Building a baritone guitar

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Pangz

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Hey guys!

I've been searching around for a while looking for an affordable baritone guitar and noticed they're a little hard to come by. I really like the low tones in their range and feel uncomfortable downtuning to b with my standard. I imagine building a baritone would be cheaper and funner than buying one anyway!

My plan is to replace the neck on an old strat copy of mine with a baritone neck. I have no experience doing anything like this, I've never even adjusted a truss rod! So I need all the help I can get. I've looked online at some sites detailing how to replace bolt on necks but I want to know a little more like: precautions to take, where to buy a baritone neck, adjustments and things I'll need to look out for. Pretty much anything I need to know to do this procedure!

Thanks!
 
Replacing a bolt on is pretty straight forward. Just make sure the dimensions on the new neck are compatible (similar radius, thickness, width) or at least within spec enough to be compensated for with bridge adjustments (which you will no doubt have to make anyway). You should also check out rondo music. They have a pretty big selection of baritone and extended range guitars that are pretty cheap.
 
I'm not telling you to not build a baritone, but just wondering, Have you tried setting up your guitar up to play in B? Correct gauge strings and doing a basic setup?
Reason I ask is because a lot of times people think they need a baritone to play in lower tuning's and that simply isn't the case, most 7 strings are 25.5" also, and they play in B
the 8 string that ESP makes is a 25.5" and its tuned to F#

If you still just want the baritone scale then make sure its a conversion neck, just slapping a baritone scale neck isn't going to work.
you can get them here Warmoth Custom Guitar Parts - Baritone Tele Neck this ones for a telecaster but might work I think they also make them for strats too tho,
I second looking at rondo they have a number of baritones for cheap and are good quality.
 
You can tune a standard scale guitar as low as B but there are drawbacks. For one, you will no doubt have to set the intonation for a B tuning. Basically, when you adjust the intonation of the bridge you are effectively increasing the scale somewhat (scale in this case being the point from the bridge saddle to the nut) though not symmetrically. If you run into a situation where you need to increase the length of the string to get a guitar intonated (is that a word?) to B but you have run out of adjusting room on your bridge then you will have problems. So it's not as simple as just tuning down. The drawback also being that you have to use thicker strings. With a baritone scale you can use thinner strings and still achieve a greater amount of string tension with lower tunings, but the drawback there is that the fret spacing is going to be farther apart and if you have small hands this could be something to get used to. Also, Baritone necks make bending to pitch harder. Like anything with guitars, it's all a trade off.
 
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What's the deal with conversion necks?

I've considered simply tuning down, but I also think building a baritone would be fun and a cool learning experience. I have a beater guitar, the one I intend to convert, that already has terrible intonation and fret buzz so I'm not as concerned about potentially destroying it. As far as I know it might need a neck replacement anyway ya know?

EDIT: Wow! Almost 300 bucks for a neck from warmoth for this thing!
 
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Ive never really heard of a conversion neck. As far as I know just bolting on a compatible neck that has a longer scale and wider fret spacing to accommodate should work so long as it fits and is pretty close in dimension to the original (being longer though obviously). If you check out other baritones (the rondos for instance) they have 25 scale models and will have a comparable 27 scale model that seems to be identical except the baritone neck. I'd say give it a try. If it doesn't work out you can always slap your old neck back on and try adjusting the truss rod tension (it may solve the fret buzzing problem, though fret buzz can be caused by lots of different shit).
 
Murdersgalore said:
Ive never really heard of a conversion neck. As far as I know just bolting on a compatible neck that has a longer scale and wider fret spacing to accommodate should work so long as it fits and is pretty close in dimension to the original (being longer though obviously). If you check out other baritones (the rondos for instance) they have 25 scale models and will have a comparable 27 scale model that seems to be identical except the baritone neck. I'd say give it a try. If it doesn't work out you can always slap your old neck back on and try adjusting the truss rod tension (it may solve the fret buzzing problem, though fret buzz can be caused by lots of different shit).
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As long as the 12th fret octave sits at the mid point between saddle and nut (ideally with the saddle in the front most p[osition to allow for intonating) you will be OK. That isn't always the case. When building or designing any guitar the string length or mensur is the first consideration. From that you work back and get the body neck join and the bridge position.
 
