2025 Iris CH Natural All Mahogany

Iris CH Natural All Mahogany, S/N 1224

The 1930’s were a particularly innovative period for American acoustic guitar making. One such innovation was the wide adoption of a fourteenth, rather than a twelfth fret neck to body join. The extra reach was available first on upscale flattops from the well known makers of the day. After a time, this idea trickled down to more inexpensive brands and models. The stout body on this guitar is derived from one of these depression era lower priced models. The upper bout of a parlor guitar was shortened by the distance of two frets, resulting in a shorter body, to accommodate the change to fourteen frets. 

This modern example has a mahogany top with mahogany back and sides. The body and neck are in a natural finish with a tortoise pickguard, a three ply black-white-black rosette, tortoise binding on the top, two ply white-black purfling also on the top, and tortoise binding for the back. The neck is mahogany with an Indian rosewood fingerboard and a solid headstock. The headstock has vintage style Waverly three-on-a-plate tuners and a simple Iris Flower decal. The scale length is 24 ¾,” the nut width is 1 11/16” and the string spacing on the Indian rosewood bridge is 2 3/16.” The neck is joined to the body at the 14th fret; there are 19 frets in total, with dot markers at the fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth and fifteenth frets. 

A few innovations have been added to this traditional design. Finely carved X-bracing replaces ladder bracing and an adjustable truss rod has been added for improved playability. It projects well with a focused midrange and treble, great for picking and sing-along duties.