Baritone tuning

[Roger Fisher]

My Baritone is factory-tuned B to B, and some players tune them down further.
Just curious how high UP I can tune it (without damage to strings or guitar)?
One semi-tone up? Whole tone up?
Anyone with Baritone experience?

 

[JJJ]

not trying to be rude or anything - but..... why? you just like the scale length?

If it were me I'd be going below A to the depths of hell

There can't really be an answer, you'll have to try it and see what works for the way you play and the gauge you are using

 

[colinkanders]

I know a guy who tunes a standard guitar up two whole steps (G# Standard) without issue, but I'm not sure how that would affect a baritone. Not to mention that tuning a B Standard up two whole steps is the same as tuning an E Standard down half a step.

FWIW, I really like the B Standard tuning on my baritones.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

You tell us. I would recommend: tune a half step up at a time, revisit the setup, setup if necessary (esp: neck). Repeat.

I suspect that if you tune more than 3 half-steps, you will want to revisit your string gauge and setup.

 

[Roger Fisher]

thanks all for feedback.
Before experimenting, I was worried about damaging guitar, that's why i asked.
Only purpose for tuning up would be to get extra one or two notes at the high end.
But i'm afraid to mess with anything.
This guitar is so beautiful and so special. Never played any axe that felt so good and gave me so much pleasure and motivation to play.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I think the strings will break before you damage the neck, but not sure. Usually, tuning up or down is a balancing act with the string gauges -- once you tune beyond a whole step or so, you'll want to change the string gauges to make it feel the same playing.

Also, you may render the guitar unplayable by increasing the tension too high by tuning up without changing strings to a new gauge -- it'll just be too hard to fret the strings beyond a certain tension. Have you ever played 12s or 13s on a regular scale length 6-string guitar?

You certainly will not damage the neck by tuning up while also changing to new string gauges, although you may have trouble finding 9s long enough (not sure about that neither). The choices with baritone length strings are pretty limited, and I'm not sure regular guitar strings will be long enough.

 

[Roger Fisher]

thanks Dusty, i think for now i'll just enjoy it as is.