mosriteforum.com

Things seem a little slow around here, so I thought I'd pose this hypothetical question for you luthier types.
Over the holidays I had the opportunity to mess around on a baritone guitar. In my mind it has a lot of plusses, and I loved the big sound. I don't know if Semi ever made a baritone, or baritone double neck, but for my style of playing, it would be more useful than a twelve string. Inspired by Danny and the double neck project he would like to start, would a baritone neck fit on a Mosrite style doubleneck body? Also, would a trem work and fit as well. It would require a special heavy spring for the baritone neck, but it would be interesting. How would Semi have done it (if he didn't already)? Any ideas?

I'm not sure if Semie ever made a baritone, but I would think a baritone neck could work. I had a Fender Jaguar Baritone which I used regularly at gigs until it was stolen.

I think that a regular vibrato spring would be fine as I installed a Jaguar vibrato on my baritone and it was fine with the stock spring. It really depends on finding a string gauge that gives similar tension on the longer scale.

Other than that you'd probably have to drill out the holes in the string retainer on the vibrato and of course have thicker slots on the string guide.

Not in any way to disuade you from such a cool project, but have you tried the Electro Harmonix micro-POG? It's a polyphonic octave generator that can add octave up, octave down or both to your signal. I bought one after I lost my baritone and while it's nowhere near the real deal it tracks well and sounds fine in and of itself. As a plus it's much easier to carry to gigs.

Mel

I guess anything is possible if there is enough desire to do it. I don't know of any particular baritone being made by Semie but I wouldn't rule it out. Here's a Bass/12 photo from an eBay auction a few months back. I didn't save the description by the seller so I don't recall the particulars. I may have already posted this somewhere else on this web site as I found this photo in my Photobucket account used for posting photo's on forums. This obviously isn't a real Mosrite but apparently built using some Mosrite parts and OMG grafting together two Mosrite guitars. I hope not as that would be a crying shame.

Thanks for the input, guys.
Mel, I remember when your baritone was stolen and you told the story at Surf Guitar forum. What a heartbreaker.
Yea, the Mosrite style Bari-double neck is just a pipedream. I would imagine something along the lines of the early sixties style like Damon's, or, if the body needs more size, like the one Dennis uses as his signature. Would you put the baritone neck on the bottom (closer to your feet), or the top?
The POG sounds very interesting, but not as romantic as a very cool Mosrite-style double neck. Again, this is something more for the fun of it than an actual active pursuit.....at this time

Any other thoughts or comments are welcome. Let your conjecture run wild.What would Semi have done?

Our very own Deke Dickerson and Bob Shade collaborated on a baritone doubleneck a while back. I would think putting the baritone neck on top would be the way to go if you want the instrument to balance properly on a strap.

Cheers,
Adam

dorkrockrecords wrote:Our very own Deke Dickerson and Bob Shade collaborated on a baritone doubleneck a while back. I would think putting the baritone neck on top would be the way to go if you want the instrument to balance properly on a strap.

Cheers,
Adam

Judging by the picture, if you are putting the baritone and regular necks on an already existing body,
it looks as though you might have to move the bridge for correct intonation on the Bari....

Thanks for the comments, Gentlemen. After doing a little research on baritones, I would think a 27 inch scale (like the Jag Bari) with a B to B tuning would work . The one I jammed on during the holidays (and fell in love with the sound) was tuned that way, but it was a Fender VI, which is a 30inch scale. To fit on a Mosrite style double neck body the shorter 27 inch might work out better. Still a pipe dream, but must admit this comes to mind every now and then. Any other suggestions are welcome.

Check out the Danelectro reissue doubleneck....whoever thought that one out did a really good job. The two bridges and pickups are even so it's very easy to switch back and forth. The necks and frets line up too, just the baritone neck (upper) goes out another 5 frets. Very well balanced too. If I was to make a Mosrite doubleneck with a baritone neck I would copy the Danelectro layout.

The original Danelectro doubleneck from the 60's, though, was kind of a disaster. The necks were the same length with a short scale bass on top, and the bridge for the bass went all the way to the end of the body while the guitar bridge went to the middle of the body, a real clunker to play....

Deke

Thanks very much, Deke. That bit of advice definitely points me in the right direction.