Baritone Teles - wonderful!

[DHart]

I've thought about getting a baritone for quite a long time now, for "ambient" music explorations and regular playing, as well. A couple of weeks ago I finally took action. Loving the deep, rich tones of baritone, I decided to take a two prong approach: buying a Fender baritone conversion neck, to use on one of my Tele bodies, and buying a complete baritone guitar, as well.

The Fender Sub-Sonic baritone neck is a perfect swap-on approach to going baritone IF you already have a Tele body that you wish to apply to the project. All that was needed was to cut the nut slots for the strings, then mount the neck, tune, and play! There are plenty of online sellers for the Fender conversion neck to choose from, so I asked one of them for a discount off list price and the deal was done. The conversion works perfectly!

I have a Fender Nashville Deluxe Tele that I hadn't been playing much, so I felt this was the perfect vehicle for going baritone, with excellent tone options for pickups. I went with a Fender Custom Shop '69 Strat pickup (5.0k) at the neck, a Fender Custom Shop Fat '50s Strat pickup (6.2k) for the middle position, and a Bootstrap Palo Duro Tele bridge pickup (6.1k).

I really like that these pickups provide a combination of best-of-Strat (the Strat neck and middle pickups) with best-of-Tele (the Tele bridge pickup). Plus, I wired it for the ability to combine the Strat neck pickup with the Tele bridge pickup for a very cool tone.

Pos 1: Strat middle pickup
Pos 2: Strat middle pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 3: Tele bridge pickup
Pos 4: Strat neck pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 5: Strat neck pickup

310k Volume pot and a 250k No-Load tone pot complete the project - for a bit of extra "sparkle". Some pics:

Moving on to the baritone guitar I bought - I decided to go with the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar. It has great reviews and is not terribly costly. I had seen a YouTube video (Anderton's) showing the Oxblood color finish and really wanted that model. Unfortunately, that color is not available in the USA. So, I took the plunge and ordered one from Anderton's in England, shipped by DHL in just a few days to Arizona. Arrived in pristine condition!

The fit and finish on this Squier guitar is superb. Wonderful neck, excellent fretwork. And the deep Oxblood metal flake color is so beautiful. (In the USA, this guitar comes in two colors: 3-color sunburst and Surf Green.) See Anderton's website for the Limited Edition colors (Oxblood and Olive Green). To order from the USA, contact Anderton's customer service.

While the stock Fender single coil pickups (P90 design) do sound good, I wanted a bit more bright sparkle for the deep baritone tones, so I replaced the pickups with a spare TV Jones T-Armond (7.9k soapbar format) at the neck and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity P90 (8.6k) at the bridge. Black covers are more to my liking than the cream-colored covers on the stock pickups.

For electronics, I went with a 980k volume pot and a 500k no-load tone pot. Extra sparkle in the tone is quite well achieved! Some pics:

Pickguard is anodized gold metal.

Lastly, a group shot, with a few of my other Teles.

For anyone considering going with a baritone guitar, I can highly recommend both of these two approaches! Fender conversion necks are plentiful available and the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar is quite readily available (at present anyway). Neither of these approaches is very costly. Hope you enjoyed this mini review.

 

[Killing Floor]

Nice. The Fender MiM baritone Tele necks are really nice.

 

[Trenchant63]

I've thought about getting a baritone for quite a long time now, for "ambient" music explorations and regular playing, as well. A couple of weeks ago I finally took action. Loving the deep, rich tones of baritone, I decided to take a two prong approach: buying a Fender baritone conversion neck, to use on one of my Tele bodies, and buying a complete baritone guitar, as well.

The Fender Sub-Sonic baritone neck is a perfect swap-on approach to going baritone IF you already have a Tele body that you wish to apply to the project. All that was needed was to cut the nut slots for the strings, then mount the neck, tune, and play! There are plenty of online sellers for the Fender conversion neck to choose from, so I asked one of them for a discount off list price and the deal was done. The conversion works perfectly!

I have a Fender Nashville Deluxe Tele that I hadn't been playing much, so I felt this was the perfect vehicle for going baritone, with excellent tone options for pickups. I went with a Fender Custom Shop '69 Strat pickup (5.0k) at the neck, a Fender Custom Shop Fat '50s Strat pickup (6.2k) for the middle position, and a Bootstrap Palo Duro Tele bridge pickup (6.1k).

I really like that these pickups provide a combination of best-of-Strat (the Strat neck and middle pickups) with best-of-Tele (the Tele bridge pickup). Plus, I wired it for the ability to combine the Strat neck pickup with the Tele bridge pickup for a very cool tone.

