baritone guitars for non-doom usage?

[dubkitty]

now that the strings have settled in i was able to tune down to B. it’s pretty stable, much better than before i augmented the Ernie Ball set. chords are reasonably in tune, and it holds tuning reasonably well. i think it’s now .012/.017/.024W/.034/.046/.056. the wound 3d string works tons better than the unwound .024 in the EB set.

i’m very puzzled by the question of what kind of pickups would work best, which to an extent dictates what kind of instrument i’m considering. i’m not a fan of lipstick-tube pickups, the P-90 versions don’t really sound very good, humbuckers would be too metal, and as i previously said the Jazzmaster pickups are not ideal. it’s a bit weird that the only baritone i’ve come across whose sound i really like is the Gretsch with those weird mini-Gretschbuckers. the trends in baritone guitar demos don’t help, either.

it’s interesting working in an area where i haven’t a clue as to what the fuck i’m doing. i’m literally like “what even can i do with this low-pitched thing?”

[Blackened Soul]

It depends on what you want to play.. I’ve been tuning that way since 97… but then metalz mini humbuckers are cool for low tunings though as they have less lows but don’t sound like danos or teles (which I love ) I have a Duncan firebird neck pickup in my 5 string cello tuned baritone guitar… it’s pretty cool.

Also.. have listened to zztop’s Rhythmeen album? Lots of detuned stuff..

Alsoalso musikraft makes baritone necks https://musikraft.com/product/baritone- ... tom-build/ cheaper than fender.. I have a custom bassvi neck from them, they are on par with warmoth.

If I hat to build a new non-metalz bari today.. I’d go jm body ash or pine, bigsby, rio grande halfbreed bridge pickup and a strat or mini humbucker neck pickup, with toggles for series, single and parallel..

[dubkitty]

the Musikraft necks seem good, but good lord, what a list of parameters! i'm not even used to thinking about most of that stuff because i play on a host of different neck profiles.

[dubkitty]

the Aria Pro II baritone is startlingly good. i think i like it better than the Gretsch. and it's $419 brand new, with used ones around $350. which makes it almost as affordable as a Musikraft neck when you add in tuners and hardware. i do like the idea of getting something else so i can have my Jazzmaster back...i spent a fair bit of time fixing it up and making it work for me.



interestingly, the Aria and Gretsch are both 30" scale. he's not kidding when he says "this guitar is HUGE"...it'd make me look like Malcolm Young with his White Falcon, which i'm pretty sure he could have hidden behind.

[Blackened Soul]

I think it looks rad, I like that it has normal pickup types so you upgrade if you want, not a strat trem fan, but if you are more power to you. The size thing is funny.. to you it’s huge.. to me it looks small… but then a pbass looks like a strat on me

[dubkitty]

that wouldn’t be my preferred option. in a perfect world it’d have a Jazzmaster trem. but i’m working in the realm of the possible here. i’m not sure setting that Strat-style trem to float would work, and i don’t love trems where i can’t bend symmetrically up and down when i make notes wobble. in the demo he does note that you need 5 springs to offset the string tension.

good point about the pickups. there are a few weird options, e.g. Fender’s now selling CuNiFe Strat pickups with adjustable polepieces. i’m a bit reluctant to get into speccing changes to a guitar i haven’t even seen yet. but changing pickups would be way easier than on the Gretsch. i took those mini-hums out of my Pro Jet and ir was a serious ass-pain getting Dynasonics in. i guess mini-humbuckers with mounting rings would do the thing. i really like the idea of Firebird pickups.

[dubkitty]

yeah, i’m small enough that 25.5” guitars other than Teles and my Lead II are a bit outsized for me. Les Pauls, Duo Jets, and Guild Aristocrats are about right for me. i love the Aristocrat because it’s so light that it’s barely even there.

