baritone - talk me in/out

[swarfrat]

Been pondering again about the baritone... been spending more time building up the drum kit than buying guitar stuff lately, but ... I'm starting to think some more about the baritone electric.. I *Love* my Alvarez ABT-60. I tune it to C or C#, and I find it just works WELL for my voice.

So I got my old BK body sitting on a shelf, it's been mauled and mutilated. 13 pin jack (still wanting to get to that - just scored an "untested" GK-3 pickup, dumping the piezos). Battery compartment.  I screwed up one of the mounting holes on the Wenge neck trying to mount inserts, got it cockeyed and got bummed about the whole deal. Then decided short scale is the wrong direction for me.

Budget is tight, or rather - I'm impatient. Toy budget has a trickle charge that would cover a neck in about two months for a basic maple/maple neck  - if I can quit buying other toys. My absolute favorite guitar the last 20 years has been my maple necked Zion (ESP parts)  - I have a GFS Memphis II in the bridge, and it totally rocks. Not sure if I'd go that route, as I already have one but... honestly it does what I like.

I'm kinda thinking a raw maple fatback with factory standard dots (because its maple, on a dark board I wouldn't get em), and tru-oil finish. Either keep the Mean 90's, or switch to a pair of Memphis, unblock the VS100.  With the GK pickup finally in motion, I'm thinking this is obviously the guitar it needs to go in.

Here she is with the short neck:

Maple/Maple?  Wenge was nice but I was going for that compressed midrange shortscale thing with it. This is more the fierce tight spank / growl, tight AC-30 / JCM 800 drive thing. I'm curious about Padouk for a bright toned raw finish. Not sure about the fingerboard. But honestly... part of me is going screw looks, go get yourself a $180 maple baritone fatback, both for cost and tonal reasons.

 

[mayfly]

Ya know, if you think it will advance your art / playing then you should just do it.

I did the same thing with b-benders 7 years ago and my playing and just general STUFF I can do with the instrument is at a whole other level. 

Do it.

 

[swarfrat]

Ya know.. not sure if this is "advancing" or "cheating", but TBH I just find songs written around that A - shuffle  pattern just work better in F# or G. It's kinda funny, but I guess I always wanted to be a rock star.. and now I am. I have only one fan, and yeah it last for about 10 years before you become uncool, then after yet another 10 you can see if you were cool all along.  But my son actually motivates me to play. We don't play every day, but probably 5 nights out of the week we come in here together and jam. And I spend a lot more time playing songs and less time noodling because my audience (and drummer) has the attention span of a toddler.  I'm also singing while playing more, which is immensely helpful to both. I generally have a lot less time for all the crap that tinkerer guitar players tend to obsess over and that's motivating me differently.  A lot like parenting in general... busy as a one armed paper hanger, but it usually makes you a better person for it.  Tonight my drummer couldn't make rehearsal because he had his drum privileges revoked (being ugly to mommy at meal time).

[youtube]FgBXOucduGc[/youtube]

It got rained out last year, but I'm kinda hoping to get a couple song slot at an all afternoon outdoor shindig the church puts on in early summer. And YES, I think I am going to have him as my drummer. I think I can manage a few kids songs with a drummer who might or might not be playing on tempo, since he's so cute. (Pete Best got a raw deal, I'm telling ya. And he actually does a pretty darned good job of trying to follow tempo most of the time.)

So yeah, getting an electric strung to match my acoustic (and voice) seems a worthwhile goal in general. Not just for now, but to quit messing around with toys and go do something. After looking at a few  mockups though.. just not sure about the maple board. That BK body has to have a dark simple fingerboard or it doesn't really work.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

IN

You won't regret it.
I built mine to force me to explore different tones & styles outside of my stock genre, and it has certainly expanded my musical vocabulary in the process.

http://unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15644.105

 

[fdesalvo]

Here she is with the short neck:

That is an amazing guitar.  If I was in your boat and set on going baritone, I'd lean towards a brighter toned neck, like maple, ebony(!), PF, Afra...

