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tdukes
Junior
Username: tdukes

Post Number: 11
Registered: 4-2008
Posted on Monday, June 09, 2008 - 3:26 pm:   Edit Post

Link here

How much should something like this go for?

How is it usually tuned?

Thanks,
Todd.
hydrargyrum
Advanced Member
Username: hydrargyrum

Post Number: 339
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 4:43 am:   Edit Post

Todd,

I think I paid about $1200 for my Orion Baritone, but we have seen some pretty surprising prices on Alembic guitars lately, so several hundred more wouldn't really surprise me. I tune mine BEADGbB, but I have heard of other people actually putting them in standard tuning. I would be pretty scared to do this though, and at the very least, it would probably require new saddles and nut slots to accommodate much lighter strings than typically found on a baritone. I am guessing that D to D tuning would probably be achievable. Maybe someone else has something more enlightening to add.
hieronymous
Advanced Member
Username: hieronymous

Post Number: 314
Registered: 1-2005
Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 5:15 am:   Edit Post

I have an Alembic baritone that is part of a doubleneck that I usually tune from A-A (so let's see, that would be ADGBF#A? - it's too early in the morning!) So the low A is the same note as the A on a regular 4 string bass. Basically guitar tuning but on a different starting note.

But then I bought a "regular" 6-string bass with a low B and high C string - modern 6-string basses are usually tuned to fourths across the board - makes sense for bassists, maybe not so much for guitarists. So I had the brilliant idea to tune my baritone similarly, so that it became kind of like a piccolo 6-string bass. It really messed me up! Although I consider myself a bassist, I've played guitar for years, and I'm just used to that on an instrument with skinny strings.

I think it would depend on how much chording you do, and how much experience you have playing guitar vs. bass. I think the way hydragyrum has his tuned (B-B) is the way I would expect to find. But as long as you are careful with string guages, tension, etc., anything is possible.
u14steelgtr
Member
Username: u14steelgtr

Post Number: 88
Registered: 7-2003
Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 - 9:27 am:   Edit Post

Guitarists tend to change tunings far more often than bassists (tuning to an open major-chord and tuning the 6th string an octave below the 4th string being the most common variations). So the question of how baritone guitars are usually tuned question is slightly fuzzier than standard Bass tunings. For the most part the intervals between strings on baritone guitars mirror the intervals on the EADGBE spanish tuning and tend to fall between G-G, and B-B (as follows):
G C-F-Bb-D-G
A-D-G-C-E-A
B-E-A-D-F#-B
However open tunings are a lot of fun on Baritone guitars too so tuning strings 1,5, & 6 down a full step from the above tunings would not be too unusual.

-E
hydrargyrum
Advanced Member
Username: hydrargyrum

Post Number: 340
Registered: 3-2004
Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008 - 7:04 am:   Edit Post

I've always wondered what the folks at Alembic had to say about putting a Baritone guitar in standard tuning. If the scale length of a bass can vary by 5.25 inches, and be tuned the same, is the same true for a guitar? If someone from the mothership would address that, I would be very grateful.

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