Pos 1: Strat middle pickup
Pos 2: Strat middle pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 3: Tele bridge pickup
Pos 4: Strat neck pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 5: Strat neck pickup

310k Volume pot and a 250k No-Load tone pot complete the project - for a bit of extra "sparkle". Some pics:

Moving on to the baritone guitar I bought - I decided to go with the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar. It has great reviews and is not terribly costly. I had seen a YouTube video (Anderton's) showing the Oxblood color finish and really wanted that model. Unfortunately, that color is not available in the USA. So, I took the plunge and ordered one from Anderton's in England, shipped by DHL in just a few days to Arizona. Arrived in pristine condition!

The fit and finish on this Squier guitar is superb. Wonderful neck, excellent fretwork. And the deep Oxblood metal flake color is so beautiful. (In the USA, this guitar comes in two colors: 3-color sunburst and Surf Green.) See Anderton's website for the Limited Edition colors (Oxblood and Olive Green). To order from the USA, contact Anderton's customer service.

While the stock Fender single coil pickups (P90 design) do sound good, I wanted a bit more bright sparkle for the deep baritone tones, so I replaced the pickups with a spare TV Jones T-Armond (7.9k soapbar format) at the neck and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity P90 (8.6k) at the bridge. Black covers are more to my liking than the cream-colored covers on the stock pickups.

For electronics, I went with a 980k volume pot and a 500k no-load tone pot. Extra sparkle in the tone is quite well achieved! Some pics:

Pickguard is anodized gold metal.

Lastly, a group shot, with a few of my other Teles.

For anyone considering going with a baritone guitar, I can highly recommend both of these two approaches! Fender conversion necks are plentiful available and the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar is quite readily available (at present anyway). Neither of these approaches is very costly. Hope you enjoyed this mini review.

Nice! Well written and excellent pics of these guitars.

 

[Fendereedo]

Happy playing, they both look great.

 

[Fiesta Red]

 

[blowtorch]

the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar is quite readily available

Yep!
Here's mine in action (original song)

 

[KirkDahnke]

I just bought one of the new Squier Baritone Teles. CVs. They're fantastic.

 

[DHart]

I just bought one of the new Squier Baritone Teles. CVs. They're fantastic.

Nice! I'm sure you're having a blast with the cool tones from that baritone.

 

[sloppychops]

Love my CV baritone! It came with .14 gauge strings, but the shop threw in a set of .13s which I haven't tried yet. Anyone switch to .13s? What's your opinion on them? I'm not going to try them til the stock .14 strings are beat.

 

[Willie Johnson]

Bigger picture question--is there any good reason not to throw some fatter strings on a standard guitar and tune down to B standard? I just did that with an un-loved Strat and need to intonate it better, but seems like it will work fine.

 

[DHart]

Love my CV baritone! It came with .14 gauge strings, but the shop threw in a set of .13s which I haven't tried yet. Anyone switch to .13s? What's your opinion on them? I'm not going to try them til the stock .14 strings are beat.

View attachment 1099503

The baritone of yours is a beaut! I've been doing the same... keeping the stock 14's on my two Baritones for a while before trying the 13's.

That said, I'm going to pop 13s on one of them pretty soon, just to see which gauge I like better.

 

[sloppychops]

Bigger picture question--is there any good reason not to throw some fatter strings on a standard guitar and tune down to B standard? I just did that with an un-loved Strat and need to intonate it better, but seems like it will work fine.

I've heard of that. In fact, when I bought my CV baritone there was a guy trying out a guitar and I could've sworn it was a baritone. In fact, it was a standard scale guitar he had tuned to C.

Depending on how big the strings you're using are, you may have to widen the nut slots so the strings don't sit too proud in the nut. The other possible concern is that the strings get too "floppy" because of the scale length. I tried down tuning a 24.75" semi hollow (with .10 gauge strings) to D and it sort of worked, but the strings were just too floppy and didn't feel right to me.

 

[sloppychops]

The baritone of yours is a beaut! I've been doing the same... keeping the stock 14's on my two Baritones for a while before trying the 13's. But I think I'm going to pop 13s on one of them pretty soon, just to see which gauge I like better.

Report back with your impressions!

 

[Refugee]

I've thought about getting a baritone for quite a long time now, for "ambient" music explorations and regular playing, as well. A couple of weeks ago I finally took action. Loving the deep, rich tones of baritone, I decided to take a two prong approach: buying a Fender baritone conversion neck, to use on one of my Tele bodies, and buying a complete baritone guitar, as well.

