good affordable baritone?

[the isaac eaton]

It looks like my band is going to start playing our songs in baritone tuning, so im going to need to either

A:get a baritone guitar

B: make my current guitar into a baritone.

I love the long baritone scale as it is much more comfortable to play, but am not really in a position to buy a new guitar at this point, as i am working towards a new amp. That being said I could take my guitar into a shop and have it set up in B.

But I would like to know if there are any really good low price baritones, or even good normal guitars that would make nice baritones.

[Johno]

Dano make one

[gaybear]

how/why does a band just up and decide to play baritone tuning?

[the isaac eaton]

to make soft stuff more beautiful and heavy stuff heavier.

[ekwatts]

I don't really understand tuning a guitar down below C, to be honest. I love downtuned stuff, particularly "soft" stuff and so on, but once you start travelling further down, what's the point? The guitar is a mid instrument. Once you start to drop below that register, you might as well sack the bassist (I'm not saying this is wrong, but if you're a "conventional" band, ie: drummer, bassist, 2 guitarists, then it seems kind of pointless to do so for the sake of heaviness. Look at Korn. Go on, look at them. That's you, that is. That's your mam).

Just tune your regular guitars to C# or C and be done with it. You'll encounter far fewer problems, and you definitely won't need to shell out for a brand new guitar.

[ultratwin]

I personally love the way the key of A sounds that low, and make good use of the Epiphone 7 stringer for that reason. Any lower and the harmonics get all mushy, even when in tune.

At any rate, if you like to go low (and really need to) I'd consider doing a Wormoff deal, in case you've got a Fender you already dig the tone of and wanna take things in the downward direction. Hate it or find no use, and you'll easily be able to sell it off, methinks.

[Ankhanu]

Danos are some of the most affordable decent baritones. They're not really "heavy" music appropriate though... but they will give you some beautiful picking and strumming tones. This is played on a Dano baritone, and they do this sort of thing really well. Heavy music styles can work... but really, heavy and downtuning don't go hand in hand. If you're really good at "heavy" you can get some serious heaviness from standard tunings. It has less to do with frequency and more to do with style.

[the isaac eaton]

Its stuff like this that makes me want to go all baritone right now.

[youtube][/youtube]

We have played in baritone times before, its an easier register for our singer to sing in and things just have a much more beautiful resonance to them.

[taylornutt]

Has anyone tried one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Fender-Jaguar-Barit ... 2307db30ba

You might be able to find a used one cheap. I think Fender discontinued it so you would have to find it used.

[aen]

B: make my current guitar into a baritone.

Easy peasey. GHS strings .70-11 gauge on a 25.5" scale guitar. Restring, setup, play low.


Im going to copy in the first post of my thread on the subject over at ilovefuzz.com

Ok, so this comes up a lot.


What I have tried for baritone:
Baritone conversion neck on a telecaster
Sounded decent, was a bitch to play. This may be because I wasn't in the know on the neck shapes, radius, and other tech specs when I ordered it, so it felt nothing like the necks I like. It also DRAMATICALLY increased tension, to the point where my standard baritone set (at the time) felt horrible. I was using EB "Not Even Slinkys" (56-12) and tuning to B. Due to the longer scale of these, you can use much lighter strings and tune down to B, as the scale length tightens things up. Warmoth was nice enough to cut my nut for a set of 9s, even though they said it would be cut for a "standard baritone string set" whatever the fuck that is.

Downtuned "full scale" guitars(Tele, strat, jazzmaster)
This is the best option for me. You simply compensate for the lack of tension you would experience with heavier strings. In fact, most of the times I've done this, the tension is so close to a standard tuned guitar, no truss rod adjustment is required.
For years I used the Not Even Slinkys. They worked well enough, obviously you need to reset your intonation after changing to these strings.

In recent years, much bigger strings have been available in my town. I use a GHS set that goes from 70-11. The eleven can flop a bit, but I've never had an issue with sound or performance, just a looser feel than usual. The 70 on the low B really tightens up the lower register, and the feel. I imagine you go down to A fairly comfortably. However, usually you neeed to file out the lower two slots in your nut. This is like a $5 tool, at most, just go slow and steady, checking often so you don't go too deep.
First place: Jazzmaster. The large body really lends itself to the low tuning.
Second Place: Tele custom II

Short scale guitars(jaguars)
I remember having pretty good luck with a vintage jag (69) but the newer models I tried were pretty poo in B. C was just fine. They is shorter scale. This makes perfect sense to me.

The Nay Sayers:
"you can't sound good/intonate/stay in tune with a standard scale guitar tuned to B

All Bullshit. You do need a decent quality guitar, with a certain amount of play in the individual string saddles to intonate these low notes. I've certainly experienced some shitbox guitars that would not intonate (Squier affinity strat, Jagmaster) in B. The Jagmaster wouldnt intonate to anything at all.
"Sounding good" is relative. But I can tell you with a smidge of smug certainty that I sound kickass in B on a tele custom II.
"Stay in tune" Use proper strings. This is the same issue we hear all the time with jags and mustangs. "My fuckin short scael guitar wont stay in tune!" You need proper tension on the strings to stay in tune. Take off your guilded angel hair, and put some guitar strings on there. Shit.

Others who say it can't be done at all, lets translate some math here. A fender Jaguar has a 24" scale, which is a 6% difference from a 25.5" scale strat, tele, or jazzmaster. Would anyone argue that you can't tune a jaguar down to D, or even C, just as you can a full-scale? Probably not, but never underestimate someone's power to argue.
A full scale guitar is ghasp 6% different than the 27" "real" baritone scale. If math still rings true, with the proper tension on the strings, a 27" and 25.5" scale instrument should be able to tune to the same notes.


And you can trust me. I'm a professional.

[Haze]

I have a set of "Not even slinky"s on my p-rail'd telecaster tuned down to Drop C for thrice stuff. No need of a nut adjustment, intonation of course but its set up perfectly now. I THINK it may go down to B but i'm thinking it'll be a bit flimsy.

Those Dano baritones are great for the money, i'd do an Baritone Jag if i could find one cheap enough

[benecol]

I love baritones, they sound amazing, and are great fun to play. The guitar operates in the same range as a violin, whereas a baritone is closer to a cello. Fingerstyle stuff sounds amazing too. Buy a secondhand dano.

[Rox]

Eastwood makes a Sidejack baritone that rocks for $400.

[Sublimedo]

We use a MIJ mustang tuned down to B sometimes and I love it.