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Post subject: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 9:32 pm
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Just came from seeing Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun at the Birchmere in Alxeandria VA. My wife and I had seats right at the stage edge directly in front of Mr. Kirchen. One of the guitars he played appeared to be a baritone Telecaster. It was NOT a Blacktop Telecaster. He was standing less than 6 feet away from me so I had a perfect view of the guitar.

The body was that of a regular Telecaster with Tele pickups and was well worn. The neck/fretboard was maple with a Fender decal on the headstock. Here is a very poor photo of the guitar (on the left) next to his custom T-Type. You can see the difference in fret spacing between the two guitars. Not only that, but it has 24 frets! The sound was definitely that of a baritone, very deep and resonant.

Anyone have any idea what this guitar is? Is it from the Custom Shop?

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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2013 10:39 pm
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Bajo Sexto.

Fender did a specific string set for this particular guitar.

This model came in 2-tone sunburst and butterscotch blonde and featured a 1-piece 2-octave maple neck with 24 frets and a 30¼"-scale length.

Pictured below is a 2-tone sunburst Bajo Sexto which is not mine.
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The Bajo Sexto was primarily used by Jimmy Page though I saw this Fred Stuart Masterbuilt thinline which belonged to Richie Sambora.

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From Fretted Americana:

Quote:
This Baritone guitar was undoubtedly a specially ordered 'Prototype' and was made by Fred Stuart of the Fender Custom Shop in October 1990. According to Tony Bacon's book Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster, p.125, the Bajo Sexto Telecaster was produced by the Fender Custom Shop between 1992 and 1998 and had a "Slab single-cutaway body; sunburst or blond" with a "Fretted maple neck" and a "Five-screw black plastic pickguard". There is no mention of any 'Thinline' version ever having been made, nor any version with a Slab-Rosewood fretboard. The only three examples of any Bajo Sexto that we can locate in the Fender Custom Shop Guitar Gallery book are 1. A Danny Gatton Doubleneck built by Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart (with maple fretboards); 2. A Gene Parsons Double Bender Telecaster (also built by Alan Hamel and Fred Stuart and with maple fretboards); and 3. A Checkerboard Bajo Sexto Telecaster built by Fred Stuart (with a maple fretboard) , which is owned by Rick Nielsen. Richie's guitar was made by Fred Stuart two years before the Custom Shop offered this very rare instrument.

We have spoken to Fred Stuart who has confirmed that this guitar was indeed specially made for Richie Sambora in October 1990 and that it was one of the very first Bajo Sexto's ever built.

"The history of the Bajo Sexto is not exactly clear, but by some historian's account, the instrument was first brought to Mexico by the Spaniards. Others say it evolved from the 12-string guitar, emerging sometime late in the 19th century as native to the bajio region of Jalisco, Mexico.

In the early development of conjunto music, the Bajo was used mainly as a bass instrument in conjunction with the bass chord elements of the accordion. But later, with the addition of bass and drums in modern conjunto groups, the Bajo players were free to expand on its primary use as a rhythm instrument and played as a solo, melody-line instrument…

According to Reyes Accordions.com (http://www.reyesaccordions.com/Macias.htm) "The Steel-stringed Bajo is tuned an octave below a standard guitar, and the last two strings are tuned up a half-step: E, A, D, G, C, F, low to high, with each course tuned in octaves. This gives it a rich tone and a loud, resonant quality." However Richie Sambora had this guitar set-up somewhat differently…This Bajo Sexto is tuned A, D, G, C, E, A as per a small label inside the case which also shows an alternate tuning of C, F, A#, D#, G, C. (The strings used are 66, 56, 46, 36, 22 & 16).


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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:07 am
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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 11:46 am
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Thanks. :D

Turns out, this is the actual guitar he played:

http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0156.html

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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 12:45 pm
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bluesky636 wrote:
Thanks. :D

Turns out, this is the actual guitar he played:

http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0156.html


Here's the footage from the interview :)



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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 3:18 pm
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Pretty cool. Thanks. :D

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Post subject: Re: Custom Shop Baritone Telecaster?
Posted: Sun Jul 07, 2013 11:09 pm
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