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Baritone Guitars


janmaat
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Well I started a thread on this somewhere else, but this seems the appropriate place!

Who has got one, and what's the impression? Can you point out some recordings done with that? Isn't it a great compromise, as I suppose you could always use a capo and use it as a guitar, or to do bass lines? Anyone ever used one? Any baritone-guitar porn?

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For the last few years I played in a band with a standard 25.5" scale guitar tuned to baritone tuning. Not quite the same thing and the purpose behind it was to play very heavy heavy metal, so it's probably not what you're looking for :ph34r:

Anyway, a non-metal loving friend of mine who had an interest in getting a baritione played it and was dismayed, not that it was hard to play or sounded bad or anything like that, just that he had a hard time getting his head around the tuning and how he would use it in a more normal form of music, so try before you buy, is the message there, I suppose.

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Had this for a while - a Hohner - pretty decent instrument after being set up. Meant to be tuned A - A with the recommended strings - I used heavier strings & went for B - B, but found the bottom string didn't *quite* intonate, but close enough at the far end of the fretboard to be OK. Interesting, but limited use - 28" scale. Sold it on via this forum.







G.

Edited by geoffbyrne
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[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1325844087' post='1488502']
I am building one from an old Kay short scale bass as we speak, check out Glenn Campells solos, and Duane Eddy for some twang. Also the Kills use one a lot, and they are ace.
[/quote]

OT, and probably should have been a PM, but I'm currently refurbishing a short scale Kay bass. If they are similar models I might be interested in some of the bits!

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[quote name='leftybassman392' timestamp='1325842845' post='1488485']
May be the wrong kind of music, but Duane Eddy used a Baritone one several of his records, as did Brian Wilson (Beach Boys, if you need to ask).
[/quote]

Do you know what Beach Boys tracks Brian used a baritone on, out of curiosity?

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[quote name='Wil' timestamp='1325848876' post='1488607']
Do you know what Beach Boys tracks Brian used a baritone on, out of curiosity?
[/quote]

Not off the top of my head (I never was a huge fan of the band at the time, but came across it the other day while doing some research). I'll look into it and get back to you.

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Update: so far I seem to have found 'Dance, Dance, Dance' and 'Caroline, No' as songs featuring Baritone. It's actually quite hard to be sure, because the personnel listings don't seem to specify the Baritone as a specific instrument (the listing for DDD, for example, shows both Pohlman and Wilson on Bass Guitar...).

If you're a Beach Boys fan then this could be an opportunity to blow the dust off your old record collection! :)

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[quote name='bungle' timestamp='1325845038' post='1488523']
OT, and probably should have been a PM, but I'm currently refurbishing a short scale Kay bass. If they are similar models I might be interested in some of the bits!
[/quote]

It's an SG shape one, I got it because I love the pickups on it, and have them in my main gigging bass. The bridge and tuners may be going spare once I'm done, but I haven't really got it all sorted in my head yet. WHat bits are you after?

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[quote name='Dave Vader' timestamp='1325851367' post='1488676']
It's an SG shape one, I got it because I love the pickups on it, and have them in my main gigging bass. The bridge and tuners may be going spare once I'm done, but I haven't really got it all sorted in my head yet. WHat bits are you after?
[/quote]

Ah, mine looks like this: [url="http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-7883-Kay-3-4-Size-Bass-Guitar-with-Hard-Case"]http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-7883-Kay-3-4-Size-Bass-Guitar-with-Hard-Case[/url] . Potentially the bridge might be useful if it's in better nick than mine and has the same position screws. Will PM you some photos over the weekend, might start a build diary thread too.

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[quote name='bungle' timestamp='1325852153' post='1488698']
Ah, mine looks like this: [url="http://www.bass-guitar-museum.com/bass-7883-Kay-3-4-Size-Bass-Guitar-with-Hard-Case"]http://www.bass-guit...-with-Hard-Case[/url] . Potentially the bridge might be useful if it's in better nick than mine and has the same position screws. Will PM you some photos over the weekend, might start a build diary thread too.
[/quote]
Okay, will watch the diary with interest. The Bridge on mine is a 2 saddle, bit of bent metal. It is not good....

