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New Guitar Day for the Moose!
I’ve been playing cello music on guitar and someone suggested a baritone guitar to get closer to cello tone, so I checked the internet for used baritone guitars and up pops this PRS Baritone in my own home town. $700 (550 US) and I’m the proud owner of a PRS!
Some challenges before I record with it: baritone is tuned down 5 frets (my low E chord sounds a B chord) so I’ve gotta transpose everything to play with others or BTs. That takes some mental gymnastics. Also the strings are thicker (14-68) so bending strings is a challenge.
But I love it. Feels great in my hands. And it’s the most beautiful guitar I’ve ever seen. Lovely tobacco-burst. The pics don’t do it justice.
Added some internet pics and a short YouTube demo to see it.
Weirdly, these guitars are super popular with heavy metalers (like the demo) for their BIG tone, but it’s got a whole wide range of tones with a 3-way switch plus another 2-way toggle for humbucker or single coil, so I’m finding my own tones.
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I must admit, I’ve never heard of a baritone guitar. I have a 5-string bass guitar, where the lowest string is a B. So I’m guessing a baritone guitar is basically a 6 string bass but tuned an octave higher. True?
Five-string basses use normal bass strings. Different animal!
There are actually two types of baritone — the original Fender type is indeed more like a bass but tuned higher. These use different strings, I think, that are more like bass strings. I think they’re used a lot for country music, to add a tic-tac bass line.
I think most baritones these days are longer-neck versions of normal guitars that are tuned the same as a normal guitar — that is, depending on how you’ve down-tuned, you can just put a capo on to bring you back to E. These are used by metal bands, to get that really deep growling guitar.
Steinberger’s Synapse series had a baritone with a built-in capo… I might still pick one up at one point, but they’re hard to find.
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I think that sums it up.
It’s in regular guitar tuning, but everything 5 frets down deeper. So I’m learning to automatically transpose keys; if the song is in key of E I play in A.The thicker strings add beef to the tone but also harder to bend and vibrato. But it’s doable with practice.
It was a very lucky combination – found a baritone guitar for my cello work (it’s close to cello tone); very cheap price for a perfect condition 2017 PRS; from the whole world of internet guitar sales the guy lived 10 minutes away; and it was so beautiful I fell in love with it right away. And it feels SO good in my hands. Like it was meant to be.
Hoping to get my new beauty into November Challenge – now which artist to use with the baritone?
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Nice looking guitar. My acoustic baritone is also a 27″ scale length, and its strings are .16 to .70. With the longer scale length, I don’t find the E and B strings (which are actually B and F#) much harder to bend than my other acoustic. I would imagine that the .14s on yours would feel about the same as .12s on another electric, and maybe even .11.
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You’re right, Duffy, it didn’t take long to get those strings bending, and the thicker strings actually allow for better solider “grip”. Same thing with vibrato, I can really grab onto those strings. When I pick up my regular axe the strings seem so thin I’m afraid of breaking them.
I’m really loving this guitar, and the range of tones is phenomenal. The Tone knob also has a toggle switch between the humbuckers and a “split coil” option – from Les Paul to Strat with a flick of a switch.
Nothing like a new guitar to get re-motivated. It’s got me re-evaluating what and how I want to play.
Amazing good fortune; in the whole wide world of internet guitar sales, this beauty was ten minutes from my home. -
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