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So I've had this shitty ol' strat layin around for a while now and I want a baritone guitar since the band I'm in doesn't have a bass and baritones are effing badass. I figure it'll go real nice with my Dwarfcraft Shiva.

The particular MIJ Fender Strat I have is probably over 10 years old. It's got an old locking nut, 2 single coils and 1 humbucking pickup, and a Kahler tremolo that was "licensed under Floyd Rose patents."
I don't have a camera and I can't friggin find a picture of the thing on the internet. I don't know the year (or even where to find it ) but it's all stock with a sparkle black finish, black pickguard, black knobs, and all black pickups. Oh! It's got a rosewood fretboard, too. It's just begging for low-end-toanz.

Now I've never really modified a guitar or anything like that and setting up guitars is very foreign to me. If anybody can gimme some tips on how to start doing something like this I'd appreciate it
I mean, as of right now when I turn the tremolo arm around to put it on or take it off it scrapes against the little turny-circle-guys at the bottom of the bridge. (That's a technical term, of course.) The peg that sticks out of the bottom right of the apparatus has somehow sunk into the body of the guitar and now screwing the bar in is awkward and obviously messed up.

I'd like to avoid having to buy a longer-scaled neck and basically keep this modification as low-cost as possible. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaas usual.

Should I stuff another spring in the body of the guitar? Widen some of the string holders in the nut?
Help me out!

...is this possible?

I remember Aen making a video of using a normal guitar with bass strings to get it to have the baritone sounds. I can't seem to find it though.

Nychthemeron wrote:I remember Aen making a video of using a normal guitar with bass strings to get it to have the baritone sounds. I can't seem to find it though.

yeah, i saw the remnants of that video by searching the forums for "baritone." i think he took the video down, though, so i haven't seen it.

the main weirdness of doing it to this guitar is that it's got a kahler (which looks almost exactly like a floyd rose..) and i don't know if i could fuck up the springs or stretch em out all weird.
and i always like to just check with you guys before i go and do something silly to my guitars that i could potentially regret.

Get either Ernie Ball "6 string baritone" strings or GHS "Heavy Hitters"
I'm fairly certain your trem will be A-OK. The tension is nearly the same as a standard set, because the large strings are tuned to a lower pitch. And even if they weren't, these instruments were designed originally to be holding 13's anyway.

You might need to modify/replace the nut too.

eti wrote:You might need to modify/replace the nut too.

I thought I might need to file the nut slots a bit til the thicker strings fit right. It's got a locking nut, though, so I don't know how big of a deal it's going to be. I'll probably buy the strings tomorrow and see what happens.

veteransdaypoppy wrote:

eti wrote:You might need to modify/replace the nut too.

I thought I might need to file the nut slots a bit til the thicker strings fit right. It's got a locking nut, though, so I don't know how big of a deal it's going to be. I'll probably buy the strings tomorrow and see what happens.

The locking nuts on BC rich have HUUUUUUGE slots. Maybe youll be lucky?

aen wrote:

veteransdaypoppy wrote:

eti wrote:You might need to modify/replace the nut too.

I thought I might need to file the nut slots a bit til the thicker strings fit right. It's got a locking nut, though, so I don't know how big of a deal it's going to be. I'll probably buy the strings tomorrow and see what happens.

The locking nuts on BC rich have HUUUUUUGE slots. Maybe youll be lucky?

Hey, maybe. But I'm genetically predisposed to unluckiness. Findin tha allen key nao.

adding heavier strings and detuning a guitar, doesnt make it a baritone guitar. it just makes a detuned guitar with very horrible intonation. if you are going to convert a guitar to baritone, you WILL need a baritone neck.
anything tuned around C or below, should be done on a baritone neck, or you're intonation will be off.

NOt if you adjust the intonation. That's why the little saddles for the strigns are movable.

Think of it as a short-scale baritone

eti wrote:Think of it as a short-scale baritone

Makes me miss the Baritone Jags.

genxide wrote:adding heavier strings and detuning a guitar, doesnt make it a baritone guitar. it just makes a detuned guitar with very horrible intonation. if you are going to convert a guitar to baritone, you WILL need a baritone neck.
anything tuned around C or below, should be done on a baritone neck, or you're intonation will be off.

I don't approve of this message. You aren't trying hard enough.

smile_man wrote:

genxide wrote:adding heavier strings and detuning a guitar, doesnt make it a baritone guitar. it just makes a detuned guitar with very horrible intonation. if you are going to convert a guitar to baritone, you WILL need a baritone neck.
anything tuned around C or below, should be done on a baritone neck, or you're intonation will be off.

I don't approve of this message. You aren't trying hard enough.

Yeah, that was a pretty discouraging message dude. There's gotta be a way to figure it out.. I dunno, I'm an experimenter. At the very least I'll have somethin to make some awful noise with.

Just to be be clear, I meant to say that genxide wasn't trying hard enough.