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Home , Baritone guitar, Breedlove Guitars, Danelectro, Ovation Guitar Company, Preston Reed

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June 2003 DocDocFolkFolk LegendLegend WatsonWatson With a Transcription of “Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”

PopPop SongwriterSongwriter DavidDavid GrayGray Pages of 11 Music to Play PattyPatty Larkin’sLarkin’s Swing Soloing Home-StudioHome-Studio Rock Rhythm Fills GemGem Flatpicking Fave Patty Larkin’s “The Cranes” Tommy Emmanuel’s “Mombasa”

TheThe LowdownLowdown onon BaritoneBaritone GuitarsGuitars

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SHOPTALK

Acoustic Longnecks The lowdown on baritone By Teja Gerken

A bevy of baritones (from left): MusicYo!’s Avante AV-2, David Berkowitz baritone, Ovation LongNeck DS778, Joe Veillette MK-IV nylon-string, and Alvarez-Yairi YB1. The logical solution is to increase strings to bring them closer to the ’s the instrument’s scale length. range. But this was the reason Joe European mak- Veillette built his first long-scale six-string ers have long offered long- during the period of his partnership with necked versions of their nylon- Harvey Citron in the late ’70s. “The first string instruments. With scale piece was a custom instrument for John lengths of 70–75 cm. (27½– Sebastian,” Veillette says. “He was touring 29½ inches), these guitars and doing solo gigs, but he didn’t want to are designed to hold down play an acoustic. He was using a Fender the low end in classical Bass VI. He and a few other people at the ensembles. (www. time were using them as baritone guitars ariausa.com), Spain’s Esteve by stringing them with lighter strings.” Guitars (www.fernandezmusic. Veillette’s initial baritones were solid-body com), and Germany’s Hopf electrics. Rick Turner experimented with Guitars (www.hopfguitars.com) baritone acoustics during the mid-’80s ropping a guitar’s tuning below are among the makers who offer this type by converting Martin and dread- standard is becoming increas- of instrument. noughts and jumbos to baritones. Using a D ingly common in many musical In the steel-string world, certain new rebraced top with the moved styles. Scores of electric players lower 12-strings built in the 1920s (such as back and a with a longer scale, their pitch by a half step to facilitate the one played by Leadbelly) featured Turner’s instruments quickly became pop- string bending or playing in the flat keys a longer-than-standard scale length of ular with Los Angeles session players. favored by horn players, and many 26.4-inches, but no one seems to have Many acoustic players were introduced singer-songwriters and solo fingerstyle made any early six-string counterparts. to this kind of instrument during the ’90s use alternate tunings that drop The first modern six-string basses when Martin Simpson began playing a strings by a step or more. However, low- were offered by and Fender in Ralph Bown baritone. Preston Reed and ering a string more than a step or two the late ’50s and early ’60s. With a scale Ani DiFranco also began using acoustics often results in poor intonation, buzzing, length of 30 inches, these instruments with longer necks, awakening an increased and a floppy feel. The scale length on were intended to be tuned E to E, an oc- interest in the low-toned breed. most guitars (usually between 24¾ and tave below standard guitar tuning. De- 25½ inches) is designed for standard tun- signed so that guitarists could play bass Baritone Builders ing, and according to luthier Rick Turner, without relearning the fingerboard, the in- Although they’re not hanging in every once a string is tuned below its intended struments’ twangy bass sound eventually guitar shop, a surprising number of bari- pitch, it becomes inharmonic, resulting in became known as “tic-tac” bass, and it is tone guitars are available. The most wide- the effects described above by compro- found on many recordings of the time. ly distributed baritones are made by mising the flexibility of the string in rela- It is unclear when guitarists began to Alvarez-Yairi (www.alvarezgtr.com) and tion to pitch. restring six-string basses with lighter Ovation (www.ovationguitars.com). The

