Quote:
Originally Posted by FrankHudson
It won't visually say "now here's a different instrument" but what you seem to be asking about sonically says baritone guitar to me. I built a baritone (I tuned it Bb to Bb) electric, but didn't use it as much as I thought I would. I do use my Fender Squier electric Bass VI (tuned E to E, one octave down from standard guitar) a fair amount, but mostly for single note/double stops, not full chords. I know there are a few fairly affordable baritone acoustic guitars out there.
I don't have a low-range voice, but another sonic variation would be a low tuned 12-string (ala folks from Leadbelly to Leo Kottke). Some have extended scale lengths, others just up their string gauges and tune down. Jumbo body sizes often seem to match this style well. I often tune my Guild JF30-12 D to D, but I'll drop lower than that--particularly back when I was exploring pieces where I didn't sing and could explore that register with impunity.
Have a dislike for the octave string sound of a regular 12-string? I keep an old laminated 12-string tuned D to D in "Steve Tibbetts tuning" which pairs more courses with unison string pairs instead of octave strings.
Example of how it sounds: Prolog to the Canterbury Tales |
Thank you for such a thoughtful and helpful post. I think you're right about the baritone guitar, although my sole experience of working with one was briefly owning a budget Alvarez that never ever intonated properly regardless of tuning pitch or string gauge.
The twelve string actually sounds like the answer now you've said it... tuned down and maybe minus the octave G (which was always the thing I disliked about 12's) if I can figure it out. It's less of a learning curve before I can get out and use it, too.
I really do like the sound of that recording, and nice to hear that poem in a new way too.
Much appreciated.