Raised B and Baritone...

[grock]

So can you play baritone on a 6er?

I tried the other day. All it did was sound like a giant nasty fart.


peace

the string guages you'd have to use are just huge. like the low B would be a .07 to get the same tension and you're intonation is gonna be terrible.

[paywad927]

i read on the site faq that you should use extra light strings when stringing a guitar to raised b. do the strings have to be extra light or would light strings work too?

[ElGuitarrista]

Regarding your original question, it's not so easy to set up a standard guitar in baritone tuning. I talked to the workers at a local guitar store about this a few weeks ago, since I wanted to experiment writing songs in baritone tuning (I have a deep voice and thought the lower register would go well with my voice).

The scale length on a baritone guitar is longer that of a standard guitar. So, if you tune a regular guitar down to BEADF#B you apparantly run into intonation problems in the upper frets. It's also difficult to get enough tension in the strings to make the guitar playable, since you're loosening them so much when tuning down.

I did some research and ended up buying an Avante acoustic baritone. I'm really pleased with it. See link below:

http://www.musicyo.com/brandpos.asp?dept_id=15

Based on my research, this is the only sub-$1000 acoustic baritone on the market. Alvarez makes one that runs for about $1500. I've also heard that Taylor will build you one (like they built Dave one), but I'm sure it will cost in excess of $2000 (I haven't called them on it, that's just a speculation). There are also a few custom builders out there, but were talking $3000-$4000 minimum.

Anyway, the baritone is cool to play with. The scale is longer than a standard acoustic and the strings are thicker. If anyone has specific questions about the Avante, feel free to PM me.

Later-
ElGuitarrista

[DT]

those guitars look really cool, a lot like breedloves

now i want a baritone

[smedley]

TOP instead of starting a new topic...

i'm still kind of confused on the raised B and baritone tunings...

if I tune my normal 6 string to raised B (like how it's explained in the FAQ), will I be able to play baritone songs like Space Between or stuff like that? or will it not sound right unless on a baritone guitar?

[jeffro]

It will be the exact same notes as if you were playing on a baritone, but an octave up, so yes it will sound weird.

[filmdude100cms]

wont be the same, its an octave higher, and baritone guitars use differnt string gauges, and have a longer scale.

[smedley]

ohh, ok, thanks guys!... i got a new guitar for christmas so i was gonna tune my old one to the raised B and just wanted to ask about it before i do