baritone guitars !!!!

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AlfredB

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wow,

I got a rather inexpensive Squier Sub-sonic baritone guitar off of e-bay (27" scale). I kindalike buy and sell guitars (w/out making real money out of it - but it allows me to play a lot of different guitars and keep the "skim-of-the-cream) - so I planned on playing it a couple of weeks and sell it off again ...


I even thought that I need to put some decent PUps in there .... but boy was I wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This one is def. a keeper. Very nicely made, neck thru, and even the PUPs are REALLY good for rhytm parts (not sure about soloing in the higher registers, tho!).

Going from a regular guitar to a baritone (soundwise), is like hearing a yamaha bike take off and then hear a modded Harley Davidson doing the same - thats about the best comparison I can come up with. It definitely has a lot of weight behind the tone .... also this damn guitar sustains forever (and I'm talking sustain here, not sustain fading into feedback!!)

I set'er up "drop-D" for baritones (i am still experimenting, tho!) ... A-E-A-D-G-B, and A-D-A-D-G-B .... if you are into powerchords, the stuff that comes out of your 4x12 hits you like a freight-train .... wow, talk about ballsy sound :D ...


point is: if you can get your hands on a baritone, give it a shot and see if they work for you - THEY ARE FUN!!!!!!!!

best of luck
alfred
 
yeah i have an e-e musicman bari which is amazing for nailing cure/cocteus/new order.....

its suprising how you have guitarists and bass players and then you have that inbetween area where all the interesting stuff takes place but the man on the street never goes there.

i found out after a long time why i like certain bands and its all about getting your hands on a shortscale six string bass tuned an ocatve above bass ..an octave below a guitar!
 
yeah. i like my baritone, though i don't get much use out of it anymore.
its tuned in 5ths. the low is an A. its a fun toy.
 
I like that range for some solo situations or working with something in the upper register....fiddle for instance. I don't own a baritone guitar but get there a couple of different ways; one is with a mandocello which is tuned in fifths from a low C, or from my Variax acoustic's patch of dropping a J-45 acoustic down an imaginary seven frets to a low A. The Variax is a lot easier to transpose.

For me anyway because of the low register, it helps to slow up a bit and not get to busy and let the notes ring and take hold.
 
I've wanted a baritone since I bought a Bert Kaempfert and His Orchestra CD (album: That Happy Feeling), and mistook their tuned up an octave bass sound for a baritone. I figure a baritone, and a lap steel could go a long ways toward nailing the surfadelic guitar sound I'm looking for.

Matt
 
I'm morphing a tele into a baritone

I'm rebuilding a 74 tele into a baritone. (hanging onto the tele neck)
I have a stock pu in the neck and a Duncan stack in the bridge hole.
I'm putting a B5 Bigsby with a roller nut and a roller bridge.
I am planning one more thing (I've got my safty glasses on so let the shit fly)
I am thinking of drilling 3 or 4 5/8 in hole about 3/8 of an inch deep in the back of the headstock. Away from tuners and stress areas. Then cutting 3/8 inch chunks of 5/8 brass rod and epoxying them into the holes. I would polish and finish them off and applying lacquer finish.
Would it be enough to add some sustain or just be evidence that I'm an idiot.
I don't want to use one of those clamp on devices.
I play a strat plus in the band. I'm old and well used as is the tele. I'm willing to take a chance.
I'd appreciate any input you might have.
 
I had a really nice baritone Ibanez a while ago, then got a baritone schecter (LOVE IT). They have a sweet sound, jsut too many people using them to cover their playing up.
 
Maybe a stupid question, but...
How are baritones tuned? Are they tuned in the same fashion as a standard, only lower? Are chords fretted the same?
 
Typically they are tuned like a 7 string guitar, so BEADGB, but many people take the liberty to tune them all funky.
 
