speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

[dani]

hi guys,

contemplating converting one of my underused strat to a baritone using warmoth's baritone conversion neck to explore new sonic territory. i am thinking of tuning it one octave below a guitar along the veins of fender's bass vi or bajo sexto tele.

viable options are schecter's new hellcat vi and usacg's baritone vi. but i do not have the moolah to spent on those. however, all the said guitars uses a 30" scale unlike a normal baritone.

question is, can i tune one whole octave down (e,a,d,g,b,e) with a 28 5/8" scaled neck?

cheers!
dani

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

You can, but it will be a bit floppy...for that tuning you really need a 30 inch scale...If you looking for some real low down dirty madness...With the 28 5/8 and some good heavy strings you can do a G tuning...G, C, F, Bb, D, G...I like it alot

[dani]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

i am looking to go somewhere between the guitar and the bass. hence the tuning. i don't mind using all wound strings ala a six-string bass. btw, what gauge of strings are we looking at? pardon me, but i am pretty new to the world of baritones.

[the guy who invented fire]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

Well,

A Fender Bass VI tuned E to E like a Guitar just an octave lower uses this...
.025/.035/.045/.055/.075/.095 These are all wound strings.

Think about this, a Strat or Tele is a 25 1/2 incan scale, a Mustang, or a Jaguar is 24 inch even...that is a difference of 1.5 inches. The Warmoth Bari Conversion is 28 5/8, while the Fender Bass VI is 30 inchs flat...this is a difference of 1.25 inches. My point is that some guys might use 10's on both a Strat and a Jag...If I were you I'd get a set of Bass VI strings, and try that for a while...if it flopps too much go with something else. I think that the strings mentioned above will be a great starting point. Just as a Side note...for the price of a Bari neck, tning keys, a nut, etc...you could get into a Danelectro Baritone, used they dont bring too much money...just a thought.

[dani]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

is it possible to compromise string gauge and tension?

for example,

a 30" scaled length fender bass vi, tuned e to e one octave lower than guitar uses .025/.035/.045/.055/.075/.095

can a 28 5/8" scaled baritone guitar use .030/.040/.050/.060/.080/.100 to achieve the same result?

[MikeRocker]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

I'm building a Warmoth baritone now, and am going to shoot for tuning it to B (I'll see how that works when I string up). D'Addario makes some baritone sets, .013 and .014 for the high string, you can check them out on their website. I A/B's a Danelectro baritone to an Ernie Ball a while back in Guitar Center. I dug the idea of the Danny, but the Ernie Ball just blew it away, no comparison. The EB justified costing about 5 times more. That's why I decided to build one myself. One thing about tuning down a full octave, it will clash with the bass (unless you're using it instead of a bass) and chords will be really muddy. Also, it might be hard to find tuners to fit those thick gauges. I'm not sure if Warmoth can route a Baritone neck for bass tuners (there's probably not enough room on the headstock). I've run into this problem: I have a set of locking Schallers for my baritone, but the 6th sting won't fit in the hole, so I had to get a non-locking Gotoh for that one string. The Gotoh will take a .062, but it won't take a .070. And neither gauge would fit in the Schallers. I should be done in a few weeks, I can let you know how it turns out...

[dani]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

hey mike,

i presume fender bass vi used klusons then. maybe a gotoh kluson type will fit? i am really new to the world of baritones. i don't intend to use it for metal, but more for creating texture in a song. think the cure. schecter came out with the hellcat vi which robert smith uses. its tuned to e on a 30" scale. they are using grover tuners if i am not mistaken.

[MikeRocker]

Re: speaking of baritones - warmoth baritone conversion neck

Hey Dani,
I'm looking to use mine for texture too, as well as twangy stuff. I got my tuners from Stewart-McDonald (www.stewmac.com) and they were really helpful, I called and spoke to a technician and he was able to tell me if the string gauges would fit in the particular tuners I had in mind. You can e-mail them questions too. It's really important to get this all figured out before you order the neck, because the peghead has to be reamed for whatever tuners you choose, as they are not all the same size. I actually ordered the tuners and bought a couple of sets of baritone strings to make sure they were compatible before I ordered the neck. Nothing would be worse than to have a brand-new custom made neck that was incompatible with the tuners you have to use (again, because you have limited options with thick baritone strings).