baritone guitars for non-doom usage?

[dubkitty]

i guess that’s the first thing to try, restringing the CVJM so it’s more playable tuned to B or C. that’s cheaper than a Chinese neck and a set of tuners that’ll accommodate big fat low strings. i have a Chinese baritone Strat neck on my eBay watch list that seems a bit more plausible than the multiple ads that all use the same photo. if i really take to the low tunings—and i’ve found it intriguing so far—that’ll be Phase II.

i can foresee the tuner question being really problematic…i’ve seen folks online talk about their troubles with electric guitar tuners that won’t accommodate strings in the .058-.060 range, and that would never work with the Fender/Ping locking tuners on the Kondor.

the sound of the Gretsch in that demo really got under my skin. it’s practically perfect, which is weird considering how everybody hated those odd mini-hums in the Pro Jets. i could be happy with one of those with the Bigsby, i think.

[Zork]

I fitted .068, .070 and even .072 strings in standard tuners in the past. Even the Bass VI uses normal guitar tuners and my low E string is a .100. The tuners on your CV JM are probably the same they put on the VI. I once carefully drilled out a hole in a Gotoh style tuner to widen it a bit, though, but even this sounds more scary than it actually is.

[Gone Fission]

I'm pretty sure Allparts has a Bari conversion neck. Should be cheaper than Fender-branded, almost certainly better quality than random Chinese eBay or Ali necks.

I've done a thing following from a past and maybe still current Joe Gore practice of just putting really big strings on a 25.5" scale guitar tuned to a bit of a higher baritone zone. The easy path is to find a bigger 7-string set, leave off the high E, and move everything over. But this is gonna be more pleasant of a conversion if you don't have to take off the neck to turn the truss rod for a bit of relief. And you'll want a new nut to do this right. And I feel like this would be better with flats, though those sets aren't as readily and cheaply available.

Cocteau Twins drives a lot of my interest in this zone--a lot of Bass VI, sometimes used as bass, sometimes used in a more intermediate manner. So hearing that and also just trying to do rut-busting things.

[dubkitty]

i’m pleased to say that as a Squier my JM’s truss rod adjustment is at the head.

i hadn’t thought about the nut. hmmmm. i just looked and i think going any higher than .049-.050 would require a new nut. now, Fender nuts are dead simple to make, but i’d prefer not to. and i think that to go down to C would require something more like .052-054 to be stable. B would want more like .060. at least that’s my best guess based on experience down-tuning. an acoustic with a .056 barely works in C.

i guess i’ll see what the heaviest plausible set is in the shops and go from there. i think they carry .054 electric sets. don’t know if they’ll have 7-string sets at Arts & Music LOL.

oh, hey, i just remembered that i have to go to Richmond after work where there’s a GC close to my destination, so i’ll get some strings and perhaps a blank nut if they’re not too dear. looking forward to being able to play low without the awful tuning and intonation problems doing that with Regular Slinkies.

[dubkitty]

I'm pretty sure Allparts has a Bari conversion neck. Should be cheaper than Fender-branded, almost certainly better quality than random Chinese eBay or Ali necks.

i’ll look into it. the Fender necks are $400, and i could buy a whole-ass used Gretsch for $500. NOT ECONOMICAL. i haven’t seen any used Fender bari necks at all.

i’m surprised Allparts hasn’t mentioned it given the continuing barrage of promo e-mails i get from them. check out our expensive Jazzmaster hardware from Greece!

couldn’t find anything useful on Temu, and i haven’t fucked with AliExpress yet. i’m reluctant considering some of the awful Chinese guitars i see on the Awesome Cheap Guitars group on Facebook. some are almost convincing, but the faux Gretsches are atrocious.

[dubkitty]

unfinished necks for $218. truly peculiar 27.78” scale.

[dubkitty]

you know what would be the best thing on earth? a Guild Surfliner baritone. it’s got the right sound, the right style, and a JM-esque tremolo.