Let's talk baritones.

[chutneyfarmer]

Any thoughts on the Gretsch Baritone? Thinking about picking one up so I can get my David Lynch on.

Bigsby, black sparkle, and mini humbuckers. Seems like a sweet guitar.

Play it before you buy it. I've shopped for a Grestch twice in past few years - not the baritone - and come away disappointed.

Thanks for the tip! Would be buying online though as no local shops have em unfortunately.

[ognoy]

I have had baritone guitars as my "preferred instrument" for about 6 years now,
and have owned/played these guitars:

Danelectro 63:
First baritone I got, and our singer owns it now so I still play it sometimes.
Sounds like a Dano baritone. Twangy, little sustain.

Danelectro 67:
Sounds/feels similar to the 63, but has vibrato and is solid body.
This was my main axe for about 1.5 year, then turned it into a Bass VI.
I like the Danelectros for their sound, but got tired of using them as the only guitar in a 1 hour set.
Mine was badly set up, so I wanted a guitar that was easier to play. Then got a:

Fender Blacktop Tele:
Did not like this guitar. It was comfortable to play, but I never bonded with it.
Tried it with both .14-.68 and .13-.72 strings, but none of them felt right.
Maybe it was going from 30" to 27", or lipstick to humbucker, I don't know.
But I sold it after trying to make it work for about 6 monts.

Hagstrom Viking Baritone:
Bought this after I sold the Blacktop Tele, and this was the guitar I was looking for,
sort of. It felt and played great. The stock bridge pickup was not really inspiring, so swapped it for a
Lollartron(and later on a GFS Surf90), which, both, worked great. Perfect balance of twang and balls.
Also added a Bigsby B7 and removed the neck pickup..
And of course after all this mods to make it perfect, some douchebag broke in to our van and stole it(and some other gear as well).
But it is a great guitar, specially with a couple of mods.

Squier VM Jazzmaster w/ Warmoth baritone neck:
Put this thing together myself.
Cool guitar, horrible setup job(by me).
Sold it to get money to buy my Traynor YBA-1.

Partso Baritone Esquire:
Bought this second hand, but according to the guy who built it it had a
70s Fender swamp ash body, Warmoth baritone tele neck and a Lollar 52T pickup in the bridge.
Loved this guitar. Was the main guitar when recording our latest(released yeasterday!) album.
But this guitar was also stolen when our van was broken in to.

Eastwood Sidejack Baritone:
The one without trem. Bought this cheap second hand when both my guitars where stolen.
I liked to play it and it looked cool, but it felt a little cheap. If I had kept it, I would change the pickups and add a bigsby.

Electrical Guitar Company TT2 Baritone:
This is the only baritone I got right now, and I love it!
Sounds great, feels great, looks great. Heavy as shit!
And expensive! But worth it.


Other baritones I have played:

Gretsch Electromatic Jet Baritone:
Lent this from a friend right after my guitars where stolen.
Cool guitar, was a little weird going back to 30" scale.
The pickups where dull, so if it was my guitar I would have swapped them for something else.

Ibanez MMM-1:
The guy from Staind signature guitar.
Nice to play, weird bridge, and ok pickups.


Fender Special Jaguar(the black one with buckers):
Tried this it in a studio, but it was badly intonated, so did not use it on the record.
But it felt nice, so it could probably be a cool guitar.

[gnomethrone]

just ordered some strings from kalium to get my baritone tele project strung up. stoked.

[Disarm D'arcy]

I have had baritone guitars as my "preferred instrument" for about 6 years now,
and have owned/played these guitars:

Danelectro 63:
First baritone I got, and our singer owns it now so I still play it sometimes.
Sounds like a Dano baritone. Twangy, little sustain.

Danelectro 67:
Sounds/feels similar to the 63, but has vibrato and is solid body.
This was my main axe for about 1.5 year, then turned it into a Bass VI.
I like the Danelectros for their sound, but got tired of using them as the only guitar in a 1 hour set.
Mine was badly set up, so I wanted a guitar that was easier to play. Then got a:

Fender Blacktop Tele:
Did not like this guitar. It was comfortable to play, but I never bonded with it.
Tried it with both .14-.68 and .13-.72 strings, but none of them felt right.
Maybe it was going from 30" to 27", or lipstick to humbucker, I don't know.
But I sold it after trying to make it work for about 6 monts.

