Looking cool: My Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom with its Gibson buddy.
|
When the term “baritone
guitar” comes up, it’s often
met with either indifference or “Oh,
that’s the guitar from the Clint
Eastwood spaghetti Westerns.” But
the baritone electric is a unique,
quirky instrument that can go where
regular guitars can’t. Let’s take a brief
look at it and discuss several of its
uses in music production.
The all-knowing Wikipedia
describes the baritone guitar as “a
variation of the standard guitar with
a longer scale length that allows it
to be tuned to a lower range.” The
Wiki sages go on to tell us that the
baritone first appeared in classical
music and that Danelectro was the
first to introduce the electric baritone
in the late 1950s. They also
proclaim that the baritone was not
originally popular with players or
listeners. Ha! Thanks, Wikipedia—I
like that last part!
I like to think of the baritone
as a cross between a 6-string guitar
and a 4-string bass. A baritone has
both growling lows and shimmering
highs, and it uses very thick
strings. For example, the D’Addario
Baritone Nickel Round Wound
XL set I use on my Fender Jaguar
Baritone Custom is gauged .014,
.018, .026, .044, .056, and .068.
Baritones are often tuned a perfect
fourth lower than standard:
B–E–A–D–F#–B (low to high).
Two other popular tunings are
A–A (A–D–G–C–E–A) and C–C
(C–F–Bb–Eb–G–C).
Besides Fender and Danelectro,
other companies have produced
baritones over the years, including
Jerry Jones, Ibanez, Schecter,
Gretsch, and Music Man. These
manufacturers still have baritones
in production, as do Eastwood,
ESP, and Taylor. You can find other
models—including Danelectro’s
cool Doubleneck Baritone/6-
String—on the used market.
Scale length varies on different
instruments, but as a reference,
my Jaguar has a 28.5" scale, and
the Jerry Jones JJ Original Single-
Cutaway measures 28". Gibson
made a Les Paul Studio baritone
for two years, and it has a 28"
scale, as well.
Made popular by the Band’s
Rick Danko, the Fender Bass VI
is often referred to as a baritone
guitar. Jack Bruce briefly played one
during Cream’s early days. The Bass
VI has a 30.3" scale, which puts it
in the realm of a short-scale bass,
and it’s often tuned an octave below
standard guitar.
Yes, Duane Eddy played a baritone
on the Peter Gunn theme and in
Westerns and surf music in the ’60s,
but that was just the beginning. The
Cure made great use of the baritone
in the ’80s, and then, in the ’90s,
guitarists got heavy with it. Bands
such as System of a Down, Type O
Negative, and Dream Theater have
featured them, too. Mike Mushok of
Staind had a signature Ibanez model,
but he now plays a signature PRS
with a 27.7" scale. His string gauges
run from .014–.068.
My producer/engineer friend
D. James Goodwin (the Bravery,
Norah Jones, Devo) turned me on
to the baritone. He currently uses
two models, a reissue of the above-mentioned
Fender Bass VI and a
Jerry Jones. “I put a Tele-like fixed
bridge on my Bass VI,” Goodwin
notes, “to avoid the tuning issues
you get with the tremolo. This
makes it much more stable. It’s
heavy and feels old, which I love.
The Jerry Jones definitely sounds
more hollow and not as thick as the
Fender. It also responds to effects
in an odd way, which is likely due
to the pickups. It’s a cool bari, but
I use it mostly for texture or something
out of the ordinary.”
Goodwin tunes his baritones
differently. “My Jerry Jones is
tuned G–C–F–B%–D%–G. I tune
my Fender Bass VI to E–E, an
octave below standard. The
Fender has a really rubbery quality
when you tune it that low,
and it sounds amazing. Complete
Duane Eddy tone! I use it a lot to
double bass parts. It can thicken
a bass track without making it
muddier. For instance, I’ll double
the bass with fuzzed-out baritone
in a chorus or a bridge of a song,
just to give it some extra guts. It
makes things feel more powerful.
But sometimes it just becomes a
chordal texture—I’ll play chords,
maybe down an octave from a
guitar, just to create an interesting,
wide texture.”
But the baritone is not just for
the bottom of a mix. “I sometimes
use it as a lead instrument, played
up high,” Goodwin continues.
“The timbre becomes dark and very
unexpected, which is a nice twist in
a common guitar solo.”
Both Goodwin and I have also
replaced the stock pickups in our
Fenders with Curtis Novak models,
which are reasonably priced and
drop right into either a Jaguar or
Bass VI. While Novak doesn’t make
a specific “baritone” pickup, he’ll
custom-wind them to your specs.
I use my baritone in several
different ways, as well. It can
handle thumping low-end bass
parts and super thin, nasally high
parts. It sounds great with effects,
and I often rely on my standard
SoundToys EchoBoy delay and
Eventide H3000 Harmonizer presets
to create a wide, dimensional
sound field. My bari Jag sounds
killer plugged into my old Gibson
and Magnatone amps with some
’verb and vibrato.
For those of you who watch
Pawn Stars on the History Channel,
you can hear my distorted baritone
during each episode. It’s on one of
the bumpers where the program
goes to the quiz, and it sometimes
appears on cues throughout the
show. Sounds kind of like a bass,
but kind of not.
Baritone guitars are a different
animal. They’re sometimes odd
to play due to their tunings, the
necks can bend because of the
increased string tension, and all
the switches on my Jaguar drive
me crazy. But plug one in and hit
a chord, and you’ll say “
Damn,
that’s cool!”
Rich Tozzoli is a
Grammy-nominated
engineer and mixer who
has worked with artists
ranging from Al Di
Meola to David Bowie.
A life-long guitarist, he’s
also the author of
Pro Tools Surround
Sound Mixing and composes for the
likes of Fox NFL, Discovery Channel,
Nickelodeon, and HBO.