guitar with bass strings too

[SpiffyChee]

ok. soo i really really want a baritone guitar. but i also want a bass for some things even though i play guitar.

would it be possible to have a 28" baritone guitar and put 3 guitar strings and 3 bass strings on it? would the guitar scale work with the frets? or would it have to be longer? ooorrrr would it be possible to buy a bass and put guitar strings on it?

has anyone done anything similar to this before? or have a solution to my problem?

 

[theboatcandream]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

I have a 80 guage string tuned to a low A on one of my guitars and it only has a 24.75" scale. Works great for me.

 

[Hellion]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

I think you'd be better off just buying a bari, but in the world of luthery, anything is possible....

 

[Loserchief]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

28" is way too short for any bass notes to not feel like playing spaghettis. Go with a bari and get the bass later on.

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

Chick from Jucifer has a really heavy bass string on her Squier. You can do it. Tune the guitar to the octave between bass and guitar, with the lightest three bass strings and the heaviest three guitar strings you can find. It'll be weird but it'll work.

-X

 

[baritone]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

Yes, it can be done. It would require some extra setting up, but bass strings can be put onto a regular guitar or a baritone.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

There are hybrid guitar/bass instruments out there. A guy named Charlie Hunter plays one, an 8-string. This is his signature model:

http://www.novaxguitars.com/sales/ch8.html

Conklin makes hybrids too. Typically they are "fan-fret" guitars as on the Charlie Hunter above, where the frets are further apart on the lower strings so each string literally has its own scale length.

http://www.conklinguitars.com/hollowbody/hollowbodyimages/fhole8descript.html

 

[SpiffyChee]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

how bout putting super heavy guitar string on a bass? does anyone know of a bass with a little bit of a smaller scale?

 

[Loserchief]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

guitar strings are too short to fit the scale of any bass(even höfner violin basses) and their ball-ends are too small to hold in the bass bridges(meaning the just slide thorugh). if you want bass and guitar and do it in a useable way without going for a custom hybrid it's better to go with each individualy.
Short scale basses tend to sound very,very,very muddy and imo that's absolutely horrible when playing the bass.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

Tune the guitar to the octave between bass and guitar...

Umm... there is no octave "between" them. A bass is only one octave lower than a guitar.

 

[SpiffyChee]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

so a short scale bass with the top string or 2 normal and the bottom strings guitar strings wouldnt work??

???? this would be ultra cool

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

Wes Borland from Limp Bizkit had this goofy 4 string guitar tuned something like F#, C#, F#, B with a bass string on the bottom, and Charlie Hunter uses an 8 string bass/guitar with bass E, A, D and guitar A, D, G, B, E. It's got different scale lengths for all the strings and "fanned" frets (google Charlie Hunter Novax for more details). I had an extended scale Yamaha (26.5"), and I strung it something like 18-80, and could tune it an octave low. I've also stuck 80 guage strings on the bottom of a 7 string, tuned in the E-G range.

The point of all that is that if you want a certain setup, you can find a way to do it. Also, don't let people tell you that something won't work until you've tried it yourself and figured out first hand that it won't

BTW, I think you'll have better luck putting bass strings on a guitar than the other way around.

 

[Zhangliqun]

Re: guitar with bass strings too

A bass is only one octave lower than a guitar.

True only of 4-strings.

5's and 6's (on up) have the low B which makes it about 1 and 1/2 octaves. And that's assuming you use standard tuning. Some of the Conklin 8 and 9 strings are designed for an F# below the B.