Naoko's big silhouette and its deep bass is almost predestined for a baritone guitar, which is why we finally did it. The scale is 686 mm and the neck joint is on the 16th fret. It is tuned in B.
Once again, Mario had a set of back and sides in mind to use for a baritone guitar: beautiful olive wood. The oily wood smells great while bending it. The spruce top and the ebony fretboard and bridge make the bass notes defined and crispy. The two-piece mahogany neck fitted quite well to the other woods and is stiff enough for the high tension strings.
We overdimensioned the bracings a bit compared to the other Naokos, other than that it is quite the same. The sides are a bit deeper, not only to give more room to the low frequencies but also to fit the general dimensions of the whole instrument with that longer neck and wider fingerboard.
And it sounds great! It was quite an experiment for us, but a successful one. The low notes are fat but defined. The highest notes on the fretboard are not that crispy as on other Naokos but it is made for the bass and that is its main strength. We are happy with it and now we both want to have one for ourselves...!
