything about the B3, it seems to connect with you one day at a time.
I am not a poster boy for baker but I just felt the need to share my experience and other's experience with the guitar and more or less these five people are not neophytes and from the start are biased against baker in the sense that we all had the attitude of PROVE IT TO US FIRST. We all had our shares of US FENDERs, US GIBSONS, US PRS, Custom Shop ESPs, Ibanez, etc., as a collective group. and frankly might even be individually wishing that these known guitars had the properties of the Baker. But when reality sets in, I just have to forego tradition and guitar culture because after showing off your new Ten Top Maple Flame top with Brazilian Rosewood Neck bound in curly maple and gold inlays with period correct nitro and getting all your praises from guitar dudes and a few babes who may or may not understand what a good looking guitar is -- dadamputin mo pa rin kung saan ang tunog.
P.S. I am not mad at PRS. But from the dozen or so USA made PRS, including two Santana 3s, Several Custom 24s, Mccartys, pre-89 PRS that I have tried which are so unimpressive soundwise and comparing one Baker B3 to them all that gets it right the first time by mail at that, you have better chances of finding a good sounding guitar with Baker. Forget about Gibson USA and Fender USA. You need to be well connected like vhunter to get the good ones.
alex
