Rusty wrote:
"...an
electric
baritone
guitar. Tuned E-E but an octave lower than a standard
guitar.
Sounds really cool! Then capo at the 12th fret to get
normal pitch"
The top stru
This
is the double-neck I built so I could have a
hardtail for a dedicated "Open A" tuned with
flatwounds with the bottom neck set up with
Floyd in regular tuning. I originally
thought I would use it more for live that
recording but the two necks seem to sing
together so it's obvious this thing will be
stuck to me a lot. This picture is from
before completion.
https://www.facebook.com/david.messenger.31/photos
Careful what you build, you just might fall
in love....
David
On 12/12/2013 11:57 AM, Christophe wrote:
>About those double necks,
doesn't it make it harder to play on
either of those necks? I can't see it
being totally comfortable (have never
tried it).<
You betcha, and they're heavy, too!
The only time most people play them at
all is in a live setting where a
switch-off is demanded within a song.
Stairway to Heaven is the obvious
example. Page drops that doubleneck
like a hot potato after the song is
over and goes back to his LP.
A guitar an octave
lower is called a "contra bass guitar". I actually
had a resophonic contra bass guitar built (by Paul
Beard) for myself a few years ago. I had the same
though about using it as a bass then putting a capo
on the 12th fret and using it like a guitar. In
theory this works and I've done it a bit, but once
the strings are capo-ed up so high, they are so
short that it just sounds all "snubby". Plus the
frets are so close together up there it's pretty
hard to play it just like a guitar (mine has 24
frets and is a cutaway too). May be it would work
better with an electric contra bass guitar (verses
my acoustic resophonic one), but just figured I'd
chime in with the experience I had as a bass
player/guitar player/looper trying to lessen the
number of instruments I use. My basic conclusion
with the contra bass guitar was that while it does
give you both worlds, you get the worst of both
worlds! I love the instrument though, I just found I
sort of had to come up with new stuff for it and
couldn't just do all my guitar stuff on it like I
thought. It is awesome with a slide though! Also,
it's fun capo-ing it on either the 5th or 7th frets
and treating it like a baritone guitar.
There are some really
cool baritone guitars out there and I bet if you got
one and did the equivalent of a "dropped D" or even
a "Dropped C" tuning on the low string it wouldn't
be much less bassy than a real bass.
By the way, if you're
curious to hear my reso contra bass guitar I did a
record with it a couple of years ago (fellow
looper/bassist Steve Lawson played on it too, also
Dayan Kai, who is a blind multi-instrumentalist
virtuoso, he loops with an RC 20 by the way, played
keys and drums on it as well).
The reso bass guitar it most
prevalent on tracks 1,3, and 4. It's
here, and streaming/downloadable for free :)
Good luck with whatever
you decide Marc!!
Steve Uccello
