Taylor Baritone 8 string

[rockstar_not]

Played one yesterday at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville.  Curse you Glen for showing it to me.  Deep GAS/Love.  What a cool instrument and sound.

[teh]

I played one in Grand Island, NY last year.

Really nice instrument with a different sound that opens a whole lot of new options.

[rockstar_not]

I played one in Grand Island, NY last year.

Really nice instrument with a different sound that opens a whole lot of new options.

Totally agree with you on this.  When Glen at Gruhn said that I had to try it, I was thinking - what the heck is an 8 string baritone guitar?  Putting the octaves on the middle two strings really was interesting.  I found myself adapting almost immediately, with pretty easy ability to not pick the higher octaves when fingerpicking, but when some extra flavor is desired, they can be grabbed pretty easy with the thumbnail on a downstroke.

When guitars make me sound better than usual, to my ear, that's when I sit up and take notice.  This has happened three times in my lifetime - when I played my first Larrivée, when I played a Rainsong 12 string at NAMM in 2009, and just earlier this week playing this bari with 2 extra strings.  So far, one of those has ended up in a purchase.  I had the Rainsong next in line for when I purchase another acoustic, but I think this Taylor just edged it out.  Gotta find out if they are doing an entry-level version of it.  This one was seriously out of my price range.  It's a good thing it's in Nashville and I'm back in Colorado...

[blue]

I have a 6 string Baritone, not a Taylor.  While I don't think the 8 string is a gimmick, after playing one a few times, I'm still glad I have a 6.  I definitely dig the 8 over a 12, and I definitely think they are awesome.  But like most things in life opening one avenue can often limit access to others.  When the Yairi 9 strings came out way back when, I liked those too.  But back then the idea of owning 3 guitars was not what it is today    It would have been a big deal.

I guess what I'm saying is I'll be getting one on the first super deal I see on a clean used one    But it'll be my second baritone.  Not my first.  Hopefully you got to A/B it with a six string Bari?

[rockstar_not]

Hopefully you got to A/B it with a six string Bari?

I auditioned it against two different Larry Bari's.  One of them was used with dead strings on it and the other one was new, as far as I can tell.  The 8 string Taylor sang a siren song to me, the Larry's didn't.  I don't even know what the prices were on the Larrys.  I didn't bother to look.