Hagstrom Viking Baritone:
Bought this after I sold the Blacktop Tele, and this was the guitar I was looking for,
sort of. It felt and played great. The stock bridge pickup was not really inspiring, so swapped it for a
Lollartron(and later on a GFS Surf90), which, both, worked great. Perfect balance of twang and balls.
Also added a Bigsby B7 and removed the neck pickup..
And of course after all this mods to make it perfect, some douchebag broke in to our van and stole it(and some other gear as well).
But it is a great guitar, specially with a couple of mods.

Squier VM Jazzmaster w/ Warmoth baritone neck:
Put this thing together myself.
Cool guitar, horrible setup job(by me).
Sold it to get money to buy my Traynor YBA-1.

Partso Baritone Esquire:
Bought this second hand, but according to the guy who built it it had a
70s Fender swamp ash body, Warmoth baritone tele neck and a Lollar 52T pickup in the bridge.
Loved this guitar. Was the main guitar when recording our latest(released yeasterday!) album.
But this guitar was also stolen when our van was broken in to.

Eastwood Sidejack Baritone:
The one without trem. Bought this cheap second hand when both my guitars where stolen.
I liked to play it and it looked cool, but it felt a little cheap. If I had kept it, I would change the pickups and add a bigsby.

Electrical Guitar Company TT2 Baritone:
This is the only baritone I got right now, and I love it!
Sounds great, feels great, looks great. Heavy as shit!
And expensive! But worth it.


Other baritones I have played:

Gretsch Electromatic Jet Baritone:
Lent this from a friend right after my guitars where stolen.
Cool guitar, was a little weird going back to 30" scale.
The pickups where dull, so if it was my guitar I would have swapped them for something else.

Ibanez MMM-1:
The guy from Staind signature guitar.
Nice to play, weird bridge, and ok pickups.


Fender Special Jaguar(the black one with buckers):
Tried this it in a studio, but it was badly intonated, so did not use it on the record.
But it felt nice, so it could probably be a cool guitar.

Great post dude, super interesting stuff. I have been meaning to get into the baritone game but can't quite test them in the shop as they rarely keep some available for demoing.

[ognoy]

Great post dude, super interesting stuff. I have been meaning to get into the baritone game but can't quite test them in the shop as they rarely keep some available for demoing.

I have been planning to write that post for a while now, and finally got around to it yesterday.
Demoing baritones can be a hassle.
Some stores might have some Danelectro baritones available, but that's about it, in most cases.
I think the only baritone I have tried before buying was the Dano 63(my first), which I bought at my local store.
I had been playing downtuned(Drop B) for about a year in my sludge/doom band, but always wanted more tension in my strings.
And then this Dano bari popped up and I tried and bought it there and then. Has mostly played baritones since.

But it depends on what kind of music you want to play with the baritone.
There are some models that is aimed towards metal players which doesn't interest me at all.
I use my guitars in a rock band setting most of the time, but also doing the doom/drone/noise/ambient-thing when I got time for it.

[codetocontra]

Electrical Guitar Company TT2 Baritone:
This is the only baritone I got right now, and I love it!
Sounds great, feels great, looks great. Heavy as shit!
And expensive! But worth it.

Of coarse EGC! Pics? I am currently planning on picking up another EGC and considering going with a baritone and this helps. Sort of depends on what pops up used though, as they are still unavailable for purchase, at least until Buzz stops ordering more and they get caught up on their 200 orders.

But it depends on what kind of music you want to play with the baritone.
There are some models that is aimed towards metal players which doesn't interest me at all.
I use my guitars in a rock band setting most of the time, but also doing the doom/drone/noise/ambient-thing when I got time for it.

This is hard for me. I normally play drop D, so playing drop A on a baritone would be natural. Unfortunately all my heavy handed doom riffs will end up in Korn territory, which is a bit unpleasant. Then there are bands like Isis that sound nothing like that, so really it is how you play what you play.

Is everyone playing "standard" baritone tunings, such as B E A D F# G? I feel inclined to alter that.

[ognoy]

Of coarse EGC! Pics?

This is hard for me. I normally play drop D, so playing drop A on a baritone would be natural. Unfortunately all my heavy handed doom riffs will end up in Korn territory, which is a bit unpleasant. Then there are bands like Isis that sound nothing like that, so really it is how you play what you play.

Is everyone playing "standard" baritone tunings, such as B E A D F# G? I feel inclined to alter that.

I usually play in "standard" baritone tunings, but I use drop A on some songs, if I need go reach that low A note.
In my rock band(Yuma Sun, see sig) I play the baritone and the other guitar player plays "regular" guitar, so we don't do "synchronized open string chuggachugg riffing".

