Baritone Guitars

Have you ever wondered what the difference was between a standard guitar and a baritone guitar? Premier Guitar has a pretty good write up about baritone guitars, written by Sweetwater Sales Engineer Art Hill.

In essence, it comes down to scale length. The scale length of a baritone guitar rests between a bass guitar and a standard guitar. As a result, baritone guitars often use heavier gauge strings and are tuned down lower than standard tuned guitars.

I was surprised to found out the diversity of artists that have used baritone guitars. Duane Eddy, George Harrison, John Lennon, Joe Perry, Johnny Cash, Dave Matthews, and Stevie Ray Vaughan all used baritone guitars at some point in their career, among many others.

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3 Responses to “Baritone Guitars”

I believe that baritone guitars are usually tuned B E A D F# B. So they are basically the bottom 6 strings of a 7 string guitar.

I had an old Ibanez I converted one once. They’re a lot of fun to play and you can get some really cool sounds out of them.

February 1st, 2009 at 12:13

Yeah, lots of fun. I have a baritone Telecaster with a 27.5″ scale tuned to B-E-A-D-F#-B.

February 1st, 2009 at 13:35

Baritone guitars are really cool to have in your arsenal. One of my friends bought a Fender Jazzmaster body and made it into a baritone. Now if i could just get him to leave his keys around somewhere.

April 21st, 2011 at 15:03

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