8 different baritones ranging in scale lengths from 27.5” to 30”.
There are many differences in construction and pickup configuration. How big of a difference is there between them all and “what baritone should I get?”.
Rather than talk about it, we’ll play them all back to back so that you can hopefully answer the question - “Which one of these would be good for my own heavy riffs?”.
Comparison Details
As always, we only focus on the dirty tones here, and all playthroughs are on the bridge pickup. EQs are flat, tuning is G Standard and strings are Curt Mangan .014 to .068 Baritone strings. The amp tone is EXACTLY the same for every guitar. Nothing special - Bias FX Pro V1. Treadplate and double Screamer. The recording level is -6db Peak for every guitar.
The Guitars
Eastwood Sidejack Baritone • 27.5” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Dimarzio Virtual P90 Humbucker
CTS 500 ohm volume & tone, Mallory .047uF capacitor
PRS SE Mushok • 27.75” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Seymour Duncan Invader Humbucker
CTS 1 meg ohm volume, no tone, no capacitor
Ibanez RGIB6 • 28” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Seymour Duncan SH6B Distortion Humbucker
CTS 500 ohm volume, no tone, no capacitor
Warmoth Tele Conversion • 28.625” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Lace Alumitone Standard Humbucker
CTS 500 ohm volume, no tone, no capacitor, switch & neck pup disconnected
Danelectro 56 Baritone • 29.75” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Danelectro Lipstick Single Coil
Stock 250 ohm volume & tone
Gretsch Jet Baritone • 29.75” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Stock Gretch Mini Humbucker
Stock 500 ohm volume & tone. Switch & neck pup disconnected
Squier Jazzmaster Baritone • 30” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Pickup Wizard Wide-range Humbucker
CTS 500 ohm volume, tone, switch & neck pup disconnected
Ibanez SRC6 • 30” in scale
Bridge Pickup • Stock EMG 35HZ Bridge Passive Humbucker
Stock Ibanez Custom Electronics 3-band Active EQ
Personal Takeaways
Even though I have all these guitars, I have never played all of them back to back in this way. The results were very illuminating. Very surprised with how in a mix, to me, they all sound satisfactory for heavy music and remarkably similar. There are differences, but I expected bigger differences. Second surprise would be the feel and play of each guitar. Each one influenced or hindered my playing in very different ways and in bigger ways than I assumed previously.
The Danelectro sound sticks out the most for me and was the most fun to play. If it didn’t have the noise…
What did you hear? What do you prefer?
Cheers!
Scott