Tenor, baritone and paired 3-string guitars...?

August 24, 2010 1:36 PM

Anyone got any experience of playing slightly off-piste guitar variants like this and this and this? Are they amusing gimmicks or worth investigating?
posted by MajorDundee (14 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

I've played baritone guitar a few times, mostly for twangy surf stuff. It's a nice thing to have in the studio, and every time I see one I'm tempted to buy it. But I wouldn't spend a whole hunk of change on one -- I'd look at something like this Italia, I think.

I like my guitars to be as different from each other as possible so I think these kinds of variations can be very useful. Currently I have a jazzmaster and 335 as my 'vanilla' guitars, then there's the acoustic, then there's a Burns 12-string, then there's a Tele in Nashville tuning. Each of them covers a bit of sonic territory that the others don't, so I'm always looking for something that will fill out another part of the palette. So a baritone would fit right in there, as would a lap steel, as would something like a mandolin, and so on...
posted by unSane at 5:16 PM on August 24, 2010


Or this Eastwood baritone for $449... I've thought about it a few times. Mike Robinson, who's a good guy, has an interesting article about baritones here.
posted by unSane at 5:20 PM on August 24, 2010


(Note the trem on that Eastwood... trem on a baritone is a wonderful thing).
posted by unSane at 5:20 PM on August 24, 2010


Clearly, you need a basitar and/or a guitbass: guitars strung with bass strings, a la The Presidents of the United States of America. For a basitar, the strings are placed in the D and A positions. Use a .60 gauge string tuned to C# and a .36 tuned to G#. On a guitbass, the strings are placed in the A, D, and G positions. .54 gauge tuned to C#, .42 to G#, and a .32 gauge tuned to C#.

I recommend modifying a cheap, crappish guitar, as you'll have to widen the nut with like a knife for those strings to fit properly. Do this, and we can finally do that cover of Peaches I've always wanted to do.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 9:12 AM on August 25, 2010


One of the attractions of the baritone over the (admittedly cool) basitar and guitbass is that it preserves the fingering of Spanish tuning, if that's what you're used to. I can handle different tunings to a certain extent, but it always takes a bit of thinking about. One of the things I like about Nashville tuning is that all the fingerings are identical but the sound is entirely different. Drop-D, double drop-D, open-E and open-G are similar enough for me to Spanish that I don't have to think about them that much.
posted by unSane at 6:30 PM on August 25, 2010


and we can finally do that cover of Peaches I've always wanted to do.

I'd consider a cover of this Peaches.....but not that one. Which is more of an apricot by comparison (heh). In fact The Stranglers are ripe (pun intended) for covering - Golden Brown, No More Heroes, etc. A very cool band in their day. Don't know how they fared in the USA. Not that they'd have given a flying fuck.....
posted by MajorDundee at 2:31 PM on August 26, 2010


And thanks guys for the useful comments on variant geetars. A link to someone actually playing one of these things would be cool - I'd like to hear what they sound like.

Can you give me a bit more of a steer on "Nashville tuning" unSane? I've heard of it but don't know any more than that. I used to be very sniffy about open tunings (seemed like cheating) but I'm less up myself these days and more open to different approaches..
posted by MajorDundee at 2:38 PM on August 26, 2010


Nashville tuning is not an open tuning. What it is is the top set of strings from a 12-string, so EADG are all tuned an octave up, and BE are at regular pitch. So it fingers exactly like a regular six string in Spanish but it sounds quite different. You can hear it on an acoustic at the beginning of the Stones' WILD HORSES, and Johnny Marr plays the main riff on WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING using it.

It's really nice for doubling a guitar part without filling up the bottom end. You tend to feel it more than hear it, but in a good way. Traditionally it's used on an acoustic but I like it on a single coil electric. It's a bit strange on its own as the B tends to ring quite loud, but it's kinda like playing capoed quite high on the neck, except a lot janglier.

Decent demo of a Danelectro baritone here.
posted by unSane at 3:32 PM on August 26, 2010


(But I can't help adding that the most fun guitar I've bought recently was a drum kit)
posted by unSane at 6:55 PM on August 26, 2010


in the last few months i've added a couple of guitars

one is a dead on '67 danelectro baritone - it can be like a deeper telecaster or it can be less twangy and more throaty - on the neck pickup with the tone all the way down, one can even get into deep metal territory - it's a versatile instrument - it's hard to find and i think they stopped making them - i was lucky enough to get one for 360$ and it's certainly worth it

i also bought a silvertone by samick for 49 bucks at guitar center in south bend - just a junk, but playable strat copy - i didn't want to do this with a GOOD guitar - what i did was to replace the bottom 3 strings with ones an octave higher - it's like nashville tuining only the g string stays the same instead of being an octave up - i fingerpick with it and aside from lots of jangle, it's got some fascinating patterns that are possible with this arrangement

changing strings this drastically could have negative effects on setup and health of a guitar - which is why i'm using a 49 buck cheapie to do it

you haven't heard me play these yet, but you will
posted by pyramid termite at 10:04 PM on August 28, 2010


I have a Gretsch Jet Baritone, which I used playing with the band Saladabar. you can hear it in this post.

I've also played the danelectro baritone, which is pretty much the standard baritone guitar. I much prefer the gretsch as it's a much better built guitar with a wider range of tones. i have the tremolo on my gretsch flipped over so it's locked, which helps it stay in tune better when bending strings.
posted by mexican at 7:25 PM on August 30, 2010


Just finished mutilating my Telecaster into a guitbass this weekend, and it's excellent.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 7:54 PM on August 30, 2010


hmm - on my recent travels around the web, i've noticed that people seem to like to turn telecasters into basses - is there something special about doing that?
posted by pyramid termite at 8:56 PM on August 30, 2010


I just happened to have a tele, but Dave Dederer from PUSA always played on fender guitbasses. That .60 gauge string fought like hell to get on there, but really, all it takes is the right gauge of string, and a nut file. Of course, you have to be careful to only widen the nut, not deepen it, lest you get tons of buzz.
posted by askmeaboutLOOM at 9:36 PM on August 30, 2010


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