The baritone guitar is essentially a guitar whose main difference from traditional guitars is a longer scale length, allowing it to be tuned lower. Aesthetically, it does not differ much from a standard acoustic or electric guitar, but from a sonic perspective, it offers a deeper register capable of bridging the soul-blues world with classical music. A sonic icon of spaghetti western films, the baritone guitar covers a wide spectrum of sounds, from surf music to country, and ranks among the most appreciated instruments by guitarists in genres like hard rock and heavy metal, where B, A, or lower tunings are standard. In the following lines, we will discover the characteristics of the baritone guitar and provide a brief overview of the history of this sort of hybrid between a standard guitar and a bass.
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A brief history of the baritone guitar
Born to remedy the inability to tune a standard guitar into the lower register, the baritone guitar was introduced to the market in 1956 by the American company Danelectro. The first baritone guitar was a six-string bass tuned an octave below a classical guitar.
In 1961, Fender produced a valid competitor: the legendary Bass VI, considered to all intents and purposes an electric bass, which was later proposed in a version with 3 Jaguar pickups in 1963. This new instrument became popular among instrumental electric bands, such as the Shadows.
Initially relegated solely to the realm of classical music, the baritone guitar did not achieve widespread popularity right away. However, after some time, it became a reference point for surf-rock and country artists. Towards the mid-1960s, the famous Danelectro Tic-Tac model, so named for its characteristic sound of a released rubber band, saw its most intensive use as background music in the soundtracks for Italian western films. The absolute reference of this trend was Duane Eddy, rock and roll legend and pioneer of surf rock.
The baritone guitar also had a great diffusion in the beat music of the 1960s: the fact that John Lennon used the Fender Bass VI is confirmation of this. Today, the baritone guitar is one of the most appreciated instruments by metal and nu-metal bands, a genre born at the end of the 90s characterized by very dark and deep sonorities.
Over time, baritone guitars have been made in both electric and acoustic versions; because of this, its use has extended to many different musical genres.
Baritone genres and guitarists
With its deep bass that gives depth to songs, the baritone guitar, whether classical or electric, provides sounds suitable for the most diverse musical genres. To see it in action, one only needs to listen to the soundtracks of spaghetti western films or certain tracks from the first half of the 1960s.
The baritone has been wielded by a myriad of artists, from John Lennon to Jack Bruce of Cream, just to name a few. The first guitarist to use it in public was Jet Harris, bassist of the Shadows, who performed “Besame Mucho” with a Fender VI on a television show. Brian Wilson, guitarist of the Beach Boys, considered among the major exponents of surf music, recorded “Dance, Dance, Dance” and “Caroline, No” with the baritone guitar.
The deep sound of the baritone guitar can also be appreciated in some songs by Johnny Cash, one of the greatest interpreters of country music, Willie Nelson, and Merle Haggard. Furthermore, the Fender VI appeared in the music videos for Hey Jude, Let It Be, and The Long and Winding Road by the Beatles, played by John Lennon or George Harrison while Paul McCartney was busy at the piano.
Almost two decades later, baritones, specifically the Fender Bass VI, were used by Robert Smith of the Cure, especially on the 1981 album Faith. Among the most important baritone guitarists is also Pat Metheny, who in 2003 recorded the album One Quiet Night with a baritone guitar built for him by Linda Manzer.
The taste for downtuning has made baritone guitars popular among rock and heavy metal bands as well, especially from the 1990s onwards. While plenty of guitarists opted for 7-string guitars, others, like Robb Flynn of Machine Head and Mike Mushok, frontman of Staind, preferred to turn to baritone guitars.
Recently, the baritone guitar has experienced a genuine resurgence in popularity, partly because it has been used by musicians such as Ben Harper, Ed Gerhard, Pat Smear of the Foo Fighters, and others. In Italy, it was brought into the mainstream by Piedmontese musician Filippo Cosentino, who made innovative use of it as a solo instrument.
Characteristics of the baritone guitar
The baritone guitar, also known as a six-string bass, is a type of guitar equipped with a longer neck that offers greater tension in lower tunings. Essentially, by tuning the baritone in the same way as a conventional guitar, a lower register is obtained without the strings becoming floppy and unplayable. This is because the increased scale length makes the strings tighter and harder at the same pitch.
Compared to a conventional guitar, the baritone offers a deeper tone and more extensive room to explore tonally and delve into uncharted territories. The result is an unmistakable sound that immediately projects back to 50s surf rock and the country of the spaghetti western cinematic genre, as well as the metal genre.
From a construction perspective, the baritone guitar has a wider body than a standard guitar, especially in acoustic instruments, but the biggest difference lies in the scale length (or diapason), meaning the distance between the nut and the bridge. Unlike standard guitars, which have a scale length between 24.9 and 25.7 inches, baritone guitars feature scales ranging from 27″ (685.80 mm) to about 30.5″ (774.7 mm), perfect for deeper tunings.
Another feature that distinguishes the baritone guitar from the classic one is that it mounts thicker strings: their gauge falls within the 0.017″ – 0.095″ range, compared to the traditional 0.008″ – 0.054″. Having thicker strings, baritones offer the ability to work extensively with harmonics. An important difference then lies in the sound, which is lower and more cavernous, perfect for metal.
Regarding tuning, there are several possible options. The most frequent is B tuning, which is a perfect fourth below standard tuning (B E A D F# B). Another widely used tuning is A tuning, a perfect fifth lower (A D G C E A), providing an even deeper sound than the previous one. Other types of tunings employed are Drop A (A E A D F# A), the descending major third (C F A E G C), an octave down, and the Nashville tuning just for the middle strings.
There are various types of baritone guitars. The categories most widely produced today are the vintage baritone and the metal one. The realm of baritone guitars also includes the 7-string and 8-string baritones, which allow players to go truly deep while maintaining playable string tension.
Some models feature a soundhole shifted to the upper bout to counteract the tension produced by the strings on the soundboard.
Many wonder if it is possible to transform a standard guitar into a baritone; in the following video, Riccardo Tagliabue explains how it can be done.
Baritone guitar: how it is played
The performance practice for baritone guitars involves doubling the bass (or double bass) lines, “muting” the sound of the strings and playing firmly with a pick, in order to utilize the spring reverb as a defining element of the sound itself. This style of playing gave birth to a technique known as “tic tac bass“.
Among the merits of the baritone guitar, it is worth mentioning that it does not require new fingerings. This makes it easier to play than a seven-string, where initially one might feel disoriented due to the additional string.