2025 Iris JB Natural

Iris JB Natural, S/N 1225

The Iris JB is our update of the popular Orchestra Model guitar, traditionally an instrument with a long scale of a dreadnought, but also with a smaller body than a full size dreadnought guitar. For this design, we deviate from the traditional specifications of an OM. The body retains the delicately carved and forward shifted OM bracing pattern but the body shape is specifically designed for this model. The lower bout is slightly wider than the OM design, while the waist is the narrow OM specification. The upper bout slopes away from the neck-body joint, allowing somewhat easier access to the upper frets and the bout is again slightly wider than standard for the OM. 

This guitar is built with a Sitka Spruce top and Mahogany back and sides. The body and neck are in a natural finish with ivoroid binding on the top and back. The top is additionally adorned with three ply black-white-black purfling, a single ring black-white-black rosette and a tortoise pickguard. 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 25,” the nut width is 1 ¾” and the string spacing on the Indian Rosewood bridge is 2 5/16.” The body is joined to the neck at the fourteenth fret and there are nineteen frets in total, with dot markers at the fifth, seventh, ninth, twelfth and fifteenth frets.  

This design is versatile, large enough to project well in every register, but small enough to handle easily even if reaching around a dreadnought is difficult. Mostly, it is a stage guitar, built for flat-picking and fingerstyle alike with plenty of warm overtones.