7 string and baritone guitars

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cellardweller

cellardweller

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Anyone own either/both? It is my understanding that a baritone is just a 6 string with a neck slightly longer...

I've tried tuning my standard 6 string down (extremely low something like C), but it just sounds like s**t!!! I've since tuned back up to D, but it just doesn't seem to have the ballz I want!

I am considering buying a 7string or a baritone, anyone know any pros or cons when considering between the two?
 
do you know the Queens of the Stone Age? their guitarist/singer Josh Homme tunes down to C with the heaviest gauge strings available and he gets a pretty awesome sound.
 
ya, what size strings are you using? at least a 52 on the low string, if not a 56
 
I'm not sure what size the low string is, I use GHS 10's if that tells you anything...? I'd have to look when I get home.
 
If you are using .010s, your low E is going to be a .048 or .049, depending on the brand. If you want to tune down, go to a heavier set, at least down to .011s, and .012s would be better. If you use .012s, you will probably have to by an extra unwound third string, as the set will (probably) come with a wound third, unless of course you like that sound.

As to the baritone issue, make sure you get one with at least a 28.5 inch scale length, because any shorter just can get down to the really low notes very well.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
is G low enough for you?
the guitarist from Deftones goes down to G on a baritone guit, that's a whole step below korn's A tuning on their 7 strings.

i have a good ole $80 strat, and i've gone down to C# with no problems, but these guys are right, you've gotta beef up those strings!

if you want your high E, B, and G strings to stay thin for bending and other shredding then you can get skinny top / heavy bottom strings that are just fat on the top three. although i usually buy a seperate G that is wound, like .21 or something, cuz that string seems to be harder to tune when you go lower.
 
!8 string guit!

8 String guitars

Holy crap! I didn't even know they made them... Someone over at Prosoundweb was talking about them, unless it was just a joke I was not privy to. Anyone know who might be producing these behemoths?

So are baritones preferrable to a 7 (or 8) string guitar? Easier to play?
 
seven string guitars take some getting used to, they seem easy when you are sitting down, then you stand up and holy sh*t this neck is huge! that's how korn came up with the whole hunched over look, it was out of neccessity.

8 string guitars, at least the ones i've seen are used mostly in jazz. the are 3 bass strings and 5 guitar strings, for people that are clever enough to play the bass and guitar lines at the same time. i saw a guy do it on BET one time and he was amazing. he had two different amps and the bass sounds great and the guit sounded almost like an organ. i'm pretty sure it was just a trio: a drummer, the guit/bass guy and a sax. so i don't think 8 string guits are really made for getting the sound of a low tuned guit.

the only thing with baritones or just tuning down a normal guit is that you are limiting how high you can go notewise.
a seven string guit (in stock tuning) will go a 5th lower than a normal guit and still go just as high in pitch. so on a normal guit, every note lower you go, you lose a note at the high end.
 
Re: !8 string guit!

cellardweller said:
8 String guitars

Holy crap! I didn't even know they made them... Someone over at Prosoundweb was talking about them, unless it was just a joke I was not privy to. Anyone know who might be producing these behemoths?

So are baritones preferrable to a 7 (or 8) string guitar? Easier to play?
Click to expand...


I have an eight string acoustic I built a few years back. It is a bear to play. I added two extra frets at the bottom on the low three strings (al la the Kubicki Factor Basses from the late eighties, the ones Stu Hamm played), and I used a Ralph Novax fanned fingerboard, so the scale is about an inch longer on the bass side than on the treble side. I built it about five or six years ago, and I still have not figured it out. Leo Kottke, when he was in the shop one day, mostly just looked at it with a bemused look on his face.

Then again, Charlie Hunter has been playing his Novax eight string for years, and is amazing. He is not, however, playing the kind of stuff you are thinking of doing. Basically, the eight string is a fingerpicker’s instrument. I keep the low three strings tuned like a bass, and the high five tuned like the high five on a guitar. With the two extra frets, it maintains fourths across the finger board (except the B string, of course).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 

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Light said:

As to the baritone issue, make sure you get one with at least a 28.5 inch scale length, because any shorter just can get down to the really low notes very well.
Click to expand...

Wow, where do you find a 28.5? The largest I could find was 28.0 on the Ibanez MMM1 Mike Mushok...

Gibson makes a 27.75, or something like that...
 
Well, I don't know anything about the electric baritones. All of the custom acoustic builders I know have a short bari scale of 28.5, and a long one of 30. I built the one I own at 27, and it is too damn short. If I ever do another one, it will be 28.5 or 30.

By the way, Moses makes a direct replacement baritone neck that you can have put on any Fender guitar, either a Strat or a Tele, to convert it to a bari. The Moses neck has a 28 5/8" scale.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Assuming you mean it only fits Fenders, I do not have one.

I found an ESP with a 27 scale... Kinda odd but nice looking guitar... Of course already being limited by tuning, I'd not want to further limit by build.

The Ibanez @ 28 looks more and more appealing. At only $700 I should be able to afford it any day now...NOT!!!

($669 + S&H that is)
 
Without doubt, a beautiful guitar, however these are the 27.75 scale I referred to earlier. I'm not sure how much of an impedance that would be when trying to get down into the bottom of the neck... and since the baritone already limits your high notes due to downtuning...
 
8 String guitars- Meshugga used them on their latest album Nothing. I personally think they are a little much in the low end department for guitar but whatever floats your boat.
 
Love Messugga...didnt know about the 8 strings tho...

Jeremiah
 
cellardweller said:
I am considering buying a 7string or a baritone, anyone know any pros or cons when considering between the two?
Click to expand...

Good Luck finding one. They have kind of fizzled out after a bunch of companies lost a bunch of guitars that only a couple of people are into. I've got three 7-string guitars and now when I pick up a 6-string a play chords wrong. I love 7-srtings but I'm having a hard time finding a real good one. The neck isn't that much bigger by the way, the switch is no big deal.
 
Guy named Jon-

What do you use, how do you rate it, and what do you consider to be a "good" 7 string? I've seen plenty of Ibanez, and a couple others....

Do you not care for the baritones then?
 
There are manufacturers that make 8 stings (unlike like Charlies Novax). Conklin makes some of the most beautiful instruments I've ever seen, but they're not for metal or rock, they're pretty much made for jazz.

http://www.conklinguitars.com/hollowbody/hollowbodyimages/allwalnut8descript.html

I'm going to be ordering a guitar just like this with black hardware in the next year. Ahhhh, can't wait till I have $5,000 to spend...

You could have a solid body made by Conklin, but then again, if you just want to go low why waste time on this many strings, most bands from a few years ago who played 7 string guitars could barely get away with 2 strings when it came to actually being able to play. I say get a baritone.

Later,
musik
 
cellardweller said:
Guy named Jon-

What do you use, how do you rate it, and what do you consider to be a "good" 7 string? I've seen plenty of Ibanez, and a couple others....

Do you not care for the baritones then?
Click to expand...

I have a Dean Avalache(?) 7-string and a Dean Acoustic Preformer that have bad action on the neck, no good pick ups, and it just seems a lot of companies slapped together real quick to make a couple of bucks. As far as I banez goes, a lot of the 7-strings I have found out to be discontinued, except for the K-7 (korn model). I personally don't care for baritones just for the fact that I like to play all of the strings on the 7-string. I could go from playing a korn song to a rush song and not have to change guitars. Also once you get use to the 7-string it is weird not to have it there. Like if you took a whammy-bar away from Steve Vai or someone like that.
 
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