Iris MS-00 Mahogany
The newest guitar model from Iris guitars and one that’s close to our hearts here at Folkway, the MS-00 was designed in conjunction with Folkway Music’s founder, Mark Stutman. Inspired by the L-00 models built by Gibson in the 1930s, the MS-00 features similar dimensions and scale length to a guitar built between 1933 and 1942 but is built with Iris’ unique top bracing that mixes scalloped tone bars and straight X brace for a perfect mix of warmth and power.
The all-mahogany MS-00 is an evolution of the L-00. It’s a modern rethink of a vintage guitar that never was – a 14 fret mahogany top L-00 – and it’s really exciting. There were L-00s with mahogany tops in the 12 fret era, but after the switch to 14 fret necks in 1933 all guitars were built with spruce tops. Mahogany is a wonderful top wood; it has a different tone signature than spruce, but can be equally as lovely to play, and the new all-mahogany MS-00 is a great example of this. The guitar is dry and woody, open and forward, and offers a clean and clear fundamental presence with fewer overtones than its spruce-topped siblings. While the midrange is accentuated in this version of the MS-00, it doesn’t come at the cost of bass-end bigness or full trebles. We’re big fans.
This example features a 30’s style dark sunburst to all sides of the body and neck and is tastefully bound with dark tortoiseshell celluloid bordered with white purflings. It’s built with a comfortably large, rounded neck that has a 1-3/4” nut and the strings spread to 2.2” (a little wider than 2-3/16”) at the bridge.
With hardshell case
The all-mahogany MS-00 is an evolution of the L-00. It’s a modern rethink of a vintage guitar that never was – a 14 fret mahogany top L-00 – and it’s really exciting. There were L-00s with mahogany tops in the 12 fret era, but after the switch to 14 fret necks in 1933 all guitars were built with spruce tops. Mahogany is a wonderful top wood; it has a different tone signature than spruce, but can be equally as lovely to play, and the new all-mahogany MS-00 is a great example of this. The guitar is dry and woody, open and forward, and offers a clean and clear fundamental presence with fewer overtones than its spruce-topped siblings. While the midrange is accentuated in this version of the MS-00, it doesn’t come at the cost of bass-end bigness or full trebles. We’re big fans.
This example features a 30’s style dark sunburst to all sides of the body and neck and is tastefully bound with dark tortoiseshell celluloid bordered with white purflings. It’s built with a comfortably large, rounded neck that has a 1-3/4” nut and the strings spread to 2.2” (a little wider than 2-3/16”) at the bridge.
With hardshell case