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tjon901 « Old school baritone »
Published on 08/12/11 at 21:02Baritone guitars are not a new thing and they are not just for metal. Baritones have been around for a long time and have been very popular for years in country music. With a baritone guitar you get a different sound than what you would get if you threw heavy strings on a normal guitar and tuned it down. The long scale with the normal strings gives the guitar its own unique tone that you cannot get with a normal guitar. This is a Les Paul Studio Baritone. This guitar has a mahogany body with a maple top. The neck is a set neck mahogany neck with a big fat profile. The neck is a 27.75 inch neck which is 3 inches longer than a normal Gibson. The neck also has 24 frets on a rosewood fretbard. The pickups are a set of normal Gibsons with a 496 in the neck and a 500 in the bridge. The controls are standard with a volume and tone for each pickup. The bridge is a standard tune-o-matic with a stop tail.
UTILIZATION
This guitar has boat for a neck. It has the 50s profile baseball bat Gibson neck. This combined with the extra long scale means you really feel like you are playing a big guitar. This may be a hard guitar to play for some people with smaller hands. This guitar is chambered so it is pretty much like a semi-hollow. This makes the guitar very light. This combined with the huge neck makes the guitar a little neck heavy. The nitro finish is pretty thin and gets broken in fast on the neck.
SOUNDS
Playing one of these I found out I prefer to play a normal guitar with heavy strings. The guitar comes tuned to C# but I tuned it to B for a real test. The strings still felt pretty loose even with the extended scale. I prefer a tight feel on my strings so I dont accidentally bend notes. This guitar has a super heavy tone. I just which it had pickups that could handle the tones. If you are playing country baritone stuff with the guitar than it should work but most people nowadays are going to use this baritone for heavy music and these pickups just dont cut the mustard. With an extended range like this it is very easy to get muddy with normal pickups. with a guitar like this you will want to throw in some high end passive pickups or active pickups. The pickups work well however if you are doing more of a clean tone based country lick style of playing. If you are doing that however you may want to install a push pull coil split circuit for even more low end twang in your tone.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are looking for a good baritone for metal there are better options out there. ESP has a bunch and Ibanez has a bunch of new baritone models in their RGD line. If you are a country player looking for a baritone this is one of the few non metal baritone guitars out there. With the Les Paul design giving so much low end tone already when they make it a baritone it gets a bit too muddy. If you are looking for a baritone guitar for metal I would recommend an ESP or Ibanez model with active pickups. Active pickups do much better in retaining clarity with the lower baritone tunings.
UTILIZATION
This guitar has boat for a neck. It has the 50s profile baseball bat Gibson neck. This combined with the extra long scale means you really feel like you are playing a big guitar. This may be a hard guitar to play for some people with smaller hands. This guitar is chambered so it is pretty much like a semi-hollow. This makes the guitar very light. This combined with the huge neck makes the guitar a little neck heavy. The nitro finish is pretty thin and gets broken in fast on the neck.
SOUNDS
Playing one of these I found out I prefer to play a normal guitar with heavy strings. The guitar comes tuned to C# but I tuned it to B for a real test. The strings still felt pretty loose even with the extended scale. I prefer a tight feel on my strings so I dont accidentally bend notes. This guitar has a super heavy tone. I just which it had pickups that could handle the tones. If you are playing country baritone stuff with the guitar than it should work but most people nowadays are going to use this baritone for heavy music and these pickups just dont cut the mustard. With an extended range like this it is very easy to get muddy with normal pickups. with a guitar like this you will want to throw in some high end passive pickups or active pickups. The pickups work well however if you are doing more of a clean tone based country lick style of playing. If you are doing that however you may want to install a push pull coil split circuit for even more low end twang in your tone.
OVERALL OPINION
If you are looking for a good baritone for metal there are better options out there. ESP has a bunch and Ibanez has a bunch of new baritone models in their RGD line. If you are a country player looking for a baritone this is one of the few non metal baritone guitars out there. With the Les Paul design giving so much low end tone already when they make it a baritone it gets a bit too muddy. If you are looking for a baritone guitar for metal I would recommend an ESP or Ibanez model with active pickups. Active pickups do much better in retaining clarity with the lower baritone tunings.