Baritone guitar project

[Ricardo Santos]

Hi All,

I am starting to plan for my next project which will be a baritone guitar. New territory for me.  I was wondering if you guys have experience on baritones and if you could recommend some reference material such as plans, books or videos.

I am thinking that due to extra string tension of a regular baritone (27 or 29 inch scale) bracing and top thickness should be reinforced and follow different specs than a regular jumbo style guitar. Thoughts ?

Thanks,

Ricardo

[Peter]

I will be following youjr project with keen interest.

 

I’ve been working up to building a baritone 12-string, modeled after Pete Seeger’s 28” 12, which Martin honored with their model J12SO “Sing Out 60th Pete Seeger” a limited edition of 80 or 100. Martin’s has a scale length of 27.5”, and 15 frets to the body. I’m still collecting information.

 

I’m envisioning a 27.5 or 28 in string length, and tuning it to standard C. There are no plans, and I’m just going with gut feel and extrapolation. I designed my first 12 this way with no plans starting in 1981, and it turned out fine, with no structural problems even many years after completion. When Robbie picked it up the first words out of his mouth were “Wow, it’s really light!”

 

This baritone will take some beefing up of the bracing, but I don’t plan to go overboard. People are scared of 12’s, and too many of them sound like they are braced with 2x4s.

 

Here’s what I have for string tensions:

 

 

Yes, that that looks scary, but really isn’t that bad to build for. I’m planning on a Sitka top that probably end up around 2.8-2.9mm with graduated edges.

 

You may not be as crazy as me, but you might be able to use this string calculator for your 6-string baritone:

http://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_guitar_string.htm

 

I’d be interested in what you find for plans.

[Peter]

[Lamar Duffy]

No experience building, but I have a Taylor 8-string baritone that I enjoy playing.  The octave pairs on 3rd & 4th strings brighten it up just a bit & add a little "What did I just hear?" aspect to some single line runs.

Lamar