How I setup the Gretsch Baritone for LOATHE

Take a look at how I setup Erik's Gretsch Bartone guitar exactly the way he likes it!
Apologies for the lower audio quality - I filmed and recorded this while on tour so I only have my iPhone as a microphone for the voiceover. But stay tuned for my videos from the tour!
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[@joshguy5221]

Man the sound of fresh strings is great

[@5weating_8ullets]

I've always hated it to be honest on acoustic guitar i find it to always sound too metallic

[@IMNOTZILL]

fresh strings after like 2 days of use is the best

[@didtoknan8128]

If you don't know it, the .100" in the Fender Bass VI Set is tapered at 35". Try it without telling the guitarist of Loathe and see if he can live with a .100" rather than a .105" !

[@Return2TheLiving]

He will know simply because that particular guitar needs to go from Drop E to B. .105 is very tight for E but to some comfortably slack for B for this sort of thing, so it’s kind of “meet in the middle” sort of gauge for what he is doing. He would certainly notice that change.

[@didtoknan8128]

@@Return2TheLiving I also watched Eric's rig rundown published yesterday but I still think he should give it a try !

[@nathanbaird7150]

@@didtoknan8128 I have the same Gretsch and can confirm that using the 35” .100 won’t work. I use the Ernie Ball 6 string bass set with a .90 for the low E. It tapers at around 32”, just long enough to stretch over the nut but also just baaaaarely short enough to fit into the tuning post without drilling/unwinding. I’m also accounting for the distance from the ball end to the bridge, which is about another 2”. The 35” .100 definetly won’t fit since the bass VI has more of a distance from the ball end to the bridge and the scale length is exactly 30” as opposed to the Gretsch’s 29.75” Because of this, there will be about an extra 2-3” of taper going past the tuning post on the Gretsch using the .100, meaning you’ll also have to either file the post or unwind the string if you really wanna get it to fit. The .90 from the EB set is literally perfect for drop E: taper is just long enough for the scale length/short enough to fit into the tuner and is at around 23lbs of tension at pitch. Though I would only go as low as D1 with it still being tight enough to really dig into the string. C#1 is pushing it, but you WILL have problems trying to go to B0 with it, even with a good setup. At that low, the .105 is definetly more viable of an option. It’s also not too unbearable of a feeling if you also play actual bass guitar as well since you’ll be used to the thicker gauge a little more. Hope this helps!!

[@didtoknan8128]

@@nathanbaird7150 Thank you, it's interesting to know that ! On my Gretsch, I only try the 24-90 from Stringjoy and it works perfectly. Next time, I will try the 24-84 from d'Addario.

[@coma-fx]

@@nathanbaird7150 Thank you! My Gretsch gets here in a few days, and i want to tune it to C# so this info definitely helps!

[@antoniofuentes2432]

just bought this guitar, so this video is literally perfect timing. cheers Ryan!

[@didtoknan8128]

These are crazy tensions on some strings. Good to know the G5260 can handle that !

[@didtoknan8128]

I did some maths. In total stock in B, it's 186.6 lbs. With the Loathe gauge and tuning it's the exact same number. In E Standard, the results are: Ernie Ball 20-90: 156.8 lbs Stringjoy 24-90: 165.8 lbs D'addario 24-84: 171.5 lbs Stringjoy 26-95: 179.7 lbs Fender 24-100: 194.3 lbs I used the Stringjoy calculator with some approximations (for example .085 rather than .084).

[@androidisaloser]

@@didtoknan8128 amazing info, thank you for this!

[@AlfredNazGates]

I have a sub zero guitar cause of them and I'll bring it down a bit for my tastes lol.

[@AndrewP]

Gentlemen, it is with great pleasure I inform you that I've come to the conclusion: the strings in this vid are THICC

[@Durkhead]

That low string is like bridge cable wire

[@Mumumumykul]

when he said bring it down a 128th of an inch i thought he was joking 😅

[@Viper-dz2kw]

It’s crazy to me that people even at that level care that much. I understand if you’re doing crazy shredder stuff but most of the time my guitars are in whatever height the strings came in

[@Gradiencedk]

Saw Loathe at Forum, Copenhagen yesterday - so fun havin seen your videos and seeing you on stage! Great show, so sad about the mic issues in the beginning though

[@jonathanelser590]

Loving the videos, it's fascinating to see how the tech side of the music industry works.

[@KK_suggestions]

Excellent video. I wish I could hire a guitar tech like you.

[@MadDjentah]

0:46 just bend it behind the bar and pass through the ball-end of 6th string a thinner string, 4th or 3rd, to make it tight behind the bridge. I've done it on my bass with .175" string, cause wanted it to be all wounded over nut and bridge and not stripped down over the bridge, like all extended scale basses do have.

[@umbraydn]

Wild world we live in where we're gifted with this video, the recent rig rundown video, and the ability to just pop open Gojira and use some Loathe/Erik presets. I've been using 24-84 on the Gretsch. Might be time to give this low string bridge cable idea a try - thank you for the rundown dude!

[@becominghuman3561]

Man I’ve ran into the tuning peg hole being too small as an issue so much and never even considered unwinding it a bit that’s brilliant

[@jonathanelser590]

Would it be possible to make a video of you repairing Erik's smashed jazzmaster baritone? I think that jazzmaster would look so cool with the glued cracks running through the body. I bet that video would do well! Best of luck!

