Baritone guitar

[Dave Gibbon]

I have been asked by a friend if I could build him a baritone guitar. As a first step, a set of plans would seem a good idea, but I've tried the obvious (Stewmac LMI etc.) without success. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good set of plans, and any help regarding body size, variation in brace sizes etc. would be most welcome. Thanks in anticipation, Dave.

[Doug Shaker]

I don't know of any printed plans for baritones. I think I would look at the baritone offerings of the factory guitar makers and see what I liked about them, then create my own plan from what I liked of those.

-Doug Shaker

[Patrick DeGreve]

Hi Dave: I built an 8 string baritone about 18 months ago baised in the Taylor GT8 Baritone. At that time there was a discussion on this forum about baritone guitars, but no plans available. I really liked the concept of the 8 string baritone, and called Taylor guitars and asked a few questions. I don't remember who at Taylor I talked with, but he said that the bracing on the GT8 was just a bit taller than the standard bracing for that body shape. I decided to use a drednaught body and made my bracing about 1/8" taller than normal. I used the 27" scale length that Taylor uses,(so I had to move the bridge to keep the neck joining at the 14th fret). Elixir makes a set of strings for the GT8, and I used those for mine. I love this guitar, the added harmonic strings on the center courses brightens up the overal tone of the guitar and makes it much more useable as a solo instrument. Everyone who has played this instrument had good things to say about it. I am almost finished with a second baritone I am making for my older brother, who loved mine. I would check out the Taylor GT8, there are several videos on youtube. I would get a good set of plans for a body shape you like (dreadnaught, Jumbo?) modify the bracing and go for it. I am very glad I did. Good Luck! Keep us posted.

[Dave Gibbon]

Hi Doug and Patrick, thanks to you both for your input, as I also have potentially a client interested in a jumbo, I think I will get a set of medium jumbo plans and modify them for the baritone. If the other commission comes to be, then I will already have the plans available. BTW Patrick, the figure on your guitar looks absolutely stunning, I bet it sounds great too, congratulations on a fine looking piece of work.

[Doug Shaker]

In my own design thoughts, the critical components are:
1) What do you want for the scale length? I think of 27" as a minimum, but you can look at the D'Addario technical specs for their strings. They give you enough information that you can pick a string, a length and a note and then figure out the tension. I would try to choose a string weight that will give you the open-string note that you want when it is about the same tension as a normal guitar string on a normal guitar. Will that string weight be too big? Adjust the scale length until you get an answer you like.
2) Where do you want the bridge to fall? I would like the bridge to be about 40% of the distance from the waist to the tail. Or, if you are into the Golden Ratio, 38.2% of that distance.
3) What fret do you want to place at the top of the guitar body? 12? 14? I favor 12-frets with a cutaway.
My approach after that would be to take a body shape I like, scale it up and then adjust the upper bout until everything fit and I liked the shape.

Then you gotta figure out the body depth. Good luck with that. Some people think it is terribly important. Some don't.

[Freeman Keller]

I have been asked by a friend if I could build him a baritone guitar. As a first step, a set of plans would seem a good idea, but I've tried the obvious (Stewmac LMI etc.) without success. Can anyone point me in the direction of a good set of plans, and any help regarding body size, variation in brace sizes etc. would be most welcome. Thanks in anticipation, Dave.

This might help

http://www.mimf.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php ... tar#p24980