Zoltan Bathory

FFDP logo

Zoltan Bathory is the baritone guitarist from death metal band Five Finger Death Punch.

Zoltan Bathory

Zoltan Bathory of Five Finger Death Punch - Signature Models

Zoltan Bathory Backstage Gear Tour

In the Studio with... Five Finger Death Punch

5FDP - Zoltan Bathory - Gear Talk / Behind The Scenes

Zoltan Bathory interview @ HEAVY MTL 2010

Five Finger Death Punch Live at Metropolis

American Capitalist

Zoltan BC Rich


Baritone tuned 6 string guitar - BEADF#B

Zoltan Bathory takes a standard six-string guitar and tunes it to standard baritone tuning i.e. all strings tuned a perfect fourth lower than normal.

If the C major scale is mapped over the fingerboard using this baritone tuning (with all of the C naturals highlighted) it produces the following:-

GuitarPro6 baritone tuned C natural

Using this baritone tuning the C naturals are no longer where they are expected to be found; however if the
G naturals are highlighted instead, the normal C natural octaves pattern appears, as shown in the image that follows:-

GuitarPro6 baritone G naturals

When this standard baritone tuning is adopted the player pretends that the G naturals are in fact sounding as C naturals; in the same manner adopted when a capo is used. The instrument has then been turned into a transposing instrument rather like a saxophone or clarinet; where the note being read (or thought about) is not the one sounding.

GuitarPro6 6-string guiatr C major scale

This is NOT the tuning being explained below; instead the information presented is offered as a gateway tuning to a 7-string guitar rather than another way to get different sounds out of the same guitar patterns.


Six-sevenths guitar - BEADGB tuned 6 string guitar

So you want to learn how to play 7-string guitar but you don't have enough readies to go and buy one.

Well fear not boys and girls because Zon Brookes always has a work-around solution under these types of circumstances.

Get yourself an old 6-string electric guitar with a Strat scale length i.e. 25.5" and a new set of 13 gauge strings.

The C major scale is shown below on the GuitarPro6 fingerboard for 7-string guitar with a low B string:-

GuitarPro6 7-string guitar C major scale

A standard 6-string electric guitar represents strings 1 to 6 of the previous 7-string; as shown in the next GuitarPro6 fingerboard:-

GuitarPro6 6-string guiatr C major scale

Instead of tuning your 6-string EADGBE why not tune it BEADGB which represents strings 2 to 7 of the previous 7 string?

The C major scale is shown below on the GuitarPro6 fingerboard for a 6-string guitar tuned BEADGB:-

GuitarPro6 C major scale

Won't a 25.5" scale length be too short?.... I hear the purveyor's of all guitar wisdom cry from afar.

Well follow this link to check out the specifications of the Ibanez UV777 to quell any fears you may have on this front - scale length of 25.5" I do believe.

Again the guitar-wise are shouting the strings will be too slack.

This is where the 13 gauge strings come in useful and if you want to do a full string tension calculation check then follow this link to the D'Addario strings design chart (very useful for this precise purpose).

So to quote those of an American persuasion y'all set.

C major arpeggio box shapes for BEADGB tuned 6 string guitar

ZZZZZ octaves logo

This issue demonstrates the C major arpeggio box shape for 6-string guitar tuned to BEADGB with the all important orange letters omitted.

The CAGED octaves sequence is shown for C natural in the diagram that follows:-

ZZZZZ octaves C natural

GuitarPro6 C natural octaves

The diagrams that follows show all of the C major arpeggio notes plotted over the 6-string guitar's fretboard

(tuned to BEADGB) in both the Guitar Pro and CAGED octaves styles:-

GuitarPro6 C major arpeggio

ZZZZZ octaves c major arpeggio notes

As always a more long term solution to fretboard navigation is to see scales/arpeggios as INTERVAL shapes rather than note names - as these are universal to all scales, arpeggios and chords rather than specific to one particular root note - with this in mind the intervals for the C major arpeggio are detailed below in the
CAGED octaves manner:-

ZZZZZ octaves C major arpeggio intervals

The table and tabbed panel below details all five box shapes for the C major arpeggio in the CAGED octaves style.


C major arpeggio box shapes for BEADGB tuned 6 string guitar

YouTube icon

Flash iconGuitar Pro 6 icon

6Z4Z1 pdf
4Z2 pdf
5Z2 pdf
5Z3 pdf
6Z3Z1 pdf
6Z4Z1 at 12 pdf


  • 6B4B1
  • 4A2
  • 5G2
  • 5E3
  • 6D3D1
  • 6B4B1 at 12

GuitarPro6 6Z4Z1 box

GuitarPro6 4Z2 box

GuitarPro6 5Z2 box

GuitarPro6 5Z3 box

GuitarPro6 6Z3Z1 box

GuitarPro6 6Z4Z1 box at 12



  • 6Z4Z1
  • 4Z2
  • 5Z2
  • 5Z3
  • 6Z3Z1
  • 6Z4Z1 at 12

6Z4Z1 box

4Z2 box

5Z2 box

5Z3 box

6Z3Z1 box

6Z4Z1 box at 12




Once the individual box shapes have been assimilated all five shapes should be linked together and played in one continuous exercise (with the first shape - 6Z4Z1 - being repeated at the 12th fret).

The video shown to the right demonstrates the CAGED octaves chain-linked sequence for the C major scale box shapes.


The complete TAB for the previous exercise follows:-

C major arpeggio TAB


The box shapes for the previous exercise follow:-

C major arpeggio box shape

Flash iconGuitar Pro 6 icon

C major arpeggio box shapes

C major arpeggio box shapes TABC major arpeggio box shapes TAB


Zoltan Bathory

Remember everything....Zon Brookes

American Capitalist


Return to top of page ^