WTB Baritone electric

dwheeldo

Hi,

I'm looking for a baritone guitar, but sadly there don't seem to be many of them about these days. Ideally I'd like either a (now sadly discontinued) blacktop Telecaster or an Eastwood Airline Map, and my budget is up to about £500.

I'm not really interested in Danelectros or the cheaper Eastwood Sidejack.

Anyone got one of these low growling beasts cluttering up their house?

Cheers,
Dave

Lodious

I've never played one, but I watched Lera Lynn's band last year, and the guitarist used a Koren made Gretsch baritone. It sounded amazing. After the gig I had a chat with him and he raved about it. He had some of the more expensive Japanese gretsches, and thought this was nearly as good for a lot less money. 

I think it was one of these....

https://www.andertons.co.uk/p/2515900506/solid-body-electric-guitars/gretsch-g5265-jet-baritone-in-black-sparkle

Might be worth a look?

ToneControl

what kind of sound do want, I've owned a few, still have a few

ToneControl

and what tuning?

dwheeldo

@Lodious  - Yeah, I tried one of those recently, sounded lovely. But there's something in my brain saying I shouldn't spend that much money on plywood! That's daft though!

dwheeldo

ToneControl said:

and what tuning?

I'd be playing in B standard, and I'm after more of the big, round shoegaze sound than surf, so ideally I'd like at least one humbucker in there. Which ones have you got/had?

dwheeldo

Bump

ToneControl

I have had 3 Shecter 30 inch scale ones:

2 used Hellcats, they are about £350-£400 used: one sunburst with mini humbuckers, one black with 3 Jaguar-style pickups
I rewired that with EMG SA pickups, and the Dave Gilmour active EQ. It's between Mex and USA fender quality
I found the HBs were too muddy with the thicker strings

a new Schecter Hellraiser C-VI BC, for about 950 Euros when the pound was strong. That has active EMG splittable 89 and 81 pickups. Definitely as nice as my USA and Jap Fenders
I play this one the most

A steinberger transcale. I had 2 but sold one
this about 28.6 inch scale, active EMGs with active EQ, and a piezo
you can string this with 10s or 16s. This is the one that convinced me that you should get active EQ

also a black-top baritone tele, 27 inch scale
I found this sounded poor with 16s, so just use 9-46 or 10s, tuned D-D
I replaced the pickups, once again the HB sounded rubbish, I fitted a SCN tele neck pickups, and a Joe Barden 2-tone pickup 

I have found that you need 29 or 30 inch scales to use B-B. With shorter scales, it sounds weird, the same way that a short scale bass doesn't sound wight, sort of a plunky sound that sounds a bit hollow on the lower notes

Give me the name of a player and track that's on spotify so I can assess your target sound

samzadgan

ToneControl said:

I have found that you need 29 or 30 inch scales to use B-B. With shorter scales, it sounds weird, the same way that a short scale bass doesn't sound wight, sort of a plunky sound that sounds a bit hollow on the lower notes

not sure i agree with that...i've been playing B-B for year on a 24.75, 25 and 25.5 scale guitars...never had any issues...it comes down to how heavy your strings are...i go back and forth between 12-60 and 13-62 strings, and have no weirdness or hollowness...in fact its a lot fuller than anything else i've played.

on the baritone front...have you looked at the ones that Hagstrom did? They have humbuckers too...i think its called the viking deluxe?

ToneControl

samzadgan said:

ToneControl said:

I have found that you need 29 or 30 inch scales to use B-B. With shorter scales, it sounds weird, the same way that a short scale bass doesn't sound wight, sort of a plunky sound that sounds a bit hollow on the lower notes

not sure i agree with that...i've been playing B-B for year on a 24.75, 25 and 25.5 scale guitars...never had any issues...it comes down to how heavy your strings are...i go back and forth between 12-60 and 13-62 strings, and have no weirdness or hollowness...in fact its a lot fuller than anything else i've played.

on the baritone front...have you looked at the ones that Hagstrom did? They have humbuckers too...i think its called the viking deluxe?

those must be very low tension, do you have a very light touch?
see http://vinic.free.fr/strings/

My first baritones were acoustic

The first was a 30 inch classical, tuned E to E (one octave down). The tone sounded poor for 2 reasons: the body was not big enough to resonate for notes below B, and also the strings did not sound like classical guitar strings, they were too thick, the way they plucked and resonated sounded odd. When I tried thinner strings (Quintbass set (A to A, top string nylon), it sounded much better on both scores

I then got a 27 inch acoustic steel strung, tried the 16-70 sets, etc
it sounded odd, and string vibrato and bends sounded odd: the notes bent at a different ratio against tension applied
When To got a 29 inch acoustic, those problems vanished, with the same strings

I'm playing the electrics with crystal-clear strat type sounds, so if you are using OD or crunch patches, this may be less apparent, but even then I'd worry about the first part of the note being out of tune when using very low-tension tunings

dwheeldo

Some interesting points guys, thanks. I have to say I quite like the sound of shorter scale guitars, when you get that slight 'warble' as you first hit a chord. Personal preference, I guess!