It's difficult to find a baritone which isn't designed for the heavy metal brigade: the Viking Baritone is altogether more subtle. When you pick this beauty up every tune you've ever played sounds different and you hear overtones and nuances as never before.. The two top strings are unwound and are similar to a normal guitar strung up with a heavy set (013's) but oh my god, the four wound bottom strings growl with a deep satisfying bass which sits perfectly in the mix, leaving your band's lead guitar with plenty of space whilst not encroaching one iota on the bassist's territory. It's sonic heaven!
Everything that other reviews say about the flimsy switching is unfortunately true: the selector jiggles sideways as well as up and down, the attractive control knobs have rough edges and the pots look cheap from the restricted view you can get of them. It's a small minus on what is a gorgeous looking guitar, lustrously finished and well set up. Overall quality is hard to fault for the money, though the centre block is obviously a cheap bit of wood and makes the guitar feel quite light (I'm used to Gibson ES 335's with a solid maple billet).
Leaving aside these niggles, there's no other semi-acoustic baritone in the market right now. If you want something unusual which is going to make you stand out, you won't regret buying this cool looking and great sounding guitar.
