Victor Baker guitar opinions

[Justin]

Interesting looking instruments, does anyone have anything to share?
Sound? Workmanship? Overall quality?

Thanks,

Justin

[rlemos...@gmail.com]

Hello Justin,

Check out user reviews at HarmonyCentral.com.

You can check out my review of a VB Archtop Model 16F at:

http://www.harmonycentral.com/products/93833

I love this guitar. I had it made 10 years ago. I wanted a "custom"
guitar that had: ES175 body, L5 neck scale, 1 3/4" nut, and floating
pick-up. The results were great and I can stand by my review of 10
years ago.

I hope this helps.

Ron

[sheetsofsound]

lots of horror stories. Do a search

[Mark Cleary]

I did not find any horror stories in my short google search, what has
been said?

--
Deacon Mark Cleary
Epiphany Roman Catholic Church

[gitman]

On 2 Jul., 20:51, sheetsofsound <jackzuc...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> lots of horror stories. Do a search

yes, Jack, please share those stories ! he has been around some years
now
and has been building some great guitars - from what i have heard and
read ....

[sheetsofsound]

several folks emailed me when I posted an inquiry. If you do a search
on TGP you might be able to find the stories if they weren't deleted.

[Justin]

can't find any.....can you dig up those emails by any chance? harmony
central reviews are good but i feel like it's not such a great source
for reviews. i emailed joe jewell about his experience but he didn't
seem to want to say anything specific. thank you to all who have
responded!

justin

[Justin]

Feel free to email me privately if you aren't comfortable sharing your
opinion here.

Justin

[van]

> Justin- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

I just tried one out in a guitar store yesterday.
Beautiful looking guitar, played nice acoustically, but when I plugged
it in- no output.

[Justin]

I'm sorry, do you mean there was a problem with the electronics?

[van]

> I'm sorry, do you mean there was a problem with the electronics?- Hide quoted text -

>
> - Show quoted text -

Yeah, it wouldn't play thru an amp. Seemed good otherwise.
My advice: Don't buy online- make an appointment with him and play
them.
I'm having some hassels with a dude who cut and pasted the wrong model
in his description of a guitar he sold me ( not a Baker). Not worth
the hassel. I'm going back to playing a Hondo ; - )

[drthoma...@gmail.com]

On Jul 5, 4:21 pm, van <sg...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm having some hassels with a dude who cut and pasted the wrong model
> in his description of a guitar he sold me ( not a Baker). Not worth
> the hassel. I'm going back to playing a Hondo ;

Your Beauregard? Bummer.

[Gerry]

On 2010-07-05 14:21:54 -0700, van said:

> I'm having some hassels with a dude who cut and pasted the wrong model
> in his description of a guitar he sold me ( not a Baker). Not worth
> the hassel. I'm going back to playing a Hondo ; - )

You know what you're getting with a Hondo.
--
-- Gerry

[gitman]

so nothing new about Victor's guitars ? i would interpret this as a
positive sign that there are actually no horror stories, only
reports being cited out of context...

[tomsalvojazz]

Email me off line.

[msen...@earthlink.net]

I had one built three years ago and it has been a great instrument. Beautiful, plays like butter and sounds fantastic. Recently showed it to a longtime builder here in Sebastopol CA (Harry Flieshmann), and he was over the moon for it. Couldn't fathom how VB sold it so cheaply....though it wasn't cheap to me at 4700. Never heard a bad word about VB, but I don't troll the boards much.

[Alex Beauroy]

I think Ed Cherry was playing a Victor Baker before he went to Wyatt
Wilkie........
@lex

[charlie...@gmail.com]

I played many of his guitars ..some of the best playing guitars I ever played. I would not hesitate if u like the body style and if he agrees to build what you want.

[CL]

On Friday, July 2, 2010 at 7:44:26 AM UTC-7, Justin wrote:

VB archtops are high quality instruments. I own three of them, all with dual Kent Armstrong double hummers, DA inlay, gotha delta tuners (top of the line), and rock solid:
1) carved spruce and ebony
2) laminate maple
3) thin line spruce carved top

If you want a big giant axe then he can do it. I own 14 inch axes by choice, much less expensive. Easy to travel with them, they are purely electric so getting any kind of sound is possible, modern looking axes too without giving up the archtop aesthetic. Gilad Hekselman has two of them and third is under construction. I far prefer the carved axes over the lams because they simply sound rounder and darker to me than the brighter sounding lam. So I payed more for the carved ones. The thin line is my favorite because it is so light. The only problems I've seen are normal for all guitars: breaking them in. The neck has to settle in over the first year and minor truss rod adjustments are usually required, which is really easy to do yourself. I abused my laminate for a year taking it on the road everywhere and I need to re-seat a tuner, but that was minor and easy. Baker uses aesthetics such as ebony (or black maple) tail pieces but the underlying tail piece is solid copper for maximum electrical conduction to a single point ground. Other makers like Wilkie don't use metal tails: only wood. Using only wood is dangerous since there is no point ground, the strings are floating electrically, and wood is very weak compared to metal and tends to break. Victor is totally aware of the problems with wood tails, so he has metal under the wood. I've talked to pro players that use Wilkie and they have no clue about the flawed wood tail design. Unreal, but true.