Mike Baranik has been around for a while making great acoustics. I met him way back in Healdsburg and we talked about guitar tops and his use of Colorado Spruce that he learned from the late Taku Sakashta. Many years later, I met him at the Montreal Sonore Festival and he had added electric guitars to his arsenal. And they are quite unique — a modern take on the 60s surf guitars in my opinion.
Now comes his RE-1 model. I’m not a big fan of the surf guitars or that genre, but Mike has done something here that draws you in. That headstock is magnificent. The shape still reminds you of that era, but it’s slightly updated. The pickup designs are wonderful and visually stunning, and they allow location adjustment along some rails. The bridge and electronics treatment are modern and beautiful. It reminds me a bit of Di Donato guitars and how the hardware is both retro and modern and laid bare for all to see.
Fantastic work from Mike. It looks like demand is high so he’s closing his books to catch up on acoustics as well as the backlog building of RE-1s.
