Baritone GT8 String. (Video Review Added) Do you have one? What do you think?

[dougboy1970]

Update: 4/18/2012. Finally finished the review.  Thanks for all the feedback.  It helped a lot! Hope you'll take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3mx04dqvU.

*******************************************
After seeing the review videos I posted on youtube for my own guitars, my local music store asked me to review the Baritone GT8 (8-string).  He even let me bring it home to do so.  Of course, carting an expensive flawless Taylor with a flawless case home made me a little nervous, but i fought through the gitters and here it sits, still flawless and needing to be quickly reviewed and returned so that it may remain so.   

Upon arriving home, I, of course, began to watch some of the review vids for the GT-8 already out there.  To be honest, after playing the guitar, I don't think the reviews could do the tone justice, even through decent speakers.  The thing is, you just can't hear HOW LOW this guit really gets.  I mean, it rumbles!  I wondered if you would even need a basist in your ensemble with a GT-8 present.

As for proceeding with my review, I would love some feedback from owners who have owned and used them in real world settings.

Are you playing them in live gigs? 

Solo acts? Ensembles?  (It occurred to me when I was playing it that it would be great to have a maple or walnut playing along to fill in the higher end of the spectrum.)

Strumming?  Finger-picking? 

Did it really help you to write and approach songs differently? 

Some reviewers said that it helped them to sing the songs that were out of their range because of the b to b tuning.  Do you use it for that purpose?

As for me, if I were in a band situation where my Basist also liked playing guitar, I would encourage him to get one so that he could fill the low-end of the spectrum with bass runs on the B and E while branching out and playing guitar at the same time with the other six strings.  Have any of you tried this approach?

Love to hear your thoughts as I'm a little intimidated by reviewing something I'm not that personally familiar with.  I might be out of my element here!   

[mgap]

I played a 8 string one time at a Taylor Road Show.  I had a wonderful sound .  However it was at a Road show and that is not one of the best place to test drive a guitar.  I would love to own one.  I know this is not any help but I had to say I enjoyed the sound very much.

[dougboy1970]

Thanks, mgap.  I've been surprised that this thread hasn't gotten more responses...I either was too verbose (go figure!) or people aren't that excited about the baritone.  When I play it I feel it's a bit too low to be played by itself, but think it would be amazing with a second guitar like a really bright maple.  I've also seen people capo 5 which brings it to standard tuning (E to E, rather than b to b), which makes it brighter of course, but that, in my mind, is making the guitar a standard guitar, rather than getting the low end out of the guitar because that's what it's made to do.  The two extra octave strings bring a great tone, though.  Maybe since we've posted again, the thread will get more responses.  Gonna try to make the video tomorrow, so it would be a big help

[Unforgiven]

Hey Doughboy,
i have played one for about 30 minutes and loved it. I think its a great sound especially for someone
who tunes down. I could see myself writing some different songs on it. I am a gigging musician who is about
to go into the studio to record a new CD. I ordered a BTO 8 string with grafted walnut back and sides which
won't be here until May. Wish I had it now and I could offer you more opinions. Though as a musician
its harder to sometimes find a sound that is different than anyone else while not going overboard with the whole
"I wanna sound different" thing! I will be using it as one of my guitars on stage with the whole band. I am the lead singer and rhythm
guitar, but I think that along with electric, bass and drums will sound awesome. i am actually happy  that not
many bands have gone this route and I'm getting a so called jump on them with a different sound that
hasn't really been tapped into yet. Doubt this helps you much but like I said I won't have mine for another
4 or 5 weeks. Take care and good luck with your review.

[dougboy1970]

Hey Doughboy,
i have played one for about 30 minutes and loved it. I think its a great sound especially for someone
who tunes down. I could see myself writing some different songs on it. I am a gigging musician who is about
to go into the studio to record a new CD. I ordered a BTO 8 string with grafted walnut back and sides which
won't be here until May. Wish I had it now and I could offer you more opinions. Though as a musician
its harder to sometimes find a sound that is different than anyone else while not going overboard with the whole
"I wanna sound different" thing! I will be using it as one of my guitars on stage with the whole band. I am the lead singer and rhythm
guitar, but I think that along with electric, bass and drums will sound awesome. i am actually happy  that not
many bands have gone this route and I'm getting a so called jump on them with a different sound that
hasn't really been tapped into yet. Doubt this helps you much but like I said I won't have mine for another
4 or 5 weeks. Take care and good luck with your review.

Thanks, Unforgiven!  That's exactly what I was looking for.  I bet the guitar will sound awesome in walnut, a little bright than the EIR but still with plenty of rumble.  Do you think you'll do any alternate tunings with it?  I saw one lady tune it to DADGAD, well it would really be AEADEA, and it rung like a giant bell...