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Alvarez YB1 ($1,999) is based on a jum- and nylon-string versions. Veillette’s mod- bo body but features a 27½-inch scale. els (starting at $2,000) are designed for Ovation began making its LongNeck players in a loud rock band, and the bari- model with a 28⅓-inch scale in 1994. tone’s 27⅔-inch scale keeps the strings Featuring Ovation’s usual synthetic bowl from becoming floppy. back, the LongNeck is currently available Many individual are able to as the DS778 ($1,899) in the company’s build custom baritones for those who U.S.-made Elite line, and for a while, the aren’t satisfied with off-the-shelf of- company also made a less expensive im- ferings. Californians Roy McAlister ported version, the DCS247S. The compa- (www.mcalisterguitars.com) and Lance ny found that it didn’t need to alter its mul- McCollum (www.mccollumguitars.com); tisoundhole bracing pattern for the longer Canadians (www.manzer. scale, and Ovation’s Rick Hall points out com), William “Grit” Laskin (www. that “the bridge ends up where it would be williamlaskin.com), and Marc Beneteau on a [regular] 12- guitar, in the middle (members.rogers.com/beneteauguitars); of the lower bout,” which is often called and Washington D.C.–based luthier David the “sweet spot” of a guitar’s top. Berkowitz (www.berkowitzguitars.com) Gibson’s MusicYo! online division are among those who often venture into (www.musicyo.com) offers an affordable the lower register. Manzer has built both Korean-made instrument, the Avante steel- and nylon-string baritones, and Baritone, which was originally designed uses one of her cre- by Joe Veillette and Michael Tobias and ations onstage and in the studio. imported by Alvarez during the ’90s. In its Berkowitz has done more research on latest incarnation, the Avante features a the acoustic baritone than most other solid spruce top and a 27¾-inch scale and luthiers. “I decided early on in the design is available in acoustic (AV-2, $449.99) and process that a baritone is a different ani- acoustic-electric (AV-2E, $519.99) versions. mal,” he says. “It’s not a bass, and it’s not a Froggy Bottom (www.froggybottomguitars. guitar.” Accordingly, Berkowitz has invest- com), Goodall (www.goodallguitars.com), ed considerable efforts in the R&D of his and Santa Cruz (www.santacruzguitar.com) instruments. Impressed with the bass re- are among the small to medium-sized man- sponse of , he decided to ufacturers offering baritone guitars as part use the JLD bridge truss system, which of their standard lines. Froggy Bottom’s transfers tension from the top to the in- Model B Baritone ($4,300) and Santa Cruz’ strument’s sides. “What’s nice about the Bob Brozman signature model ($4,310) bridge truss is that it takes away some of both feature 27-inch scales and are based the attack transient, making it more bass- on 12-fret body designs. Goodall’s Baritone like,” he explains. His first baritone was (starting at $4,195) has a 28-inch scale and commissioned by John Jennings, and be- comes in either a slope-shouldered dread- cause Jennings was used to an electric nought or jumbo body size. If you’d like to Jerry Jones baritone (which is based on try a made from space-age the Danelectro design), Berkowitz chose a materials, Composite Acoustic’s AT-6 long 30-inch scale. He has also built bari- ($1,699, www.caguitars.com) is worth tones with a 28.59-inch scale. checking out. The carbon-fiber guitar fea- Berkowitz has used both spruce and tures a 28-inch scale as well as a radical de- cedar for the tops, and he has strong opin- sign with two soundholes in the upper ions about the wood used for the bari- bout and a trapeze tailpiece. tone’s back and sides. “A lot of people use Baritone pioneers Rick Turner (www. , but what a good bass needs is renaissanceguitars.com) and Joe Veillette good treble for separation,” he says. (www.veilletteguitars.com) are both fo- “Rosewood has a tendency to reinforce the cusing their attention on acoustic-electric low end, and I already get plenty of low end baritones. Featuring a semi-hollow design from the strings.” His first baritone was and a proprietary pickup system, Turner’s made with koa back and sides, and he has Renaissance line includes six- (starting at also used walnut, both of which he feels $1,880) and 12-string (starting at $2,235) offer the clarity necessary for the instru- baritone versions (see Gearbox, April ments’ extended range. Manzer feels that 2002, for a review of the 12-string). Turner a combination of koa and spruce work feels that players who are switching from well. “This is a great combo to bring out a standard guitar will feel right at home the warmth of the bass notes and the clar- with his baritones’ 27-inch scale. ity of the top end of each note,” she says. Veillette also uses a semi-hollow body For a truly different experience, for his acoustic-electric baritones, which in- National Reso-Phonic’s baritone version of clude Alvarez’ System 500 preamps and the metal-bodied tricone ($3,360, www. saddle pickups and are available in six-, 12-, nationalguitars.com) is certain to make an