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I have one of the Fender Jaguar Baritone Customs that they did for a few years a while ago. in fact the Fender rep (who happened to be the tech that set up my basses at the time) said that it was the last one for sale in Europe when I bought it.

sounds great and I may have some recordings somewhere of me using it in a previous band.

I've just started introducing it into Thinking For Tuesday and trying to work out how to make it fit.

as for playing it, you really don't want to be playing chords in open positions as it is just muddy as anything, but you can get some great sounds just playing walking lines or 'riffing'. it does have quite a bassy tone.

on the higher register you get some great sounds with either chords or walking lines and it sounds a bit more like a guitar up there.

overall a fantastic instrument and the change in tone between the lower and higher register on it is quite smooth so you can get it to work quite nicely.

if you find one for sale Jan I recommend it, but I'm keeping this one ;) hope that 5 string Jazz is still working out for you though!

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The Cure's Pictures of You has got plenty of baritone guitar on it. Robert Smith is credited with playing "6 string bass" on it..

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNBJ1rBAlN8"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNBJ1rBAlN8[/url]

I very nearly bought one of those korean Gretsch baritones, but I realized that I was never going to take it out of the house just moments before flashing the credit card... It was so pretty in silver sparkle...

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[quote name='janmaat' timestamp='1325837492' post='1488412']
Well I started a thread on this somewhere else, but this seems the appropriate place!

Who has got one, and what's the impression? Can you point out some recordings done with that? Isn't it a great compromise, as I suppose you could always use a capo and use it as a guitar, or to do bass lines? Anyone ever used one? Any baritone-guitar porn?
[/quote]

It would be a compromise yes. If you capoe'd it at the 5th fret, that would make it a shorter scale than a standard guitar and it might end up sounding muddy. They're a good idea if you don't like having really heavy strings on your guitar but I've never had a problem with just using a standard 648 mm scale guitar for tuning down to B. If I wanted to go down further, say to F#, then I might think about getting a longer scale 7 string guitar.

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  • 1 month later...

Apologies for the tardy response.

I bought a Gretsch Electromatic Baritone from an eBay seller around a year ago, black sparkle, cream binding, bolt on neck, Bigsby tremolo. £250 I think. It's currently tuned B-B although I have a set of Fender strings that came with it which I think I can put on and tune E-E.

I quite like it...had this vision of me on one side of the stage thundering away and my guitarist on the other doing, well, what it is that he does, but this hasn't happened and it's been limited to home use. It does sound great; I put it through a Line 6 Spider IV 75w combo and tend to prefer playing on some of the more ethereal/haunting presets. It's got a nice tone, stays in tune, tremolo is nice. The only thing I don't like is the strap lock mechanism...the straps lock, but it's not easy to do a quick release.
P

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Apparently on the last Foo Fighters album (and subsequent tours) Pat Smear played a baritone for most of the songs - explains the super-chunky rhythm sounds they've got going on.

Never had my hands on one, not sure I'd know where to start fitting it in to arrangements between the regular guitar and bass, would have some fun finding out though!

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[quote name='razze06' timestamp='1325866574' post='1489110']
The Cure's Pictures of You has got plenty of baritone guitar on it. Robert Smith is credited with playing "6 string bass" on it..

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNBJ1rBAlN8[/media]

I very nearly bought one of those korean Gretsch baritones, but I realized that I was never going to take it out of the house just moments before flashing the credit card... It was so pretty in silver sparkle...
[/quote]one of my favourite songs that.

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You know what that reminds me of? Those old starter basses from the 60/70s...Jedsons. That's pretty nasty.
P


[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1330114433' post='1553088']
Got this in my email box tonight

[url="http://www.fender.com/en-GB/products/blacktop/models.php/?prodNo=0148700&EDID=D4HFTZV-PRWQ2-3O24I2-Z6XLF-RBRV-v1"]http://www.fender.co...2-Z6XLF-RBRV-v1[/url]
[/quote]

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[quote name='Johnston' timestamp='1330114433' post='1553088']
Got this in my email box tonight

[url="http://www.fender.com/en-GB/products/blacktop/models.php/?prodNo=0148700&EDID=D4HFTZV-PRWQ2-3O24I2-Z6XLF-RBRV-v1"]http://www.fender.co...2-Z6XLF-RBRV-v1[/url]
[/quote]

No lefties it seems - what a surprise!

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