Baritone vs. seven string

[StandardTuning]

Sorry if this has been covered before and my searches missed it….

It would seem to me that having a seven string guitar would be preferable to a baritone guitar. Tuning the low string to B for both would mean that for the seven string, one could “switch” to a six string in standard tuning just by not playing the low B. By not playing the high E one has a baritone. Is there a reason why seven string guitars are not more popular?

[Gordon Currie]

Originally Posted by StandardTuning

Is there a reason why seven string guitars are not more popular?

I've found them to make perfect sense on paper, but in real life, they collide with my 50+ years of muscle memory.

I think that focusing only on the seven string for awhile would help. But I never had one long enough to find out.

[Wade Hampton]

Unless a seven string guitar has a fan fret arrangement with a longer scale length for that low B or A string, you’re likely to have tone and intonation problems with it. The seven string overall seems to be more workable tonewise with archtops than flattops, but in any event with acoustic guitars anyway it’s a very rare subset of instruments. You have to be a vastly skilled player to get full use of one.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[drtedtan]

A baritone will have a longer scale length, which can really help brighten up the thicker wound strings used to get down to a low B. Otherwise, they can sound different from the rest of the guitar, a bit “dull” and even muddy in comparison.

[Mycroft]

Originally Posted by StandardTuning

Sorry if this has been covered before and my searches missed it….

It would seem to me that having a seven string guitar would be preferable to a baritone guitar. Tuning the low string to B for both would mean that for the seven string, one could “switch” to a six string in standard tuning just by not playing the low B. By not playing the high E one has a baritone. Is there a reason why seven string guitars are not more popular?

Not sure that works. I suppose it depends on what tuning, but B to B standard (Down a 4th) is BEADF#B. So that dropping the high E on your proposed 7 string means you would have BEADGB.

You could also capo your 6-string B to B tuned baritone at the 5th fret for standard, which is what I do.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by StandardTuning

Sorry if this has been covered before and my searches missed it….

It would seem to me that having a seven string guitar would be preferable to a baritone guitar. Tuning the low string to B for both would mean that for the seven string, one could “switch” to a six string in standard tuning just by not playing the low B. By not playing the high E one has a baritone. Is there a reason why seven string guitars are not more popular?

Others’ comments have highlighted the issues - getting used to that extra string is not at all straightforward (or at least it wasn’t for me), and I realized, as I grappled with my Emerald X20-7, how much I use the thumb-over technique for the 6th string. Impossible on the 7 - with my thumb, at least.

To Wade’s point, my Emerald was fan-fretted - 25.5” treble, 27” bass - and sounded glorious. I got the most out of it in BEAF#ADE - baritone tuning for the bottom 6, with the extra E on top, but in 3 years of ownership, managed to produce precisely one new tune.

It has since moved on to a fellow forum member, who plays fingerstyle chord-melody. He loves it, so it found the best of all possible homes.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by StandardTuning

Sorry if this has been covered before and my searches missed it….

It would seem to me that having a seven string guitar would be preferable to a baritone guitar. Tuning the low string to B for both would mean that for the seven string, one could “switch” to a six string in standard tuning just by not playing the low B. By not playing the high E one has a baritone. Is there a reason why seven string guitars are not more popular?

I have a friend with a 7 string who does this. What he does is tune the G string down to F# when he wants to play in "standard" in baritone mode, a quick change. It's pretty crazy to watch, he'll play a tune on the top 6 strings, then play it again on the bottom 6 (after making that adjustment). But it depends on how much you want to invest in getting used to the 7 string. I tried for a while, and could just never get used to that 7th string throwing me off. Obviously some people do play them, or even 8 strings. I think the real benefit of the 7 string is in having that extended range. If you just want to play a baritone some times, I'd probably just get a baritone that's optimized for that pitch range.

[Wade Hampton]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I'd probably just get a baritone that's optimized for that pitch range.

That’s what I did.


whm

[Jimi2]

I bought a really cheap Korean acoustic 7 string that wasn’t so great, then got a more mid-tier Legator 7 as a gift. Both are pretty different beasts than the baritones I’ve played - the necks are really wide to accommodate the extra strings, and both are multi scale, which is pretty much necessary to get any clarity out of that low seventh string. Even though they are both 27” scale on the bass side, the low end is still not as strong as I would like on these, but I’m doing some weird open tunings and dropping the low b to an a or even a g, and fingerpicking them. It takes some getting used to for sure.

There really isn’t much out there in terms of acoustic 7s, so maybe I should look into a used Emerald.

[s2y]

Emerald is basically the only real option without going custom. Fanned frets is necessary.

I had one and basically sold it because I went a little too wild with the specs. Not sure if I'll get another flat top 7. I have an archtop 7 and an electric 7.

The necks tend to be too wide and thin for thumbover playing. I didn't have too much trouble switching between 6 and 7. I was a bassist for many years and having a low b string was already part of my vocabulary.

[soma5]

I used to play a 7-string with a 28" scale where I tuned the top 6 in standard but dropped one whole step (D to d instead of E to e) and the lowest string to A or G. It's an athletic experience to play that thing, but it does sound magnificent. Maybe I'll be inspired to get it out again now that it's on my mind.

[tbeltrans]

The means by which I got used to the 7 string was to take some advice I found googling around the internet - for a while, ignore the 7th string and just play it like a 6 string. That takes care of the visual aspect of the 7th string throwing me off as I get usd to seeing the 7 strings and learning how to place my fingers. Also during that time, I used a note finding exercise suggested by Ted Greene in his book "Chord Chemistry" for learning the locations of the notes on the fretboard. This exercise can be done regardless of the guitar's tuning.

1. Pick a note at random anywhere on the fretboard and identify that note.
2. Starting on the lowest string of your guitar, find that note along each string up to the highest occurrence of that note, and then retrace your steps to end up back where you started.

I also added playing the major scale along each string, up and down, using that note as the root or 1 of the scale.

I do this every day just to keep the fretboard layout firmly in mind so I can voice chords anywhere as needed. It probably takes less than 2 minutes for the whole thing once you get a good grasp of it. Just pick one note per day instead of making it an arduous exercise. Easy does it in this case and over time, it will come.

I will tune the 7th string to either an 'A' or a 'B', depending on what I want for what I am doing. Generally, for chord melody, I tune it to 'A' because then, any chord I would voice using the 5th string 'A', I can now move down an octave to the 7th string and then use that 5th string for something else or not.

For other stuff, I might tune the string to 'B' because of the visual continuity of the tuning of the other strings, maintaining that 4th interval so that scales lay out in a logical manner and the CAGED system is facilitated.

A 7 string acoustic guitar is a wonderful thing, as is a 7 string archtop (I have both) if the strings are far enough apart for playing with the fingers, as are both in my case.

David Eastwood sold me his 7 string Emerald and I am extremely happy with it. To me, there are some guitar configurations that really benefit from carbon fiber construction. One is the 7 string, another is probably the 12 string, and another would be the harp guitar. I don't have a harp guitar or 12 string, but because carbon fiber can be manipulated to form and has the strength to withstand higher tensions brought on by so many strings, it seems a "match made in heaven".

I have never seen or played a baritone guitar, so I can't comment on that, but to me, the 7 string guitar simply provides extended lower range which comes in handy for a style such as chord melody.

Tony

[L20A]

My compromise is an 8 string baritone that is tuned D to D, with medium gauge strings. The two middle strings have octave strings added.