[Gone Fission]

On humbuckers in baritones, they might go over better wired in parallel. Ages ago I ran across a 90s Dano Longhorn bass reissue that was modded into a bass 6 that I plugged into a little Fender combo and it was way, way too gainy. I think I may have had it in the middle position without knowing that the pickups were series-wired, like a humbucker’s coils are. (Amp may have been modded or at a minimum 12ax7s subbed in for the stock 12ay7s, too, but I didn’t ask what was up with it since the experience was not working for me.) Skinnier sounding pickups seem to do better as the tunings drop. (Somehow that’s adjacent to cutting bass before gain for the heavies.)

[Blackened Soul]

i guess mini-humbuckers with mounting rings would do the thing. i really like the idea of Firebird pickups.

They work pretty well.

Also.. there is tv jones.. they make most of their stuff in a bucker mount… doesn’t look as cool but..

[Zork]

The Aria is cool, I was looking at it for a long time as a possible backup for my Bass VI when I was gigging with Bass VI only but for baritone tuning, I would avoid 30" scale. It's really long.

[dubkitty]

IIRC that’s the scale length of my Mustang Bass. it’s sitting in its case 5 feet from me, so i’ll check it. the problem is that i like the sound of these 30” guitars better than the Fenders with their 27.78” scale (according to listings for Fender conversion necks).

[dubkitty]

i got out the Mustang Bass and was immediately waylaid by having to set it up because it hadn't been touched since last summer and the truss rod and bridge needed fixed. now that it's going i really don't know if a guitar in this scale would work for me. it's great for bass, but particularly on the first few frets i need Bob Weir hands to reach anything more complicated than a 2-note chord. on the other hand i'm not planning on playing it like a guitar, so...

i'm thinking that if 30" necks are impractical i might as well do something Jazzmaster-based. they would take 27.78" Strat conversion necks and though i don't adore the sound of the CVJM pickups in baritone tuning they're better than the Baritone Telecasters by a wide margin. and between TV Jones and Mojo Pickups there are a number of options for other pickups in a JM shell as well as a plethora of different JM options, out of which i'd lean towards Duncan Antiquities because the ones in my Duo Sonic are so great. maybe something in a Dynasonic stylie would be cool. there's also CuNiFe pickups, Filtertrons, and others. i don't know whether it would be better to convert my current JM and then get one for regular guitar, or to spec one from scratch. i really like the JM as-is, but i have a nagging suspicion i could do better. i reckon i could put together the second body and then decide.

[Blackened Soul]

That was smart, you do need it to be playable for you and what you play. I had to go the other way on bassvi, I play lots of bare chords and drones, for my hands the majority of the necks were all to narrow.. I ended up the a eastwood shergold copy because the neck is massive… it’s basically the same width as a classical guitar….

didn’t squire make a baritone jazzmaster/jaguar? No trem though.,

[dubkitty]

gotta have a trem. i'd settle for a Bigsby, but for this i'd prefer something with a bit more wobble, a JM trem or one of those Kay/Teisco trems with the chrome cover like i have on the Kondor.

30" scale on the Baritone Jazzmaster. i was going for a second there. they also apparently were going for $2000 2 years ago, but the one i found on Reverb is half that. which is still well over budget.

the more i think about it, the more i think a JM with a conversion neck would be the thing. the overly long lower bout would come in handy to counterbalance the weight shift towards the headstock due to the longer neck. if i'm clever i could pull that off for around what the Aria would cost. 1 Squier loaded JM body, 1 conversion neck. i'm keeping the Am Pro II trem on the stardard-tuning one, though. probably end up getting another for the baritone eventually, but i could get going with a regular Squier JM trem. they're not wonderful, but they do the thing. perhaps, like the Kondor, coincidence is leading me to the answer that'll actually work.

[dubkitty]

this guy put Fender CuNiFe humbuckers in JM shells in his Squier Mascis JM. i think these would be deadly in a baritone because they're fat in the lows without getting flubby and retain more high end.