Another baritone question (brands etc)

Creed_Clicks

ToneControl said:

what budget?
what scale length?
what tuning?
what style?

Well, I'm not a pro, so not a pro budget. The neck I ordered is a tele neck, so it'll be a tele body. I'd probably keep it as a standard tele setup. Will tune B to B/C to C.

Mainly indie, alt rock, clean, just breaking up. I won't be playing heavy metal.

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

ToneControl said:

what budget?
what scale length?
what tuning?
what style?

Well, I'm not a pro, so not a pro budget. The neck I ordered is a tele neck, so it'll be a tele body. I'd probably keep it as a standard tele setup. Will tune B to B/C to C.

Mainly indie, alt rock, clean, just breaking up. I won't be playing heavy metal.

what scale length?

Beware of how muddy the sound can get, I've found humbuckers rarely work

Creed_Clicks

It will be a 27.7 scale neck. I'll keep the tele tuners, as standard.

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

It will be a 27.7 scale neck. I'll keep the tele tuners, as standard.

OK, so my advice is, and it's a personal taste thing: don't try to go too low with that scale length
My findings are that there is a sweet spot for gauge and tuning for each scale length. For my 27 inch blacktop baritone, it's D-D with normal strings or one gauge up. my 30 inch ones do B-B fine with full on baritone gauge sets.
The result is that if you go too low and too heavy a gauge,  the instrument stops sounding like a guitar, which is not what I want - but is exactly what some people are looking for of course.

I use this site to work out what gauges can work:
http://vinic.free.fr/strings/
try to keep the tensions close to your normal gauge and tuning

Creed_Clicks

Good to know. I've seen some hard rock guys play regular scale guitars tuned down. I'm going to aim to tune to B in any case.

ToneControl

Creed_Clicks said:

Good to know. I've seen some hard rock guys play regular scale guitars tuned down. I'm going to aim to tune to B in any case.

worth a try, if it sounds flubby to you, then try C or C# with lighter strings

Creed_Clicks

There's a guy in Ireland selling walnut bodies for teles. They sure as hell look good and might help with any potential neck dive

ToneControl

Also: think about active pickups and active EQ like a bass, I've found that it's not so easy to dial in a sound on a bari

Creed_Clicks

So my Allparts tele neck arrived today. On we go!

Creed_Clicks

Neck and body bought so far, and small bits of hardware. Not too sure what pickups to get....
Had thought about Seymour Duncan, then looked at the Bare Knuckle Yardbirds, which might be what I'll go for....

ToneControl

It's hard to be sure that you'd share my assessment, but I'd say that based on owning 6 baritone electrics (only 3 now), the last thing you would want for playing clean on a baritone is pickups with boosted mids, I'd ask BK about that idea before buying them

Creed_Clicks

I'd never have thought about the boosted mids... I am thinking about something standard enough though.

Looks like the dimarzio twang kings have boosted mids, whereas something like the SD alnico IIs or vintage teles don't, so might be a good option.

ToneControl

whichever pickups I have used on any of mine, they have ended up sounded muddier and more mid-heavy than you would normal expect for the pickup used, because of the string gauge and the tuning. If you want clarity in your cleans, I'd be looking at the lower-wind / vintage-wound / brighter pickups

Creed_Clicks

Ah ok. I'd probably just narrow it down to SD or diMarzio. I can always swap out down the line. Will be playing slightly dirty / overdriven, but not hard rock / heavy metal.

Creed_Clicks

The last piece of the puzzle. Pickups! No idea. Hand wound or not. Oil City etc...

Creed_Clicks

Took a punt on a set of Iron Gear standard tele pickups. I can always upgrade after a while. Had a set of them in a previous baritone build, and they were fine for what I was using it for.