Almost NGD! BT-258e 8 string Baritone on the way!

warpedmirror

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I bought one of the few available for immediate shipping yesterday. Looking forward to exploring the sonic possibilities! I've had a 6 string baritone before but never an 8 string. I liked tuning C-C on that one. We'll see what this one is like. Any baritone players out there? Interesting tunings to pass on, etc?


Jim
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Ibanez avt1 tenor guitar
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Canard

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Very cool looking and hopefully sounding guitar.

I have gone shopping for baritones but have always shied away from purchasing. I tried a six string Taylor prototype of their baritone in a shop. I tried a number Alvarez's reasonably decent baritones that were up on CL.

As a kid, I could never sing. I could not carry a tune to save my life. So in bands, I always got paid less. Sometimes this was rectified by pointing out that I had the only vehicle capable of getting the gear to gigs. Sometimes not.

I was discussing this one day with my piano tutor who also taught voice. She got me to start exploring. The problem was that I am a bass/baritone naturally. Pretty much all pop/rock songs were way out of my register. No notes there. Can't sing. Beatles songs were way way out of register. I can sing there now with help from my tutor, but it is definitely not my home. And I would get tired singing there for any length of time.

I thought that a baritone would help. Just drop everything down a forth and it's into a range that I can do more comfortably. But I was wrong. In standard tuning, pretty much all intervals lower than a 5th sound like mud until you get 4th or 5th position by which place you are playing in a standard guitar range. So if you want to just transpose fingering over from a standard E to E guitar it really doesn't work. You need to rearrange everything with different chord voicings.

Open tunings with modal stuff was just awesome, however. And I mean like mind blowingly totally awesome!

I also tried Taylor's eight string baritone model, B and E in octave courses - it was interesting. The octave stringing of the two bass strings cuts through some of the harmonic mud in lower intervals in lower positions with standard tuning. But ... $$$$$$$ for that guitar, at least for the one I tried in a shop.
 

warpedmirror

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Thanks for the thoughts! Yeah, I had an Alvarez ABT60 for a while but it was super muddy with chords. Single notes were far better sounding so I fingerpicked it mostly. Hoping this one is a bit more versatile. I am thinking the rosewood back and sides might give it a drier sound than the mahogany that the Alvarez had. I think that would help it be crisper. We'll see. I am a tenor voice, so I am going for a counter balance with the guitar range. It worked on some of my songs but not so much for my others. I found I'd Capo the baritone on 3rd fret a lot. Also, kind of cool to be able to capo on 4th and play in E flat instantly. Anyway, I'll post some thoughts after I've had it a week or so.
 

Taylor Martin Guild

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I am looking for one of these guitars.
I called the factory about a case and they said that the guitars are not due for release until April. At that time, Guild will decide what if any case they will offer.
I was going to pre order one but now I'm going to wait till I know that there will be a good hard case available for it.
 

Taylor Martin Guild

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I bought one of the few available for immediate shipping yesterday. Looking forward to exploring the sonic possibilities! I've had a 6 string baritone before but never an 8 string. I liked tuning C-C on that one. We'll see what this one is like. Any baritone players out there? Interesting tunings to pass on, etc?


Jim
GAD-50
F250e
GAD-125
GAD212-ATB
Martin 000-15s
Kala KA KA SMHS Baritone Uke
Ibanez avt1 tenor guitar
Gretsch 5120
Goya G13 classical

Where did you order your Baritone from?
 

Sal

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This Guild 8 string baritone at $629 does look interesting. I had called my local Guild dealer, Twin Town Guitars, hoping to try one but they have not seen any yet.

Taylor makes an 8 string baritone but priced quite a bit more, online at $2400. It’s a mahogany top while the Guild uses a solid spruce top. Here’s an interesting video of the Taylor:

 

Taylor Martin Guild

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I looked hard at the Taylor 8 string but could not justify the price for how I would use the guitar.
The new Guild will be just what I want.
As soon as they are available with a case, I will be ordering mine.
 
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Canard

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Taylor makes an 8 string baritone but priced quite a bit more, online at $2400. It’s a mahogany top while the Guild uses a solid spruce top.

Interesting. The Taylor guitar in the video appears to be an 8 string as opposed to a 6/8 string like the one I tried. The one I tried had a spruce top and rosewood sides and back. It was a 6 string (2 courses of 2 strings and 4 single strings = 6 strings) but the bass stringing was Bb and Ee octaves.

The hog model seems to be the same stringing as the Guild way up above.
 

warpedmirror

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I looked hard at the Taylor 8 string but could not justify the price for how I would use the guitar.
The new Guild will be just what I want.
As soon as they are available with a case, I will be ordering mine.
@Taylor Martin Guild I ordered this case from proaudiostar and got it today. I can confirm the pic is wrong in the ad, It IS a Jumbo case and my other Guild jumbo fits so the Bari will fit too! Good deal for a nice hard case. Looks like they have another available at $129. https://www.proaudiostar.com/guild-premium-humidified-archtop-wood-case-jumbo-usa.html The guitar will be here on Monday and I'll post my first thoughts then.
 

warpedmirror

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@Taylor Martin Guild I ordered this case from proaudiostar and got it today. I can confirm the pic is wrong in the ad, It IS a Jumbo case and my other Guild jumbo fits so the Bari will fit too! Good deal for a nice hard case. Looks like they have another available at $129. https://www.proaudiostar.com/guild-premium-humidified-archtop-wood-case-jumbo-usa.html The guitar will be here on Monday and I'll post my first thoughts then.
Also
Taylor Martin Guild
Looks like they have one at https://www.musiciansfriend.com/gui...tring-baritone-jumbo-acoustic-electric-guitar
 
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