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" On Thursday, December 12, 2013 3:28 PM, David Messenger <mssngr1@pacifier.com> wrote:
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 :)
http://uccelloproject.bandcamp.com/album/fire-times
Good luck with whatever you decide Marc!!
Steve Uccello
