Baritones

[Narcosynthesis]

i suddenly decided last night how cool a baritone could be - the expression and fun of a guitar, with the lower sound of a bass added in. for a rocky/indie/noisey sound.

 

so name me some good baritones? the fender jaguar baritone looks awesome, not a true baritone being tuned e-e, but bridging the gap between guitar and bass. and i know ibanez make the mushok one, but i havent really been a fan of the ibanez guitars i have played (a bit generic really, with annoying paper thin necks)

 

so what other guitars exist, and what do you think of them?

 

the fender looks like a good bet first, and could be awesome in a band - guitar, jaguar, bass, for a huge full sound

 

David

[chrispy108]

The OLP MM5 is extremely nice, especially now they've got rosewood boards.

[dot-dot-dot]

The Mushok doesn't have an RG style neck - it is slim, but certainly not skinny. It's also very well made and specced - it's not a standard guitar with a longer neck, it's been designed from scratch as a baritone and it shows.

[chrispy108]

Whoops, I meant to stick up for the Mushok too, its by no means a standard Ibanez.

[Blungo]

I think Danelectro is supposed to be reissuing their baritone.

I myself am dying for a Jerry Jones Neptune baritone.

[AF-100]

yo

[Verne Andru]

Schecter has some interesting looking baritones, as does Paul Chandler. There's always the Dano classic or you can get a replacement baritone neck for a Strat if you want to go that route.

Once you've decided a baritone is the way to go, take a look at the different neck scales. They range from around 26" [28 1/2 seems the norm] to 30" [Dano standard]. I prefer the longer scale for a really deep, ballsey sound.

Dano invented the baritone as a "6 string bass" which didn't catch on at the time. It's cool to see this idea finally come into it's own some 50-ish years later.

I'm thinking about a 7-string baritone - totally next level!

[Narcosynthesis]

anyone tried the jaguar baritone? its apparently tuned e-e, so is that e-e bass or guitar? or will it have a sound kinda of inbetween?

the schecters look cool, but ideally i already own the generic superstrattey guitar, i dont really want another

David

[chrispy108]

Its bass e-e, otherwise it would just be a guitar

Nothing stipping you putting lighter strings on and tuning it to B or something.

[StrykeBack]

I have a black agile 3500 baritone. came with active pickups but i swapped em out for emgs. Love it. 28 inch neck came tuned standard A i tuned it UP to drop B

[phoenix_76]

My Gretsch Electromatic Baritone. It sounds awesome through my nano or Cornford Harlequin.

[Narcosynthesis]

Originally posted by chrispy108 Its bass e-e, otherwise it would just be a guitar Nothing stipping you putting lighter strings on and tuning it to B or something.

true, i am thinking this would be a cool option, as i really like the sound of a bass, but with more of a guitarey feel to playing and sound

David

[Verne Andru]

Me thinks E to E standard tuning defeats the purpose of a baritone - no? The whole point is to be able to get at those low notes you can't normally reach on a standard tuned box.

I tune B to B standard and sometimes to B F# B E F# B which when capo'd at the 3rd fret is DADGAD. A buddy has his baritone tuned A to A standard. I tried this on mine and found it sounded muddy and undefined. B to B works best on mine and it's a bit more consistent with the tuning of my 5 string bass.

[dot-dot-dot]

Originally posted by Verne Andru Me thinks E to E standard tuning defeats the purpose of a baritone - no? The whole point is to be able to get at those low notes you can't normally reach on a standard tuned box.

It's down a whole octave.

[Verne Andru]

Originally posted by dot-dot-dot It's down a whole octave.

Damn! What guage strings do you use so they don't go flabby?

[pbhtrip]

I have a Danelectro bari and it's a great recording guitar. Very fun indeed.

Peter

[preservation]

The white ash that invents a tight sound is made a body material.

[dot-dot-dot]

Originally posted by Verne Andru Damn! What guage strings do you use so they don't go flabby?

 

 

My MMM1 has tapewound 14s and is tuned C-C (the tapewounds require less tension than normal 14s). My RG (custom 26.75" neck) is strung with 10s and tuned D-D, so that doesn't really count.

[StrykeBack]

I need to find a normal set of "baritone" strings for my 28 inch agile baritone. It came with 13s from ghs. except that the only thing that was on their site was a 7 string set that was close. I actually tuned up 2 half steps so i went with 12s but kept my low string the same...a 60 gauge to keep it tight. Anybody recommend a set so i'm not buying custom single earnie balls which is all i can get around here.

[Verne Andru]

Originally posted by StrykeBack I need to find a normal set of "baritone" strings for my 28 inch agile baritone.

 

 

I'm using D'addario Baritone XL157's. They're the only baritones I have experience with and they seem fine. Guages is .014 .018 .026 .044 .056 .068.

 

I checked and neither DR or GHS offer a baritone set.

 

On the tuning - I still say E to E, even down an octave, kinda defeats the baritone essence. In B standard, I still play the same cord shapes, it's just that the chord is voiced 4 steps down from what it would be in E standard. This gives the baritone a unique set of chord voicings and allows you to play with cords [like your pinky with a D chord] in ways that are impossible in standard E. If you're E standard down an octave, you lose this unique baritone flavour and might as well stick with a standard guitar.

[StrykeBack]

i agree with you as far as tunings other then standard for a baritone. though i've only been playing a year and still not that good with all the random standard chords so it was easier for me to throw mine into drop tuning, like drop B for all the quicker heavier stuff, plus i can throw a capo on and be in C or C# or whatever for most of the popular radio stuff nowadays.

[Narcosynthesis]

Originally posted by Verne Andru Damn! What guage strings do you use so they don't go flabby?

 

 

the fender uses a set of .25 to .95 strings, which shouild be available through fender (or you could bodge together a set i guess too from some bass and guitar strings)

 

i really want to get my hands on one to try it out, from what i have read it seems like the halfway step between the two, the lower octave of a bass, but with a tonality and playing feel more like that of a guitar, not really the best for use for standalone bass parts, but alongside a bass it could sound huge, especially with a normally tuned guitar on top

i want to play one to see what it is actually like, and how wide te neck is and so on

 

David

[TheGZeus,OnFire]

Originally posted by Verne Andru I'm using D'addario Baritone XL157's. They're the only baritones I have experience with and they seem fine. Guages is .014 .018 .026 .044 .056 .068. I checked and neither DR or GHS offer a baritone set. On the tuning - I still say E to E, even down an octave, kinda defeats the baritone essence. In B standard, I still play the same cord shapes, it's just that the chord is voiced 4 steps down from what it would be in E standard. This gives the baritone a unique set of chord voicings and allows you to play with cords [like your pinky with a D chord] in ways that are impossible in standard E. If you're E standard down an octave, you lose this unique baritone flavour and might as well stick with a standard guitar.

1: Capo.

2. 4 steps , 3 steps, 12 steps it's all just a tonal difference if it's just transposing.

[TheGZeus,OnFire]

PS, I use my BC Rich(soon to be heavily modified) tuned E-E, and as a Bass.

It sounds great.

[rockstrongo]

One of my friends has one of these. He plays in a band in Baltimore called Meatjack, and also plays bass in Trephane and is a one man band in Darsombra. After the show, we setup his 60's Ampeg SVT with matching 8x10 in my basement and ran this thing into my Zvex Octane III.......good god, did it sound AWESOME.