In my doom band(Solstorm, check sig) everyone tunes down to B(standard for me, drop B for the other two guys NOT using baritones), and I don't think we sound like Korn, but a lot of peeps tell us we sound like Isis. So I think what/how you play is more important than how you tune your guitar.
And you can easily tune a baritone to say drop B, or drop C, just use slightly thinner strings.

But baritones are really fun, and to me the tonal range of the baritone feels more natural than the "regular" guitar, even though I still play those occasionally. And baritones can be used for all kinds of music, not just nu metal and spaghetti western.

[neonblack]

Yeah I play baritone as my main instrument. I went from bass to bass VI to baritone. I always played bass more like a guitar player so it was kind of a natural thing.

I play noisy Sonic Youth/Fugazi/Shellac kinda stuff and I keep my amp fairly bright. I love the combination of bright top end, punchy low mids, and the baritone tuning. And like ognoy said, the range feels more natural to me than standard tuning, and so does the scale length.

[codetocontra]

Thanks for the response guys. It really is in how you play.

I had a chance to borrow a Fender Subsonic baritone and an old Fender Bass VI. That VI was just lovely in sound and feel, then going back to my normal guitar felt like a ukulele. The Subsonic wasn't setup properly and didn't provide a great experience, yet I still am interested in baritones.

Oh, and the TTT is hawt. I don't believe I have seen that one before. I have a TT1, by the way.

[Bon Hoga]

I play noisy Sonic Youth/Fugazi/Shellac kinda stuff

link(s) pls!

[doommeow]

It didn’t turn out exactly the way I planned, but - for the moment anyway - she’s done.

IMG_6538.jpg (324.64 KiB) Viewed 6184 times

IMG_6537.jpg (369.6 KiB) Viewed 6184 times

Maybe not the prettiest girl at the dance, but that's partially by design - read, built on the cheap.

Somehow I ended up buying pickups that are out of phase with each other and with a neck pickup that’s internally grounded - so that means no hum cancelling in the middle position and no 4way switch. A disappointment, and my own damn fault, but thankfully the pups are quiet enough that noise cancelling isn’t an issue and she generally sounds great. I’ll have a certain amount of builders remorse about not having the 4way option - will probably have to go with different pickups at some point in the future.

Surprised that the extra low frequency range seems to be more than my Superego and Boss OC-2 can handle, but still having a damn good time.

[neonblack]

I play noisy Sonic Youth/Fugazi/Shellac kinda stuff

link(s) pls!

Nothing recorded unfortunately. My interface will be here soon though and then I'll have some demos up.

Can't find a drummer though so it may be more big black than shellac

[Disarm D'arcy]

It didn’t turn out exactly the way I planned, but - for the moment anyway - she’s done.

IMG_6538.jpg

IMG_6537.jpg

Maybe not the prettiest girl at the dance, but that's partially by design - read, built on the cheap.

Somehow I ended up buying pickups that are out of phase with each other and with a neck pickup that’s internally grounded - so that means no hum cancelling in the middle position and no 4way switch. A disappointment, and my own damn fault, but thankfully the pups are quiet enough that noise cancelling isn’t an issue and she generally sounds great. I’ll have a certain amount of builders remorse about not having the 4way option - will probably have to go with different pickups at some point in the future.

Surprised that the extra low frequency range seems to be more than my Superego and Boss OC-2 can handle, but still having a damn good time.

Looking good!

[maggot]

Any new input on a good cheapo baritone. Right now I'm tuned to C on a regular guitar and I'm looking to drop lower and have a more tensile bass-like response on the low strings. I've played Danelectros and liked them in the past, but a lot of them, you end up fighting with a lot of you play entire shows with them and such. I also had a regular-scale early Eastwood Sidejack. It was a little sucky, but it sounded good. I'd risk taking another bite at that apple if there are no good other options. Agile has a bunch o cheap ones. Other ideas?

Ideally I'd like to split the difference between twang and doom. Think clang...

[maggot]

Any new input on a good cheapo baritone. Right now I'm tuned to C on a regular guitar and I'm looking to drop lower and have a more tensile bass-like response on the low strings. I've played Danelectros and liked them in the past, but a lot of them, you end up fighting with a lot of you play entire shows with them and such. I also had a regular-scale early Eastwood Sidejack. It was a little sucky, but it sounded good. I'd risk taking another bite at that apple if there are no good other options. Agile has a bunch o cheap ones. Other ideas?

Ideally I'd like to split the difference between twang and doom. Think clang...