The Fender Sub-Sonic baritone neck is a perfect swap-on approach to going baritone IF you already have a Tele body that you wish to apply to the project. All that was needed was to cut the nut slots for the strings, then mount the neck, tune, and play! There are plenty of online sellers for the Fender conversion neck to choose from, so I asked one of them for a discount off list price and the deal was done. The conversion works perfectly!

I have a Fender Nashville Deluxe Tele that I hadn't been playing much, so I felt this was the perfect vehicle for going baritone, with excellent tone options for pickups. I went with a Fender Custom Shop '69 Strat pickup (5.0k) at the neck, a Fender Custom Shop Fat '50s Strat pickup (6.2k) for the middle position, and a Bootstrap Palo Duro Tele bridge pickup (6.1k).

I really like that these pickups provide a combination of best-of-Strat (the Strat neck and middle pickups) with best-of-Tele (the Tele bridge pickup). Plus, I wired it for the ability to combine the Strat neck pickup with the Tele bridge pickup for a very cool tone.

Pos 1: Strat middle pickup
Pos 2: Strat middle pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 3: Tele bridge pickup
Pos 4: Strat neck pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 5: Strat neck pickup

310k Volume pot and a 250k No-Load tone pot complete the project - for a bit of extra "sparkle". Some pics:

Moving on to the baritone guitar I bought - I decided to go with the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar. It has great reviews and is not terribly costly. I had seen a YouTube video (Anderton's) showing the Oxblood color finish and really wanted that model. Unfortunately, that color is not available in the USA. So, I took the plunge and ordered one from Anderton's in England, shipped by DHL in just a few days to Arizona. Arrived in pristine condition!

The fit and finish on this Squier guitar is superb. Wonderful neck, excellent fretwork. And the deep Oxblood metal flake color is so beautiful. (In the USA, this guitar comes in two colors: 3-color sunburst and Surf Green.) See Anderton's website for the Limited Edition colors (Oxblood and Olive Green). To order from the USA, contact Anderton's customer service.

While the stock Fender single coil pickups (P90 design) do sound good, I wanted a bit more bright sparkle for the deep baritone tones, so I replaced the pickups with a spare TV Jones T-Armond (7.9k soapbar format) at the neck and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity P90 (8.6k) at the bridge. Black covers are more to my liking than the cream-colored covers on the stock pickups.

For electronics, I went with a 980k volume pot and a 500k no-load tone pot. Extra sparkle in the tone is quite well achieved! Some pics:

Pickguard is anodized gold metal.

Lastly, a group shot, with a few of my other Teles.

For anyone considering going with a baritone guitar, I can highly recommend both of these two approaches! Fender conversion necks are plentiful available and the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar is quite readily available (at present anyway). Neither of these approaches is very costly. Hope you enjoyed this mini review.

If you have a good tremolo pedal or circuit in an amp, try the baritone through it. It gets some pretty cool sounds. Listen to the rhythm guitar on this. I love that sound!

 

[String Tree]

On the Right is a late 90's re-issue Daneletro Bari.
I was on an afternoon break when I walked in to the Used Music store. The owner had just brought it out to put it on display as I walked in. I bought it before he could put a price tag on it. $300. I feel like Luck was on my side that day.
With a 30" Scale, the Rumble is like no other.

A couple of years later, I found an Ad on Craigslist for a used, Bari Neck that was made to fit a Tele.
I have No idea who made it. There are some Pencil Marks where the neck fits in to the Pocket but, no telling what they mean.
$80 later, I had the neck you see complete with slotted Nut, Gotoh Tuners and a Satin Finish.
Everything worked as advertised.
I put it on my '87 MIM Tele.
Fender Noiseless on the Neck, Seymore Duncan Vintage on the Bridge.

Sound-wise they are two very different Animals.
The Tele has a 27 5/8" scale and, 23 frets while the Dano goes the full two Octaves.

The Dano uses those Lipstick Pick-ups. They are truly a force to be reckoned with!
IMHO - the Sweet Spot is the Middle position with both pick-us on.
Nathan Daniels designed these so it gets Louder in this position.
Having separate Volume and Tone controls for each pick-up is a big Plus.
Note the Chunk-o-wood Bridge plus, the Nut is made from Aluminium.

Then there is the Tele.
Make no doubt, it will not be denied!
Tele's in general have the advantage of more after-market options than any of us can count.

Mix and Match, Pretty hard to go wrong.
Cheers!

 

[String Tree]

If you have a good tremolo pedal or circuit in an amp, try the baritone through it. It gets some pretty cool sounds. Listen to the rhythm guitar on this. I love that sound!

