Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

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windmill
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Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by windmill » Tue Mar 21, 2017 4:18 am

Hello

I've been playing a MIJ Fender Baritone Special , the black humbucker,stop tail, Jag shaped 27" scale guitar.

It"s tuned to A-A.

Has anyone else got one of these or something like it,what do you tune it to and what gauge strings do you use ?

Thanks

:)

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dvrader
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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by dvrader » Wed Mar 22, 2017 4:31 pm

I use Elixir Nanowebs 12-68 for tuning b-b. If I was tuning a-a, I would probably use Ernie Ball 13-72.

There are probably better strings out there, but I think those two are the cheapest.

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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by windmill » Wed Mar 22, 2017 5:42 pm

Thanks

A-A is feeling a bit "floppy"

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Jaga
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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by Jaga » Wed Jan 17, 2018 3:56 pm

Hello,

I'm thinking of playing some baritone guitar (27-28"), but I'm very curious, is there someone in the world who tuned such instrument to the regular E-E and it sounded not floopy? Probably, there are special strings for this?

I'm interested in playing guitar, but I'm a bass player, and usual guitars are too small for me.
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dvrader
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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by dvrader » Thu Jan 18, 2018 11:21 pm

You would probably be better off with a 30” bass iv for e-e.

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Futuron
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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by Futuron » Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:38 am

That should be "Bass VI" (IV is a typo)... and yes I agree 30" is a much better plan for E-E than 27 or 28

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Jaga
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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by Jaga » Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:31 am

I'm talking about E-E which is equal to guitar tune, not 1 octave below. And I'm feeling more confortable on playing longer necks, than regular once.

So the questions is that if someone have experience to tune the "baritone" (27-28") instrument to regular guitar tuning? :)
Check out my videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/alexeyjaga

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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by wavley » Fri Jan 19, 2018 12:23 pm

I have the 28" one and I tune A E A D E C with chromes that I use on all my offsets so I just order custom sets 12 16 22w 32 45 65, I was tuning A-A with the bigger daddario baritone set, but I switched everything back to flats after about a year playing rounds on everything, I missed flats. I'll probably order the 70 for the A next time. The VI gauge strings never did it for me, too floppy and then the Squier VI came out so I run 106s on it from Kalium.

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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by dvrader » Fri Jan 19, 2018 1:17 pm

If you want to tune up to guitar tuning, 27" would work. The strings would be extra taut, not floppy.

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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by tade » Fri Jan 19, 2018 6:02 pm

When I bought my Baritone Special it was tuned standard E-E. I Don't know what gauge it was, but I reckon it was 10-46 or similar and it was definitely playable.
As they say above, the extra scale lenght provides more tension, not flopiness.

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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by Futuron » Sat Jan 20, 2018 12:54 am

Jaga wrote:
Fri Jan 19, 2018 3:31 am
I'm talking about E-E which is equal to guitar tune, not 1 octave below. And I'm feeling more confortable on playing longer necks, than regular once.

So the questions is that if someone have experience to tune the "baritone" (27-28") instrument to regular guitar tuning? :)
Okay that makes more sense, I should've asked if you meant bass E or guitar E as I wasn't sure.

So all you have is a normal guitar, but the neck is an extra fret or so longer. That means you need to do the strings UP a bit extra to get to the E (instead of D or Eb). So your strings will either be tighter than usual, or you could use a lighter gauge than usual. You should have no problems!

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Re: Fender Baritone Special -Tuning and string gauge

Post by repoman » Sat Jan 20, 2018 12:49 pm

FYI- anyone wanting to put some flatwounds on your baritone but don't feel like forking out 70 bucks for a set of flatwound baritone strings, you can get the daddario 7 string flatwound set for like 17 bucks and just ditch the high string.

8)

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