Conrad electric baritone guitar model 1247/Conrad electric guitar

 

Shouldn't be hard to look at this photo and tell which is the baritone.  Scale length differential is very apparent.  Its like a sibling photo where the big brother towers over the little.  As with many of these Japanese guitars it is difficult to nail down their birthplace and birthdate.  It is believed that these two guitars were Matsumoku products and wholesaled by a distributer out of Chicago.  Depending on the wholesaler as well as the company that was doing the retail these guitars came under a variety of names including Aria, Domino, Electra, Lyle, etc.  These Conrad guitars were distributed between the mid 60's to the late 70's.

On the left you have a baritone that I had fixed up by James Ralston.  This thing sounds crazy now, like you are plucking on piano strings!  It is tuned b to b and aside from giving you some incredible ethereal sounds it also gives you that great tic tac bass sound that Nashville was employing in the 50's.  James had to get the neck straightened out(which is a requisite repair on just about all of these Japanese wonders) and added a compensated saddle to help out with intonation.  It plays great now and is already providing inspiration in the studio.

These rocker switches were the low point of engineering on these guitars.  They have almost always been problematic and while James got these cleaned up and working pretty good, I am still searching for a better switching system that will fit the bill.  

It is tough to see, but there is a little treble boost switch east of the neck pickup - fender jaguar style.  These types of switches might be the answer to replacing the rocker switches.  

A little closer look at the pickups.  These pickups were seen on these offset models.  I have seen these Conrad guitars have anywhere from a one to four pickup configuration.

Many of these came with a straight metal bar saddle.  It was hell on the intonation, especially when you put a whammy bar into play.

Big, honking headstock!

The baritones little brother on the right came with an intonatable bridge and is all original.  Again, the rocker switches are less than desirable, but this guitar has some spunk and a chunky neck that I always personally desire.  Still in the process of dialing this one in and hoping to use it more once I do as it is a fun instrument to mess around with.