anyone own a baritone guitar?

[hollowman]

This afternoon I rolled into the Musicians Friend warehouse here in KC, just checking out to see if there is anything worth looking at (they have a retail floor for all their return and "scratch and dent" items, you never know what you might find) and I see a Gretsch baritone guitar, and to make a short story long, I walk out with the guitar for a couple of hundred bucks.

Sounds crazy, I know, but I am planning on playing some gigs this year with a friend of mine who is an old time jazz guitarist (still has his union card!) who has put together a group to play at retirement homes and a few church dates. Iwas recruited to play rhythm, but since there is no bass player, and some of the songs would benefit from a bass line, my thought was that a baritone might be pretty versatile.

I just spent an hour on it. First impression was "this is pretty cool" i found myself playing bass roots and partials on the high strings. But full chords seem muddy and not well defined. palming seemed to be pretty useful

So, I guess I have a couple of questions:

who has one and how and when do you play it?

Do you run it through a guitar amp as you would a tele?

[eddiewagner]

i have an ibanez jetking with baritone strings. tuned b-b. i use it for recording. never tried it in a band situation. a set of 14-68 baritone strings cost you only 10 bucks or so and it will take you a long way. the b-b tuning works well that way and mixes easy with my brain: an a chord turns to e and so on.

[dmt101proof]

Live I use a Jerry Jones 6-string bass (tuned E-E but down an octave). This gives a lovely low rumble for single note work but is generally too low to use for chords (you can get away with higher register partial chords). I also have a Danelectro longhorn baritone (tuned B-B). I haven't gigged with this one but use it at home quite a lot. I find that I can play chords quite comfortably on this without it becoming muddy and indistinct (using 14s - I think). Both guitars I play through regular guitar amps - A Twin and a Boogie live and a Vox practice amp at home.

[TB72]

....but it's part of a doubleneck.

It's pretty versatile because you can throw in a few baritone licks and then switch back to regular guitar. Both necks even have Bigsbys (I believe the single-neck Gretsch baris also have a Bigsby). It's a very cool specialty axe.

But the versatility comes with a price...the danged thing is HEAVY!!! I call mine "Big Evil - The Chiropractor's Wet Dream". I can't wear it for more than two or three songs at a time, or else my spine lets me know that it's not happy with me.

I use it in the honky-tonk band I'm in. It comes in handy for stuff like Girl On The Billboard, Guitar Town, The Race Is On, etc. I just run it through my regular guitar rig (usually a Traynor YCV80 with this group).

Later...

[gtrjones]

I have a baritone strat (partscaster), I usually keep it tuned a-a, but have gone as low as g-g. To help with the potential for mud, I use a clean amp, and prefer the birdge pickup. I use mine in pretty twangy-country-ish stuff.

[Arlo]

I use em all the time and own 2.

Danelectro = Longhorn
John 5 (conversion)

[hollowman]

Thanks guys, I think I will keep this guitar

Another question, are their different gauge baritone strings like there are guitar strings?

[Daniil]

I play acoustic baritone, tuned mostly to B-B, though I've experimented a bit with open tunings and such.

Different sets of strings:
http://store.juststrings.net/baritoneguitar.html