Baritone GUitar

[Infliktor]

I have an opportunity to trade for one of these.

Can someone enlighten me to what these are good for, typical tunings etc.

[Stereordinary]

Baritones are good for everything! 

But seriously, I have a Bass VI and I couldn't imagine life without it, so I'm sorta biased.

[aen]

Baritones just sound so burly.  I've done a lot of stuff with them.  First I had huge strings on a telecaser and tuned it BF#BB, then I go a baritone conversion neck, adn tuned the same, or BF#BF#F#C#.

The neck didnt quite work for me, so I sold it, and I'm back to low tuning a stadard scale guitar.  It works really well now that the "Zakk Wylde super large ultra metal" type strings are more readily available.

I don't really use it as a "bassline" type sound, becasue most of my stuff is composed around whatever guitar I happen to be playing when i stumble upon something good, and I have a bass...

It definetly yeilds a darker sound in my experience.

[DB]

To me, "baritone guitar" means a tuning like B-B, A-A, C-C or something similar.  The Bass VI is one octave below guitar, and is unique in it's ow right, but to me is a "bass guitar" not a baritone guitar.

Low tunings, lower harmonics...that is the signature of the baritone guitar.  Listen to some stuff by Duke Levin.

DB

[del]

Baritone tuning is in the octave below a standard guitar.  i.e. a standard bass guitar is tuned one octave below a standard guitar - baritone tuning is in between the two.

Some typical baritone tunings are (low to high) a fourth lower to B E A D F# B (this is might be the most common 'official' baritone tuning that you'd read about in a book or be taught in a class), a fifth lower to A D G C E A , or a third lower C# F# B E G# C#. 

These tunings are difficult to achieve on a standard guitar neck of 24", 24.75", or 25.5" with typical guitar string gauges, so guitar necks of 26" to 30" are commonly used for these tunings along with strings of slightly thicker gauges.

For example, the Fender Jaguar Baritone has a 27" scale and comes equipped with .11 - .56 strings, tuned B E A D F# B.

If you use these gauge strings on a standard 24" scale Jaguar (or a 25.5" scale Fender telecaster) and tune to B E A D F# B, the tension is so low that they just flop around, but by increasing the scale length to 27" a playable tension is achieved for the Jaguar Baritone.

There are, of course, lots of ways to match string gauges and scale lengths to get baritone tunings on standard guitars and bass guitars and what not (e.g. drop-D and open-G tuning are sorts of baritone tunings and can be achieved with most standard guitars and string gauges; and you might be able to get a good C# scale baritone tuning using .13 gauge strings on a 25.5" scale neck), but it can be complicated and require lots of setup and, possibly, modifications to the guitars. 

Guitars made for baritone tunings just make it easier to get to these tunings and have a tonal character affected by the longer scale length.

What is it good for?  Lots of music!  You hear it in indie rock (Blonde Redhead), jam music (Dave Mathews), country (Dwight Yoakum), and lots of chugging metal is done in baritone tunings.

I'd be very happy to have a baritone guitar of my own - I've often though about putting a baritone neck on a telecaster (they were sold that way as the Subsonic in the past) but I'm a bit lazy when it comes to finishing all my guitar plans. 

I hope this helps!

Del

[pullover]

Baritones are great for doubling a guitar part in the studio. If you play the same part down lower and put it in the back of the mix/to one side it really fattens your tone up. If you're recording I would definitely recommend checking one out. Unfortunately, the only way to find out if a baritone is good for you is to buy one and play it for a while.

[aen]

The curious among us should try the Huge string technique. 

[k o y l]

My Jazzblaster project will be a half-bariton in a way.. The tuning will be: CF#DFGD
I try to figure out what string gauge will be the best for this tuning without having to buy individual string (I want to make it happen with a mix of 2 sets of different gauges for ex).

[1946dodge]

Before I got my Jag Baritone custom, I took my 66 Jag and strung it with 13s and tuned it down to B to B. It sounded pretty good. I also tuned my Time guitar (an 80's handmade) the same way and I got a nice deep dark tone.
Another time I put Zake Wilde strrings on my 66Jag.
But when I got the Jag baritone, it sounded much better than the regular scale guitars tuned low.
You can try the B to B on regular guitar but once you get a real baritone with the longer neck I bet you will be surprized.

[DB]

Also keep in mind that playing the exact same notes on a baritone as on a regular guitar will give a different character to the note.  Think playing the same note higher up the neck.  A lot of the stuff Robert Smith of the Cure plays could be played on a regular guitar, but it sounds different played on the VI.  Same concept applies to baritones, which are typically tuned somewhere in between a regular guitar and the VI.

DB

[1946dodge]

Also keep in mind that playing the exact same notes on a baritone as on a regular guitar will give a different character to the note.  Think playing the same note higher up the neck.

I noticed that. It's like playing an extremely short scale guitar. I really love how it sounds.

[callum]

The curious among us should try the Huge string technique. 

so what kind of gauge are we talking about? i would imagine over 52, no?

[aen]

Zakk Wylde 70-11 set works everytime!

[DB]

...It's like playing an extremely short scale guitar. I really love how it sounds.

Except it is a short scale guitar with really long strings...that's what makes the difference!

DB

[callum]

sheezez...70-11?

thanks

i'll think i'll try it on a beater guitar first though anyways