[rolleiguy54]

Doughboy,

I've had one for two years and use it for accompanying a church Praise Choir.
For the last 4 months I have it strung with 6 regular medium strings and tuned d to d.
This allows for much flexibility to play in regular tuning with a capo on the second fret,
Drop d with the capo reversed and covering the top five strings, or in dropped tuning for our altos.
Monster sound plugged directly into our pa.

I bought a set of medium 12s and will be trying it in d to d with 8 strings again.

[dougboy1970]

Doughboy,

I've had one for two years and use it for accompanying a church Praise Choir.
For the last 4 months I have it strung with 6 regular medium strings and tuned d to d.
This allows for much flexibility to play in regular tuning with a capo on the second fret,
Drop d with the capo reversed and covering the top five strings, or in dropped tuning for our altos.
Monster sound plugged directly into our pa.

I bought a set of medium 12s and will be trying it in d to d with 8 strings again.

That's really interesting...does the lighter gauge medium strings allow you to tune up a step and half with out actually putting too much tension on the neck?  Also, makes it brighter...that's interesting...I bet it sounds great in that setup...hmmm

[Unforgiven]

Thanks, Unforgiven!  That's exactly what I was looking for.  I bet the guitar will sound awesome in walnut, a little bright than the EIR but still with plenty of rumble.  Do you think you'll do any alternate tunings with it?  I saw one lady tune it to DADGAD, well it would really be AEADEA, and it rung like a giant bell...

I will probably try different tunings. I tune my standard guitars sometimes to DADGAD. I went with the walnut for reasons you said,
you don't lose any bass really but the mids and uppers will ring even more, so should be an awesome guitar. Taylor actually built one or two
in the combo I did for NAMM in 2010 and I thought they sounded amazing from the video clips I saw. I try different tunings a lot but stick to
just a few for the final result otherwise I would have to buy more guitars to switch on stage and my guitar tech who I already run
ragged I suspect would have his hands full even more

[rolleiguy54]

No issues with the neck using medium string d to d.
It is easier to play this way because we often lower the key on the fly. So I just lower the capo.

[Unforgiven]

Just checking Doughboy on how your video came out.

[dougboy1970]

Hey unforgiven, started writing a song and got caught up working on that...planning to make it Sunday evening...will post when complete...

[ggj]

"Are you playing them in live gigs? 

Solo acts? Ensembles?  (It occurred to me when I was playing it that it would be great to have a maple or walnut playing along to fill in the higher end of the spectrum.)

Strumming?  Finger-picking? 

Did it really help you to write and approach songs differently? 

Some reviewers said that it helped them to sing the songs that were out of their range because of the b to b tuning.  Do you use it for that purpose?

As for me, if I were in a band situation where my Basist also liked playing guitar, I would encourage him to get one so that he could fill the low-end of the spectrum with bass runs on the B and E while branching out and playing guitar at the same time with the other six strings.  Have any of you tried this approach?"
__________________________

I got your message the other night. Sorry I didn't respond earlier. 

I purchased my Bari-8 last summer.  I bought it primarily to spark some new songwriting.

However, I've found the guitar to be wonderful in other ways.  I play in a praise band at my church and we often have more than one accoustic playing.  The Baritone is a great way for me to compliment the sound of the group.  I have had great results with it and it fits nicely into the band's sound.  The low end is extraordinary and I love the rumble of the low b string; the 8 string gives me a great mid rang tonality we assocate with a good 12 string--it was an inspired decision by Taylor to make the Bari-8.

We are pretty up tempo in the praise band so I use a flat pick most of the time in that setting.  I have finger picked the guitar for personal use in writing but I find the heavier strings to be a chore after a while.  Surprisingly I have not found the guitar to be extremely beneficial to my writing but that's just me at this point in time. I haven't had to key down most of the stuff I sing but the guitar would be wonderful for that purpose.

I've experimented with the equivalent of a DADGAD tuning on the guitar and if you leave the low B string at its standard pitch, the guitar does open up a lot of possilbities for that tuning.

In general, I have to say that I've found the guitar to perform amazingly well.  I've used a capo quite a bit when I need a lower tuning but not the full 2 1/2 steps down from standard.  The relative ptich with the capo is as good as any guitar I've owned and that is quite a revelation to me.  The guitar opens up an entire array of different voicing possibilites when arranging a song, whether an original or a cover.

All in all, I've found the guitar to be a great instruemnt that has found a number of uses in my guitar life and I haven't even started to fully use it for the purpose I originally had in mind.

[ggj]

BTW, I have praise band practice tonight.  Five tunes and I'm using the Baritone on all of them!!!

[dougboy1970]

Thanks ggj!  Great review...I've recorded the video for the review I'm doing and am going to start editing soon...I'll put some of your quotes in there as well!

[dougboy1970]

Finally finished my video review of the GT8 Baritone.  Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV3mx04dqvU