Expanding Sonic Horizons : Baritone Guitars

Paul Reed Smith SE277 Baritone

What is a baritone guitar? While baritones come in many flavours, in this article we will talk about six string baritones built with a scale length to suit being tuned down one third to be B,E,A,D,F#, B. If that looks a lot like what you would see on a standard concert pitch guitar, other than the F# replacing the G, you’d be right.

The advantage of this tuning, is that all the chord shapes that you already know work as they do on a standard concert pitch guitar. Bonus! Scale shapes will change subtly as you might expect from time to time, but not in an enharmonius way.

Think of your existing guitar, just deeper and richer, a fine counterpoint to concert tuning, or as the primary guitar for your own musings.

My Introduction

I am a big fan of double neck guitars. I just like them, despite their space demands, and in some cases weight. My mid 70’s Ibanez Artistwood, the same model played with great virtuosity by John McLaughlin weighs in just under 20 pounds. One day, I came upon a Gretsch Electromatic Doubleneck in that sparkle silver that only Gretsch does so well that was discounted quite aggressively. Apparently my double neck disease has not spread that widely. Instead of a 6/12 or 6/4 variant this model is a 6 string concert pitch on the lower neck and 6 string baritone on the upper neck. As I judge all guitars by their tone acoustically, I was really very surprised at how great this “cheap” guitar sounded when not plugged in. Plugged into a clean amp, in my case, my much adored Fender Blackface Twin, I was amazed how amazing it sounded on either neck. This only goes to show that made in China or Indonesia does not equate to crap. Gretsch pickups have their own sound and in concert with the tonal response of the wood produce a rich open sound, more warm than bitey. Both necks have Bigsby tailpieces and while this often means spending a lot of time tuning up, the setup on both necks is superb and they hold tune really well.

At that time, great friend Cody (who is primarily a metal player) had been getting into ambient guitar and he turned me on to Chords of Orion on YouTube. The presenter is a very unique cat to be sure, but I learned a lot in a very short time about the pleasure and relaxation that can come from playing ambient guitar. That his principal instruments are baritones was initially surprising, but that changed quickly.

Acoustic Baritones

There are not many builders doing baritone acoustics at all, let alone as production models. All the big names have done one at one time or another, either as Custom Shop runs in very small numbers, or as Limited Editions for a short period. When I was doing research, only the Alvarez label showed a baritone acoustic in production. Since all my baritones are electric, I was curious about an acoustic and noted this to Carl Fuller, owner of The Arts Music Store in Newmarket Ontario. Carl told me that none of his suppliers made baritones at this time, but graciously advised me of a used Taylor 324ce available at a shop down in Toronto. Given that Toronto is in lockdown as I write this, I was reluctant to consider an instrument that I could not play first. I avoid this as much as possible since tone is everything to me, and while everyone has their own opinion, mine is the one that matters to me. I put it off, but curiosity got the best of me. None of the shops near me had baritones in stock, so I made arrangements with the selling shop for a 48 hour evaluation and made the drive down into The Big Smoke (Toronto’s long time nickname). The folks at the shop were super gracious and very professional all along.

When I got the Taylor home, which had been restrung by the selling shop, prior to my pickup, I sat down with great anticipation, given how I love the tone of most of my baritones (more on that later). Something didn’t sound right, off the bat. A quick set of measurements told me that the neck would need some more relief, but that did not clear up buzzing at the first fret on the high strings and on other frets on other strings. I concluded that there was something not right with the neck, but oft times a professional set up can correct a lot of issues. While I think myself quite capable of a good set up, I prefer to have serious ones done by the tech that I work with most, Mr. Kevin Martell. I could see myself needing a new nut as the slots for the high strings were cut too deep and I also expected to have to replace the saddle on the bridge. If the guitar had decent body tone, I would even consider this. However, it’s body tone, resonance and falloff were below what is acceptable to me. This was not a bad guitar, built with Taylor’s typical quality, but it is a used instrument and it’s impossible to know how it was treated by prior owner(s). It was both boomy and spikey in tone, with overtones and upper and lower harmonics that fought with the primary tones. I then plugged it in to my trusted AER Tommy Emmanuel Signature amp, and despite Taylor’s proven Expression System 2, pickup system, it got worse instead of better.

Thus my only experience with an acoustic baritone was negative and the guitar was returned. Someday I hope to try out a different model when stores can open and manufacturers can get back to shipping orders.

Electric Baritones

I love the sound of two of my electric baritones. First is the aforementioned Gretsch. Second is my PRS SE277 solid body baritone. It’s like a regular PRS SE Custom but with the baritone scale length on the neck. It is finished beautifully from the factory and the supplied pickups are incredible as is. Truth to tell, if you are interested in a baritone, the PRS SE277 solid body is THE place to start.

I was so happy with it, I went online to see if I could find a seller with the model from 2017 that was a semi-hollow with P90 pickups. I found one, and bought it sight unseen and unplayed online. It’s not awful. It’s not great either. While I typically adore the tonality of a semi-hollow, this one sounds flat and boring acoustically. The acoustic only tone of the solid body is light years ahead. The PRS P90 pickups do not help either. They have all the downsides of single coils and none of the upsides of a good P90. Listen I get it. I could replace them with a pair of Lollars or Fralins and that could change the guitar to a pleasant instrument but I would be putting $500 CAD into a guitar that cost me about $750 CAD in total and doing so would not change the acoustic response of the body at all. A guitar with poor acoustic tone will never be great no matter what pickups you put in it compared to a guitar with great acoustic tone.

My baritone playing is mostly in the ambient vein. I don’t care for metal or djent and I don’t like fuzz at all so I am going elsewhere. Adding in a great reverb, some auto swell, a bit of subtle drum delay (Dawner Prince Boonar kills at this) and either some chorus or subtle rotary and you can get this wonderful set of tones. Do this into a wet / dry rig (darn you Mick and Dan!) and it gets absolutely spectacular. It’s one of those “sit down to play for 15 minutes, realize that 3 hours has passed” things.

In conclusion, while a baritone may not be right for you, you will have no idea until you try it yourself. I know that it’s tough in some places to get into a guitar store to try instruments, and harder still to find a shop with decent stock levels, so maybe you might have to wait a bit. Still, grant yourself some time to try out baritone, and even if you cannot do it at home, you can get a good sense of the capability, perhaps without the spread and tonal range, if you try it into a good higher end modelling amplifier. It doesn’t have to have earth shattering power, just enough so you can hear yourself clearly. If you’ve not tried baritone, you do not know what you are missing!

Until next time, peace.