Barbarossa Guitars

Fine Hand-made Guitars

00-sized ("double-ought") guitar in rosewood and sitka spruce

NEW!  Click HERE for a sound clip of a rosewood and western red cedar B00 guitar!

This is my own original design:  a small guitar with a big voice!  I designed this one from scratch and I am really pleased with all aspects of the guitar:  sound, comfort, and looks.  It is approximately the same size as a large classical guitar; but the shape is designed to be reminiscent of early twentieth century Martin guitars.

The sound is remarkably big, full, with plenty of bass and very strong and well-defined midrange and treble.  This is a superb fingerstyle guitar.  It is really fun to play.

I can play this one sitting in the driver's seat of my Honda Civic as I sit in the ferry queue -- without opening the window.  (I can do this with the Size 1, also.)

Here are some comments on my B00 guitars:

"Jim,

I have been playing acoustic for over 40 years and have owned over 20 guitars including vintage Gibsons, a top of the line Takamine, and many other makes: Ovation, Epiphone, Yamaha, Seagull and so forth .I've played a few Martins as well. The 00 cedar/rosewood is a phenomenal instrument. It responds to a very light touch, yet projects like anything when asked to. Now, I play fingerstyle, and the wood combination along with the wide fingerboard and the 12 fret configuration is a fingerstyle equation for fun. Wish I had spent what I put into my spruce topped parlor to get a spruce topped 00 from you...maybe another year, if I can sell my parlor. My commendations on the best sounding guitar I have played. You do have a talent for your work and I am happy to let anyone play the 00 to hear for themselves. This guitar is balanced across the strings and up and down the fingerboard. It has the best intonation of any guitar I've played. I guess the compenstated bone saddle has something to do with it. Honestly, the guitar is louder and sounds better with light guage strings than my custom shop all solid wood Takamine model ( EF417s) does with medium strings, and the Takamine is a great sounding guitar. Hats off!

RH in Statesboro, Georgia"   November 2008

And:

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Acoustic+Guitar/product/Barbarossa/00/10/1

[Click on the thumbnails to see larger picture, click <BACK> to get back to this page]

B00 in Redwood and highly flamed myrtle

B00 with redwood top (check the tight perfectly straight and perfectly quarter-sawn grain), and highly

flamed Oregon myrtle back and sides.  I call this my Oregon Coast Guitar, since the main woods are

native to the Oregon Coast.  12 frets to the neck, 18 complete frets and two more partial frets

(please see the photos) for 20 total.  Rosette is flamed koa with blck and white accent strips.  Ebony

fretboard and Indian rosewood logo headstock plate.  Truss rod access through the headstock.

Check out that figure in the myrtle!  Side to side deep curl on the back.  Myrtle is a wonderful

tone wood and works really well with the redwood top.

Please listen to sound clips to get the idea of the typical B00 sound.

The original B00:  Indian rosewood and Sitka spruce:

Here are some B00 guitars in other wood combinations (they all sound great!)

Here are a couple of unusual B00s:

First, this is first 9-string I've ever built.  It's a custom order.  Bearclaw Sitka spruce, Indian rosewood

back and sides, figured sycamore binding.

And here's the first cutaway B00.  It has Sitka srpuce top and Madrona (Arbutus menziesii) back and sides.

Here's another interesting thing on the B00:  I replaced the neck on a B00 and the page linked below shows this:

Flamed bigleaf maple and Sitka spruce:

Flamed black acacia (Australian blackwood) and Sitka spruce:

Flamed claro walnut and Sitka spruce:

Figured Honduran mahogany and Sitka spruce:

Indian rosewood and western red cedar:

This view shows the back without finish:    which shows the back grain better

Flamed koa and bearclaw Sitka spruce, koa pinless bridge, bookmatched flamed koa headstock overlay:

Bearclaw Sitka spruce top, Maccassar ebony back and sides, ebony pinless bridge,

and the custom dragon inlay on the headstock (Indian rosewood headstock overlay),

chrome Schaller tuners with ebony buttons, a clear plastic pickguard, curly koa binding,

and an abalone rosette:

                    Specifications:

Last Modified:  18 Oct, 2011