Baritone Guitar Tuning

[altrker]

I was just wondering if it is bad or if it is harmfull in any way to tune a baritone guitar to standard tuning. I am looking on assembling and/or buying a baritone and customizing it. but i dont want to be held down to only playing in a low tuning.

thanks!

[drbassman]

I was just wondering if it is bad or if it is harmfull in any way to tune a baritone guitar to standard tuning.  I am looking on assembling and/or buying a baritone and customizing it.  but i dont want to be held down to only playing in a low tuning.

thanks!

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The 30" scale baris, the vintage Fender VI, any old Dano 30" bari, the new Gretsch, all are typically tuned e to e. I suppose you could do so on the 28" ones as well since the new Fender Jaguar Bari is 28.5" scale and tuned e to e.

That help?

[Digideus]

I though the extended scale length reduces the stress of the strings on the neck? I know that a lot of metal players use 27"/28" scale length guitars to keep their strings in tune when they detune and use trems (Bands like Korn and fear factory for instance). please correct me if im wrong.

A friend of mine has built a 30" 8 string baratone with 2 truss rods. He tunes it e flat to e flat with a low b and low f (bass string). you can check it out on www.blackmachine.co.uk. also check out the inlay work he does in the gallery section. laser cut Aluminium inlays.... Soooo sexay!

[drbassman]

All of the baris I mentioned above can be strung with larger (heavier gauge) bari style strings, like the Fender Bass VI flat would set (30" scale) or the new Fender Bari round wound set (28" scale). D'A and LaBella make e to e sets also I believe. The best tone comes from using an actual bari string set, not detuning IMHO.

Edited March 4, 2005 by drbassman