Murdersgalore said:
You can tune a standard scale guitar as low as B but there are drawbacks. For one, you will no doubt have to set the intonation for a B tuning. Basically, when you adjust the intonation of the bridge you are effectively increasing the scale somewhat (scale in this case being the point from the bridge saddle to the nut) though not symmetrically. If you run into a situation where you need to increase the length of the string to get a guitar intonated (is that a word?) to B but you have run out of adjusting room on your bridge then you will have problems. So it's not as simple as just tuning down. The drawback also being that you have to use thicker strings. With a baritone scale you can use thinner strings and still achieve a greater amount of string tension with lower tunings, but the drawback there is that the fret spacing is going to be farther apart and if you have small hands this could be something to get used to. Also, Baritone necks make bending to pitch harder. Like anything with guitars, it's all a trade off.
Click to expand...

There are a few string gauge/tension calculators out there for different types of string. Google will bring then up. I have my own spread sheet that I hacked up years ago but any of the online ones are good. Longer string length on a baritone doesn't necessarily mean harder to bend or fret.
 
Having both a baritone and a standard scale guitar setup for B standard there are definitely some cool advantages to using a baritone.

Takes a little getting used to though, my baritone is 28" scale.
 
Murdersgalore said:
You can tune a standard scale guitar as low as B but there are drawbacks. For one, you will no doubt have to set the intonation for a B tuning. Basically, when you adjust the intonation of the bridge you are effectively increasing the scale somewhat (scale in this case being the point from the bridge saddle to the nut) though not symmetrically. If you run into a situation where you need to increase the length of the string to get a guitar intonated (is that a word?) to B but you have run out of adjusting room on your bridge then you will have problems. So it's not as simple as just tuning down. The drawback also being that you have to use thicker strings. With a baritone scale you can use thinner strings and still achieve a greater amount of string tension with lower tunings, but the drawback there is that the fret spacing is going to be farther apart and if you have small hands this could be something to get used to. Also, Baritone necks make bending to pitch harder. Like anything with guitars, it's all a trade off.
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Not trying to argue, but, that's not accurate.
There's no reason you can't tune a standard scale guitar to B, Like I said if you look up the spec's, most 7 strings are standard scale, and they have no problem with intonation so the same would apply on a 6 string the difference being, you don't have the high e string, but everything else as far as a set up is exactly the same.
You could simply buy a 7 string set and use everything but the high e or one of the heavy gauge sets for a 6 string with a .56/.59 as the low B, you really should be checking the intonation anyway, so if you want to tune this guitar to B might as well just set it up for it.

Pangz said:
What's the deal with conversion necks?

I've considered simply tuning down, but I also think building a baritone would be fun and a cool learning experience. I have a beater guitar, the one I intend to convert, that already has terrible intonation and fret buzz so I'm not as concerned about potentially destroying it. As far as I know it might need a neck replacement anyway ya know?

EDIT: Wow! Almost 300 bucks for a neck from warmoth for this thing!
Click to expand...
Yeah those necks aren't cheap, that's why I mentioned just trying to setup your guitar for Low B and getting the appropriate strings. Low B isn't that low of a tuning so its not like you'd have to use bass strings or anything a .59 doesn't really feel that huge and its definitely do-able I use a .72 on my 7 string and have it in F# on a 25.5 and it's intonation is fine.
Murdersgalore said:
Ive never really heard of a conversion neck. As far as I know just bolting on a compatible neck that has a longer scale and wider fret spacing to accommodate should work so long as it fits and is pretty close in dimension to the original (being longer though obviously). If you check out other baritones (the rondos for instance) they have 25 scale models and will have a comparable 27 scale model that seems to be identical except the baritone neck. I'd say give it a try. If it doesn't work out you can always slap your old neck back on and try adjusting the truss rod tension (it may solve the fret buzzing problem, though fret buzz can be caused by lots of different shit).
Click to expand...
You can't just bolt a Longer scale neck up to a body that's setup for 25.5 because it would change where the 12th fret sits and it wouldn't intonate correctly, the point of a conversion neck is that it keeps the 12th fret in the same place as a 25.5 neck but the scale is longer and you don't have to relocate the bridge.
 
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