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Here she is with the short neck:

That is an amazing guitar.  If I was in your boat and set on going baritone, I'd lean towards a brighter toned neck, like maple, ebony(!), PF, Afra...

+1 ↑

You'll need the added clarity and tighter low end.  Those P90 voiced pickups should do wonderfully.

 

[swarfrat]

My initial thought was go grab a $180 maple/maple fatback.  But the mockups ... I dunno if maple is right. Definitely not for the fingerboard. Pau Ferro is a possible. Or ebony.  What about Bloodwood vs Padouk? What's Padouk look like once it oxidizes a bit?

Not sure if I'm keeping the Mean 90's, I might swap em for GFS Memphis in both spots.

 

[Cagey]

I wouldn't discount Maple so quickly. That's gonna be a longer, heavier neck, and roasted Maple is surprisingly light while still being stiff and bright. Plus, it doesn't need a finish so it will burnish up beautifully. Your hand will slide up and down that length like a it's greased. All things considered, I'd say that would be an almost perfect wood for a baritone.

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I wouldn't discount Maple so quickly. That's gonna be a longer, heavier neck, and roasted Maple is surprisingly light while still being stiff and bright. Plus, it doesn't need a finish so it will burnish up beautifully. Your hand will slide up and down that length like a it's greased. All things considered, I'd say that would be an almost perfect wood for a baritone.

My Bari-Tele neck is Maple/Rosewood, no neck dive, very balanced. 
It wears well.

 

[fdesalvo]

Roasted maple with black ebony board!

 

[Cagey]

My Bari-Tele neck is Maple/Rosewood, no neck dive, very balanced. 
It wears well.

I wasn't thinking about neck dive so much as just overall weight. Maybe I'm just sensitive to it, but I was playing a Thunderbird bass yesterday and 1/2 hour into it I thought I was gonna fall down. Felt like it weighed 287 pounds.

Speaking of heavy, I have an unusual number of necks in the house at the moment, and one of them is a Bubinga over Goncalo Alves part that's surprisingly beefy. With tuners on it, the thing rings up at 2.15 pounds, as opposed to a the lightest which is a roasted Maple part that weighs in at 1 pound exactly. Quite a range for what appear to be identical Strat necks.

 

[Cagey]

Roasted maple with black ebony board!

That would be a super-sweet neck! I'll have to find an excuse to use one eventually.

 

[swarfrat]

Roast maple is smelling sweet here, and not too much of a premium. Obviously ebony looks nice with this guitar, hmmm will keep muling over the fingerboards.

 

[Cagey]

Well, it's not as white as regular Maple, so the headstock wouldn't stand out too much. Match the body better. And I went back and looked at your mock-up - definitely Ebony 'board. Bloodwood feels about the same, but I can't see that color against that body. Bloodwood and Padouk both belong more on black, white or red bodies. Although, I have an Ebony over Bloodwood neck that I absolutely love. Also very heavy, but like Ebony over Pau Ferro, it's sex on a stick. Still, for that fiddle, I think I'd still do Ebony over roasted Maple.

 

[swarfrat]

Not a bari, but ebony & pancakes. Hmmmm

 

[mayfly]

Just watched the video - kid falling off the stool made me laugh  :headbang:

When my youngest was 2 we had a full drumset in the house.  One day he was playing it and he lost control of the sticks and on a tremendous whack they both went flying up in the air!  They came crashing down around him.  He sat there for a second then looked at me and said "Fantastic!!".  Then he did it again  :headbang:

 

[swarfrat]

Yeah, I still laugh out loud every time I watch it.

The roast fingerboard mockup doesn't look as bad as I thought, but ebony is a clear winner:

 

[swarfrat]

Not roasted but ... maple / ebony (not masaccar, not black, but with some streaking)

$231 w/ SS 6105 frets.

There's a plain black not dyed neck the same price and it's a fatback. Hmmmm. Come on bonus, come on bonus!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

I suspect a Bari-Fat would be quite the resonant bat.

Even with the standard thin, I've never had to adjust the truss rod, and I live in the Seattle area.

 

[fdesalvo]

That thing looks insane!