Echelon said:
I had a really nice baritone Ibanez a while ago, then got a baritone schecter
Which bari-schecter do you have? I can't find as many options as I thought I'd be able to, specifically one with grover tuners...
Also, which pickups does yours have?
 
cellardweller said:
Maybe a stupid question, but...
How are baritones tuned? Are they tuned in the same fashion as a standard, only lower? Are chords fretted the same?


standard would be: BEADF#B

just think of it this way ... if you put a capo on a Baritone's 5th fret you'd have a regular guitar ...

so all chord patterns are the same (well, except those that involve open strings)

on regular guitars, i play drop-D, so my baritone is set up: AEADF#B (the low A = drop D :D )

but there are a lot of funky tunings out there
 
Echelon said:
Typically they are tuned like a 7 string guitar, so BEADGB, but many people take the liberty to tune them all funky.

Well, if you want to play "regular" guitar chords on it, you'll tune it

B-E-A-D-F#-B

zazz writes:
...its all about getting your hands on a shortscale six string bass tuned an ocatve above bass ..an octave below a guitar!

Umm... an octave above bass would be standard tuning for a guitar. An octave below guitar would be standard tuning for a bass.

I have both a Danelectro bari and an acoustic Alvarez-Yairi bari. Other than tic-tac parts and the occasional unexpected lead part, I've found little use for them. If you play chords on them, they seem to take up too much bandwidth in the mix. YMMV.
 
cellardweller said:
Which bari-schecter do you have? I can't find as many options as I thought I'd be able to, specifically one with grover tuners...
Also, which pickups does yours have?

I have 2, on is something called the C-1 EX, which is pretty much their C-1+ with an extended scaled, I put a '59 and a JB in it. Then I have a devil tribal.
 
String gauges for Baritones..

I have a DanElectro bari I just got from a friend. I am not sure he had it "set up" correctly .. since he had the lowest string all cranked up to E and not the B that it should*may be. But .. it has these monstrous string gauges. In fact, my bass player plays a 6 string bass and the strings are exactly the same gauge. Is this the standard for baritone guitars .. if so - what's the freakin difference - baris would just be 6 -string basses. I have avoided playing it - well because .. it's just a six string bass to me (now). Is there "standard" baritone strings that are NOT six string bass strings?

thanks
 
I understand the strings for baritone are way smaller in diameter than bass strings ... mine is 070 (the fattest one) ... and i think that bass strings are lie 110 or so ..

also a bass is normally tuned to the low E, a Baritone to B and a regular guitar to E (1 oct. above the bass)

hope this helps ... but it looks like a baritone is an experimental instrument for many folks ... so you will find a lot of different setups
 
Is it me, or would one more likely find a baritone in country music, than in rock music? Earlier this evening, dad and I watched a CMT Top 100 Country Songs show (had to be an old one 'cause Ray Charles performed), and when Glenn Campbell performed "Galveston," during the instrumental break of the song, one of the other guitar players moves up beside Glenn, and he's playing a Danelectro baritone. And, when LeAnn Rimes performed "I Fall To Pieces," I could swear I heard a baritone going.

Rock or country, jazz or blues, I'm gonna have plenty of fun, once I can get my hands on a baritone of my own! :)

Matt
 
Unsprung said:
Is it me, or would one more likely find a baritone in country music, than in rock music? Earlier this evening, dad and I watched a CMT Top 100 Country Songs show (had to be an old one 'cause Ray Charles performed), and when Glenn Campbell performed "Galveston," during the instrumental break of the song, one of the other guitar players moves up beside Glenn, and he's playing a Danelectro baritone. And, when LeAnn Rimes performed "I Fall To Pieces," I could swear I heard a baritone going.

Rock or country, jazz or blues, I'm gonna have plenty of fun, once I can get my hands on a baritone of my own! :)

Matt

Oh yeah, hundreds of Nashville hits from the late 50s to mid 60s were done with a bari. "Tic-tac" is the style of playing a bass part on bari or regular guitar with a pick and palm muting and lots of reverb, generally used when there is an upright bass in the band, giving an additional "bodyless" bass sound but with the pick attack. Kind of a feature of the Owen Bradley/Chet Atkins Nashville sound, indeed heard on Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces" and every other ballad she did for RCA.

And, IIRC, that cool lead on "Galveston" is indeed a bari.
 
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