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Hoots : What is a 7 String Baritone? I've heard the terms 7 string and baritone often.. and know what they mean. But I've also heard the term "7 string baritone" or "baritone 7 string" tossed around a lot. Now that the new guitar - freshhoot.com

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What is a 7 String Baritone?
I've heard the terms 7 string and baritone often.. and know what they mean. But I've also heard the term "7 string baritone" or "baritone 7 string" tossed around a lot. Now that the new guitar I'm going to buy has that in the name, I need to know if I'm buying the real deal.


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While Tim is correct, Baritone, when used to describe a guitar these days, typically just means a longer neck so the lower tuning has a sensible tension.

Standard guitar scale lengths about 24.6 to 25.75 inches
Baritone scale length ranges from 27 to 30.5 inches

And 7 string just means 7 strings :-)

Baritone length guitars are really nice to play, however my favourite right now is my Ormsby multi-scale 7 string - Baritone length for the lowest string, and standard length for the high string, so I get the best of both worlds for my preferred tuning of ADADGBE


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The 'standard' baritone guitar tuning was the same as a standard guitar, but a 4th lower, so it could play the same fingering for chords. As in B E A D F♯B.

There were several different tunings used, but that's sort of datum point. Slightly longer scale length than standard guitar, so the strings weren't too sloppy or too tight.

It was a half-way point between a standard guitar and a bass guitar. 7 and 8 string guitars then became more popular - but rather like 5 string basses, tuning could vary. With 5 string basses, the two main options were BEADG or EADGC, the former being the preferred.

As the purchaser, you'll have to decide exactly where you need to be, the propensity to change tunings, have lower bottom or higher top string is going to be important - the more strings, the bigger the range between string lengths - due to intonation.

The name(!) of KX257B is a clue that it does have 7 strings, and the lowest is tuned to B. Having said that, it's going to be very easy to drop it all down to B♭ or A on the bottom, without changing strings. So it could have a tuning of BEADGBE - standard 'old' 7 string tuning - I bought one in Russia in the mid 60s - so it's nothing new!


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I looked up that guitar and it's interesting.

Baritone here means that it has a longer scale length (27" is almost two inches longer than Fender scale length. This allows you to get lower notes, commonly B (BEADF#B) or A (ADGCEA). You can do baritone with a standard scale length, but in my experience, the bridge saddles can't go back far enough to intonate correctly.
7-string is simply that; another string. The first seven-strings added a high A above high E, but the strings were too light and broke a lot, so now we would see a low B, or maybe lower. With a baritone, you might tune BEADF#B, and the new low might be F# or maybe E, depending on what you want.
But this is also a multiscale instrument, where the low strings are longer so they can behave like they want and the high strings are shorter. I'm told that it doesn't feel as weird in the hand as sounds, but I've not played one. I first heard of them in the hands of Charlie Hunter, who played bass and guitar at once in his jazz combo.
Looks like fun. Of course, I say that about most instruments.


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