[@Eulennon]

Omg, the edition in 0:03 hahahahah i'm crying on laugh 😂 thanks for infos, great job bro, saudations from brazil!

[@purpl3882]

Hey It was cool seeing you run around on stage when you were in Copenhagen=)

[@kieranlaprade6049]

i have been waiting for this video

[@NielsBeier]

Oh boy, couldn’t use your expertise 🤩 Nice work!

[@coffeeyouu]

Hell yehhhhhh🤙🐉

[@ImInferi]

So let's see what he thinks of it now ''FEELS LIKE SHET''

[@dpenaloza14]

So cool to see this man, so how do you go about setting up the intonation on a baritone?

[@Return2TheLiving]

The same way you would with any guitar, adjust the saddles back or forward accordingly

[@RaynP]

Exactly the same as you would on any guitar or bass!

[@lowpack8792]

You are a god for this setup! I'm running bassvi strings on my gretsch but the E can't handle drop tuning.

[@AttitudeCastle]

In my experience you're more likely to have issues with the string core slipping for example by unwinding part of the string Vs widening the space in the tuner. Cores can slip and snag and kill the string or break it especially played hard. Tuners if you run into any issues are easy to replace anyway (naturally more faff than a string hah!) But IMO the better overall choice

[@Crispy_Music_2024]

Ryan, have you checked if a Gretsch G2220 tuner would work?

[@plumpdy5810]

Same guitar I just bought, except I tune in B standard!

[@james-coble]

I love the happy music lol

[@greyramsey3568]

THANKYOU!!!!!!

[@didtoknan8128]

I just get mine. As expected, the factory setup is awful. 0.025" of neck relief and 8/64th for the action. I will adjust the trussrod tomorrow but there's a good chance I will need to shim the neck. I have just a bit of room to lower the bridge and I don't think it will be enough.

[@didtoknan8128]

Yesterday evening I tuned it in a weird tuning just to match the tensions I will get with my new strings & tuning. This morning I tightened the trussrod. This evening I installed Stringjoy 24-90. The 90 fits in the V-tail without drilling. It also fits in the tuner. Nice. It needs to settle in but it looks like I won't need a shim. Also the 90 fits in the nut as mentionned by others. I have to check the others strings, I didn't pay attention if they need or not to be enlarged.

[@milko3990]

@@didtoknan8128 Hello, I'm pretty interested in purchasing this guitar. One month ago I bought a Danelectro 66BT, but I sent it back because there was neck dive. Does this guitar has this issue ?

[@didtoknan8128]

@@milko3990 I'm sorry for the delay. I just tried it with a Ernie Ball polypro strap (the cheapest you can get) and it's fine.

[@thaddeusfromsonar]

you don’t have to use a bass string. Strandberg makes guitar strings up to .125 i think

[@zeldamage001]

What, we don't get a sample recording to experience the THICCness?!

[@firstnamesecondname8280]

Wait how do you not kill the string when you unwind it...???

[@dr.radical4152]

Does Erik still have the old squier baritone jazzmaster he smashed at that one show?

[@pacharapolsathirapoomchai699]

T H I C C

[@Sinewavesound]

you sound like Sylvester from looney tunes

[@bredslicer]

been waiting for this after seeing your loathe guitar tech video! how do you even measure 1/128th of an inch? lmao

[@RaynP]

With patience and squinted eyes 😂

[@seraphim1833]

What pickups does he use? Great video, btw. Cheers.

[@tuffycampbell]

Those are stock!

[@JeremiahDaniel1995]

Can you tune it to drop C?

[@dannystumpf321]

dude needed bolt cutters to cut those strings lol

[@GerardoMd]

Pick-ups?

[@DarkSider216]

на такой гитаре 105 можно настроить хоть в А#0

[@drea2487]

yayay

[@xxSPiKeZxx326]

But what was done to the bridge saddle to fit that bass string and also what compensatory route was done on the nut? I own the same fiddle, I gotta know!

[@RaynP]

Completely slipped my mind to mention that, but nothing was done to the nut or the bridge saddle at all to compensate for the bass string! It didn’t need it!

[@didtoknan8128]

@@RaynP New they came with lighter strings so of course someone has to fill the nut but it should have be done before you.

[@RaynP]

@@didtoknan8128 Even when setting up brand new Gretsch baritones for this use case, I haven't found the need to file the nut slots or bridge saddles at all. That's my experience with it! It holds a setup perfectly without any issues of strings falling out of place or anything else!

[@didtoknan8128]

@@RaynP So it looks like that from the factory the nut is cut too wide.

[@sorrow2477]

I have one of these and didn't have to do anything to the nut or bridge saddle, all I did was file out the stopbar like it was stated in the vid. Guess they all come from the factory that way.

[@ckngmad1357]

Lol 5(1/64) inch

[@alvaroescandela4495]

THICC

[@sergeenriquez]

Are you sure you didnt mean ditching the .068? I ran those gauges and tunings through String Joy’s tension calculator and I can imagine people trying this out and the strings or the neck snapping in their face 😅

[@RaynP]

Definitely meant ditching the 14 gauge - not sure how you got those numbers but the tension is nowhere near as high as the calculator would suggest

[@qerzuk]

a 68 for a low a is nothing special. Even at almost 30 inches.

[@narrowonflow]

tomarock