De Rosa GAB47-NT Baritone Guitar
(Baritone modification by Terry’s Baris)
De Rosa GAB47-NT Baritone Guitar
(Baritone modification by Terry’s Baris)
De Rosa GAB47-NT Acoustic-electric Baritone Guitar
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Ever since I started playing my baritone Telecaster, I’ve been wishing I could find or fashion an acoustic baritone. The extended low-end range of a bari opens up new arrangement possibilities, and it would certainly be fun to have one available at a band rehearsal or an acoustic open mic night. Although acoustic baritone guitars are available from high-end manufacturers like Alvarez, Taylor, Martin and Santa Cruz, they tend to have a much bigger price tag than I’m able to consider: anywhere from $1500 to well over $5000. My own experiments with baritone strings on a standard tenor acoustic guitar were less than stellar. Even the heaviest gauge strings I could find tended to rattle against the frets when tuned down to BEADF#B.
In April 2011, I Googled “acoustic baritone guitar” and found the blog for Terry’s Baris (terrysbaris.blogspot.com). The artisan Terry Bair takes a bit more invasive approach, but with a much better result. He starts with an acoustic bass guitar and modifies the bridge, saddle, nut and headstock to accommodate six strings. He uses the bass A string as the baritone low B string. He keeps the larger bass tuner for the low B, and uses standard guitar tuners for the other five strings. The 30- to 34-inch scale of an acoustic bass allows for a bit more tension on the strings to bring them to the proper pitch, which results in less “fret buzz.” And the larger body of most acoustic bass guitars gives a nice low-end boost to the lower-voiced chords of a baritone guitar.
I purchased Terry’s lowest-priced baritone, a modified De Rosa bass, for $385 via Ebay. The baritone arrived quickly and safely from his workshop in Washington state, and I was immediately impressed with its sound and playability. The scale length of this bari is 34 inches -- even longer than my 32-inch Oscar Schmidt acoustic bass. The lowest frets are very big and very far away, so they can be difficult to reach at first, but it’s become easier with a little practice. My one early disappointment was that the bridge was beginning to pull away from the body under the higher tension of six strings. I had my good friend Jim Tupper at Ground Zero Music reset the bridge with a more aggressive adhesive, and it seems to be holding just fine now.
As I began researching De Rosa guitars for my blog, I wasn’t finding a lot of information available online. De Rosa is apparently a fairly new brand, more popular on the US west coast where the company is located. I was able to locate some west-coast dealers, and made a few phone calls looking for more information about the manufacturer. One dealer gave me a name and a phone number for “Lawrence,” which I called after a few days. Lawrence, it turns out, is one of the higher-ups at Bridgecraft USA, the parent company of De Rosa, Glen Burton, Huntington and BGuitars, and he was fascinated to hear about the modifications made to “his” bass.
The GAB47-NT acoustic-electric bass guitar has a linden - sapelle body and a rosewood fretboard. The pickup and built-in EQ are actually designed for standard tenor acoustic guitar. Lawrence told me that although he was happy with the way the electronics sounded in a bass, he wished they had a little better low-end tone. We agreed that given their design specifications, the electronics should be perfect for a baritone guitar.
I already find that I’m playing this acoustic baritone more often than the baritone Telecaster. It’s just a fun instrument to play, and will definitely turn heads when I take it onstage. Although the long neck and large bottom frets seemed awkward at first, I’m finding them pretty comfortable now. If you’re thinking about trying a baritone guitar, my first advice would be to start with a modified electric like my Telecaster, but a modified acoustic-electric bass like this one is certainly a very good choice too. And Terry’s Baris would be a good place to start your search.
Of course, this instrument has my mental gears turning. If a baritone guitar (BEADF#B) is tuned down a fourth from a tenor guitar (EADGBE), what would happen if we tuned a tenor guitar *up* a fourth (ADGCEA) or a fifth (BEADF#B), with lighter-gauge strings and maybe a shorter “student” scale length, to make an alto guitar? What would that sound like? Inquiring minds want to know ...
Photo by Kathy Thomas