The owner of Pocock Boats has commissioned a Griffin Baritone. The maker of legendary rowing shells featured in the recent best seller "The Boys In The Boat" has ordered a unique instrument.
Pocock rowing shells are now made exclusively of carbon fiber and fiberglass but they still have a warehouse with lots of wonderful wood from the days when their shells were master pieces of woodworking. Good enough to defeat Hitler's rowers in the 1939 Olympics.
Bill, the owner, has ordered a baritone made of their treasured wood and with the Pocock logo as the sound hole. Their treble chevrons present a unique challenge to provide the necessary strength, to re-design the fretboard below the 14th fret. Here is part of the planning process.
Bill, the owner, has ordered a baritone made of their treasured wood and with the Pocock logo as the sound hole. Their treble chevrons present a unique challenge to provide the necessary strength, to re-design the fretboard below the 14th fret. Here is part of the planning process.
One of the challenges is how large the three chevron sound hole should be-so here are a number of cutouts helping to make that decision. The Pocock warehouse has provided the cedar for the soundboard, Alaska Yellow Cedar for the neck and Ironbark for the fretboard and bridge. Wonderful master-class wood.
This exercise convinced me that we can get the chevrons fitted in amongst the tone bars. Now how do we shape the end of the fret-board?
The back and sides of this Baritone will be made of this lovely fiddleback Big Leaf Maple. Here the back is receiving its braces in the Go bar.