If you have an All-Tube Fender with a Leo-designed Vibrato, it will Sound SOO good!
One would have to take lessons to learn how to make it sound bad.
I have an old Fender Vibrochamp for just such occasions.

 

[String Tree]

I've thought about getting a baritone for quite a long time now, for "ambient" music explorations and regular playing, as well. A couple of weeks ago I finally took action. Loving the deep, rich tones of baritone, I decided to take a two prong approach: buying a Fender baritone conversion neck, to use on one of my Tele bodies, and buying a complete baritone guitar, as well.

The Fender Sub-Sonic baritone neck is a perfect swap-on approach to going baritone IF you already have a Tele body that you wish to apply to the project. All that was needed was to cut the nut slots for the strings, then mount the neck, tune, and play! There are plenty of online sellers for the Fender conversion neck to choose from, so I asked one of them for a discount off list price and the deal was done. The conversion works perfectly!

I have a Fender Nashville Deluxe Tele that I hadn't been playing much, so I felt this was the perfect vehicle for going baritone, with excellent tone options for pickups. I went with a Fender Custom Shop '69 Strat pickup (5.0k) at the neck, a Fender Custom Shop Fat '50s Strat pickup (6.2k) for the middle position, and a Bootstrap Palo Duro Tele bridge pickup (6.1k).

I really like that these pickups provide a combination of best-of-Strat (the Strat neck and middle pickups) with best-of-Tele (the Tele bridge pickup). Plus, I wired it for the ability to combine the Strat neck pickup with the Tele bridge pickup for a very cool tone.

Pos 1: Strat middle pickup
Pos 2: Strat middle pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 3: Tele bridge pickup
Pos 4: Strat neck pickup + Tele bridge pickup
Pos 5: Strat neck pickup

310k Volume pot and a 250k No-Load tone pot complete the project - for a bit of extra "sparkle". Some pics:

Moving on to the baritone guitar I bought - I decided to go with the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar. It has great reviews and is not terribly costly. I had seen a YouTube video (Anderton's) showing the Oxblood color finish and really wanted that model. Unfortunately, that color is not available in the USA. So, I took the plunge and ordered one from Anderton's in England, shipped by DHL in just a few days to Arizona. Arrived in pristine condition!

The fit and finish on this Squier guitar is superb. Wonderful neck, excellent fretwork. And the deep Oxblood metal flake color is so beautiful. (In the USA, this guitar comes in two colors: 3-color sunburst and Surf Green.) See Anderton's website for the Limited Edition colors (Oxblood and Olive Green). To order from the USA, contact Anderton's customer service.

While the stock Fender single coil pickups (P90 design) do sound good, I wanted a bit more bright sparkle for the deep baritone tones, so I replaced the pickups with a spare TV Jones T-Armond (7.9k soapbar format) at the neck and a Seymour Duncan Antiquity P90 (8.6k) at the bridge. Black covers are more to my liking than the cream-colored covers on the stock pickups.

For electronics, I went with a 980k volume pot and a 500k no-load tone pot. Extra sparkle in the tone is quite well achieved! Some pics:

Pickguard is anodized gold metal.

Lastly, a group shot, with a few of my other Teles.

For anyone considering going with a baritone guitar, I can highly recommend both of these two approaches! Fender conversion necks are plentiful available and the Squier Paranormal Cabronita Baritone guitar is quite readily available (at present anyway). Neither of these approaches is very costly. Hope you enjoyed this mini review.

There are a LOT of ways to approach this and still get what you want.

 

[String Tree]

Love my CV baritone! It came with .14 gauge strings, but the shop threw in a set of .13s which I haven't tried yet. Anyone switch to .13s? What's your opinion on them? I'm not going to try them til the stock .14 strings are beat.

View attachment 1099503

I have 13's on my Tele, 14's on my Dano.
IMHO- The 14's are better for the Dano's Longer Scale Length.

 

[String Tree]

Bigger picture question--is there any good reason not to throw some fatter strings on a standard guitar and tune down to B standard? I just did that with an un-loved Strat and need to intonate it better, but seems like it will work fine.

The Lower Notes simply don't have the Length to Resonate as Longer Scale Instrument does.

 

[Refugee]

If you have an All-Tube Fender with a Leo-designed Vibrato, it will Sound SOO good!
One would have to take lessons to learn how to make it sound bad.
I have an old Fender Vibrochamp for just such occasions.

With a slight nod towards Brownface. But Blackface areabout as good. I've heard that the Two Rock Matt Scofield Sig. amp has the greates sounding trem of all time. Never tried one, but i didi have on loan from a friend a '67 BF Princeton and that was one great sounding amp! Didn't want to give it back.