Baritone Teles - wonderful!

[sloppychops]

Wondering how you all like to play your baritone Tele. Clean or dirty? Guitar amp or bass amp?

I have one I can't quite tweak to eliminate all the fret buzz on the low E and A strings, so played clean I get some annoying fret buzz. I play with just fingers almost all the time, and like to really whomp on the bass strings, so this makes fret buzz an even bigger problem.

What works best is engaging Boost on the amp (a Supro) along with a compressor and overdrive. Any fret buzz morphs into the buzz of overdrive. It's about the most bada$$ Tele tone I've found. Just wickedly mean. Also sounds good through an Acoustic b50c solid state bass amp with the compressor and overdrive. That little amp adds even more low end.

I did change out the bridge pickup for an orphaned CS Texas Special from another Tele. I use the bridge pickup 90% of the time and am planning to convert the guitar to an Esquire at some point.

 

[DHart]

Wondering how you all like to play your baritone Tele. Clean or dirty? Guitar amp or bass amp?

I have one I can't quite tweak to eliminate all the fret buzz on the low E and A strings, so played clean I get some annoying fret buzz. I play with just fingers almost all the time, and like to really whomp on the bass strings, so this makes fret buzz an even bigger problem.

What works best is engaging Boost on the amp (a Supro) along with a compressor and overdrive. Any fret buzz morphs into the buzz of overdrive. It's about the most bada$$ Tele tone I've found. Just wickedly mean. Also sounds good through an Acoustic b50c solid state bass amp with the compressor and overdrive. That little amp adds even more low end.

I did change out the bridge pickup for an orphaned CS Texas Special from another Tele. I use the bridge pickup 90% of the time and am planning to convert the guitar to an Esquire at some point.

I play clean, with compression and a bit of reverb. Of course, full set-up procedures are the best start for getting rid of the buzz (action height, neck/truss rod adjustment, nut cut). And, heavier strings can take more thumping on before buzzing on the frets than lighter gauge strings. Lastly... how you play the strings is a biggie.

 

[DHart]

Interesting side-effect of my baritone playing is that nines on my other guitars feel like they must be 8's. And my guitars with 10's (most of them) now feel like nines. I have to work, now, at not applying so much fretting pressure when playing my standard guitars. One of my Teles has 11's on it and now that guitar feels like I'm just playing my usual 10s. Funny how that works.

You get accustomed to playing the heavier strings and that, consequently, requires some focused adjustment to how you play guitars with lighter strings.

 

[KirkDahnke]

I play clean, with compression and a bit of reverb. Of course, full set-up procedures are the best start for getting rid of the buzz

I play clean, with compression and a bit of reverb. Of course, full set-up procedures are the best start for getting rid of the buzz (action height, neck/truss rod adjustment, nut cut). And, heavier strings can take more thumping on before buzzing on the frets than lighter gauge strings. Lastly... how you play the strings is a biggie.

(action height, neck/truss rod adjustment, nut cut). And, heavier strings can take more thumping on before buzzing on the frets than lighter gauge strings. Lastly... how you play the strings is a biggie.

First thing I do to any guitar is to have a bone nut properly cut. Most of tuning problems are there. Then new electronics unless its got CTS pots etc. Cheaper guitars have finally caught on that spending an extra $10 puts them ahead of the competition. But you can be fine with cheaper tuners if the nut is right.

 

[Deebs3]

Check out the baritone in this:

That is absolutely fantastic.. thanks for posting..

 

[KirkDahnke]

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

Excellent choice on the black pickguard! I used matte black 1 ply. I bought a black one for that reason. Black looks good on the sunburst ones too. I'm going to .13s in drop A when I get it back from a tech. Changed out the bridge and pickup too.

 

[BobbyMac]

Here are some of the pictures my Sweetwater sales engineer sent me after I purchased this guitar a few weeks ago. Its a Sweetwater exclusive Factory Special Run Squier Classic Vibe Custom Telecaster Baritone in Purple Sparkle. Arrived with a perfect set-up and was packaged in typical Sweetwater fashion; double-boxed with foam injection padding, and their 55-point pre-sale inspection. At $579, it is not an inexpensive guitar, but for the money this guitar is well worth it.