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impact. In a similarly outlandish vein, French luthier Maurice DuPont (www. acoustic-guitars.com) has made baritone versions of his Selmer-style instruments. Bari Pickers Although many players are drawn to the baritone’s sound once they get a chance to try one, few have made it their prima- ry instrument. Fingerstylist Preston Reed is a rare exception; he has been touring and recording with his custom Ovation LongNeck for years. “The tonal richness and added sustain encourage the cre- ation of compositions that would not happen on a normal guitar,” he explains. “For example, when I play ‘First Summer without You,’ everyone swears they hear a stand-up bass behind it. I would not have written a tune like that without the lush, long-resonating bass strings.” Celtic guitarist Tony McManus has used a baritone made by British luthier Bill Kelday (pages.zoom.co.uk/kelday) on his own recordings and for occasional session work, such as on Kate Rusby’s Hourglass. Fingerstyle pioneer Alex de Grassi plays a baritone made by Lance McCollum. Although he hasn’t used the guitar a lot in public (so far, it’s been reserved for shows close to his northern California home and a few overdubs on his 2000 release Tatamonk), he says that he enjoys playing the instrument immensely. “I like to play slower stuff on it,” he says, which he demonstrated with a version of the jazz classic “Goodbye, Pork Pie Hat” at a recent concert. De Grassi says the guitar’s incred- ible sustain sometimes requires changes to his arrangements. “Pieces that I’d play on a standard guitar can be trimmed to use smaller chords,” he explains. Baritone fever goes beyond the fin- gerstyle crowd. Singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco is perhaps the strongest propo- nent of acoustic baritones. She owns in- struments by Alvarez, Berkowitz, and Veillette. Turner’s baritones have shown up in the capable hands of and Colin Hay (Men at Work), and Veillette counts and Eddie among his clients. As McManus and de Grassi have hinted, the studio is an ideal place to use a baritone acoustic. Alvarez’ Paul Meisenzahl says that Alvarez “sells a consistent number of YB1s each year in recording centers such as Nashville, Los Angeles, , and Chicago. The baritone is very useful for creating mul- tiple layers of guitars on recordings.” Rick Hall concurs and says that he’s heard of players who have been hired specifically because they provide an

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acoustic baritone sound. Nashville ses- sion ace Michael Spriggs is cited by both Meisenzahl and Hall as a player who has benefited from his use of long-scaled acoustics in that city’s competitive recording market. According to Esteve’s Ron Fernandez, classical bass guitars are gaining in popu- larity. “These instruments are used in guitar orchestras, as part of classical gui- tar quartets, jazz groups, American folk groups, and church music groups,” he says. “They have also become popular among fado musicians in Portugal. Essen- tially, they are used where a string bass or electric bass would be used.” Low Tunings As with any new and obscure instrument, there is little consensus as to how a bari- tone guitar should be tuned or what gauge strings should be used. Ovation and Goodall recommend standard medi- um-gauge sets (.013–.056) tuned down a whole step from standard guitar tuning to D G C F A D. The benefit of this tuning is that by placing a capo at the second fret you can quickly revert to standard tuning. But many players use heavier strings and lower tunings. Berkowitz tunes his 30-inch scale instrument from A to A, using a cus- tom set of strings gauged .018–.080. If there is any standard, it is probably found between these extremes, with many play- ers who use standard-tuning intervals pre- ferring B to B. Traditional Spanish-style, nylon-string bass guitars tend to use B to B on shorter- scale instruments and E to E, an octave below standard tuning, for longer-scale models. De Grassi usually keeps his McCollum tuned to B , but he is also ex- perimenting with a variety of alternate tunings. For strings, he discards the first string from a standard medium set and adds a low .062. McManus and Reed have used extensive and often ultralow tunings on their instruments. McManus has gone as low as F C F C F G but generally stays with G D G C E A and G D G C D G, which uses the same intervals as D A D G A D. Reed doesn’t usually tune quite as low; his favorites include C G D G G D and B G D G A D. John Pearse and La Bella are among the string manufacturers now offering acoustic baritone sets. It’s been said that getting a new guitar is the ultimate way to inspire new ideas or get out of a rut in your playing. The unique voice of a baritone can only in- crease these possibilities. And if low tun- ings or session work are a part of your life, then you really should check out a baritone guitar. ■

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