Super excited and wanted to share my just-peeled-the-plastic-off-new 8-string baritone! After playing a Guild baritone and discovering it pairs great with my flavor of finger-style, I traded up to this 326ce yesterday. Still learning new harmonic rolls, different ways to hit the paired courses, and such-- the lower register and pairs have been creatively inspiring. I don’t see a way to upload a short sound clip here, but if that’s possible and anyone is interest, lmk. Cheers!
What a beauty! What’s the scale on the neck and what tuning do you run it at? Never played an acoustic baritone but I bet it’s hell on your calluses.
Thanks! 27in is the scale length according to taylor’s website. It’s definitely easier than the jumbo Guild baritone, which I think was 27"–but yes, both of them are devastating on calluses compared to standard guitar. Actually, I mostly play mandolin these days and still baritone is quite a bit more difficult on my fingers.
The action is slammed down (lowered saddle & truss rod) to the point it buzzes a bit with a pick, but it plays like butter. I might loosen the rod tension a bit once I’m more comfortable with it.
B E A D F# B is “standard”, although I’ve been mostly playing in open A tuning: mainly A E A D E A (dadgad, but lower) and more recently A E A D E G#.