theantirockstar wrote: i've just discovered the baritone guitar. played me the taylor 8 string and the prs se one. was visiting a friend of mine in the states and must say, where have these instruments been all my life? anyone else playing baritones, know which we can get locally etc?

There are two makers that I know of in SA who will build you a baritone guitar - Mervyn Davis and Ian Corr. They will build to order, they don't carry stock, and if you're interested then you should discuss prices and build time.

I've seen both the Ibanez Mike Mushtok (SP?) and the Baritone Fender Tele locally. I know the Mushtok has been discontinued, but there are some floating around... There are probably others too.

Baritone guitars are the shiznizzle ? Or at least extended scale lengths rock, I generally like keeping them in standard regardless of scale ?

Quite a few cool options though, in Ibanez there's the 26,5" scale RGD series in which they do a budget 6 & 7 and a prestige 6 & 7 string http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/eg_series11.php?series_id=478&area_id=4&year=2011&cat_id=1 or you could go with one of the 8 strings which are both 27" scale http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/eg_page11.php?area_id=4&data_id=163&color=CL01&year=2011&cat_id=1&series_id=477

Other options are perhaps things like Agile who make very good guitars at affordable rates, http://undergroundguitarist.com/guitars

ESP make the Stephen Carpenter baritones as well http://www.espguitars.com/guitars/signature/stephen.html and their sister company Schecter make the Jeff Loomis 7 string which is 26,5" scale, which is available in Floyd http://www.schecterguitars.com/International/Products/Guitar/Jeff-Loomis-FR.aspx or fixed http://www.schecterguitars.com/International/Products/Guitar/Jeff-Loomis-NT.aspx. They also make the Chris Garza 7 string tele which is 26,5" http://www.schecterguitars.com/International/Products/Guitar/Chris-Garza.aspx and all their 8 strings are 26,5" as well http://www.schecterguitars.com/International/Products/Guitar/Damien-Elite-8.aspx

More recently Cort have joined the party with a 27" 7 string KX series http://www.cortguitars.com/_webapp_3832387/EVL-K47B#.

In the acoustic world there is the new Ovation Elite TX D-scale model which is a 28 1/3" scale length acoustic http://www.ovationguitars.com/guitars/product/elite_d_scale_ds778tx which I'm pretty excited about as well ?

EDIT: Also currently PRS have the Mike Mushok signature SE http://www.prsguitars.com/semikemushokbaritone/

? Somehow I knew you would come through on this one Chad! Thanks given.

FWIW.....TOMS in Braamfontein has one of them Staind guitarist ones for R2900

Explorerlover wrote: FWIW.....TOMS in Braamfontein has one of them Staind guitarist ones for R2900

Is it the Ibanez one or the PRS one?

Alan Ratcliffe wrote: ? Somehow I knew you would come through on this one Chad! Thanks given.

I can't help it, it's very seldom we discuss my favourite types of guitars on this forum so I've always got an eye out for the topics I'm interested in ?

Apologies....it's the Ibanez one....

I had the 27" Steph Carpenter and now the Loomis 26.5". I must say the 27" was just a BIT too much of a stretch. 26.5 is nice. I'm glad I've tried them because in the end I realized I just love 25.5", it's perfect.

Pointless post, just my 2c in a topic that intersts me, like CAB says.

BMU wrote: Pointless post, just my 2c in a topic that intersts me, like CAB says.

Not pointless, you have experience in the matter and all feedback is welcome feedback ? ^5 It's good that people don't just get one opinion ?

OK... so we have some fans of baritones and of guitars with a number of strings in excess of 6.

Where do y'all get strings for these things?

Is this less of an issue for electric than for acoustic baritone players?

X-rated Bob wrote: Where do y'all get strings for these things?

Is this less of an issue for electric than for acoustic baritone players?

I think you may be correct there, for electric strings you can get any gauge up to .76 from Ernie Ball and through Daddario you can get any gauge up to .80. I've had to personally badger the agents to get them to bring in gauges that high so it takes a bit of doing unfortunately, the other alternative is juststrings.com. I unfortunately have little to no experience with acoustic baritones, I have noticed that the players I listen to who use acoustic baritones seem to use .13 gauge sets but I'm not sure if this'll be what you are looking for.

"the other alternative is juststrings.com"

Will they ship Ernie Ball to SA ?

Chad Adam Browne wrote: I think you may be correct there, for electric strings you can get any gauge up to .76 from Ernie Ball and through Daddario you can get any gauge up to .80. I've had to personally badger the agents to get them to bring in gauges that high so it takes a bit of doing unfortunately, the other alternative is juststrings.com. I unfortunately have little to no experience with acoustic baritones, I have noticed that the players I listen to who use acoustic baritones seem to use .13 gauge sets but I'm not sure if this'll be what you are looking for.

I don't have a baritone, but I have a friend who does. He and I both play with 13s on our regular guitars, and he finds that 13s don't work that well on a baritone - though it may depend what tuning you use. He tunes down a 4th, and even with the longer scale neck the 13s are a bit undertensioned.

Elixir do .16 - .70's which is nice for acoustics, and .12 - .68's for electrics (Baritones). Priced the Taylor GC8 eight string baritone here and it's close to 45k, which is a little out of budget ? here's hoping to win the lotto, the Mike Mustok looks more in my starting price range for a baritone. my GAS list for gear is long, and my budget not so much ?

theantirockstar wrote: Priced the Taylor GC8 eight string baritone here and it's close to 45k, which is a little out of budget

hey man

yairi make an acoustic baritone which by all accounts is pretty good. i'm just not too sure though whether the local dealer brings 'em in tho.