Baritone Guitars Explained: Scale Lengths, B-to-B and A-to-A Tunings, Strings and History

A baritone guitar is a six-string (sometimes seven) electric with a longer scale length than a normal guitar, tuned lower than standard but not as low as a bass. That sentence hides most of the confusion around the instrument. Makers disagree about where baritone ends and six-string bass begins, scale lengths vary by a couple of inches from model to model, and the tuning that gets called “baritone” depends on who is playing. This guide sets out the numbers that can be checked, the history as far as the sources agree, and the places where they do not.

Specifications

What makes a guitar a baritone

Two things separate a baritone from a standard guitar: a longer scale and a lower tuning. Seymour Duncan, in a blog post from October 2024, puts standard guitar scales at roughly 22.5″ to 25.5″ and baritone scales most commonly at about 26.5″ to 30.5″, and notes that neither category has a single fixed standard. Premier Guitar’s Thomas V. Jones, a pickup maker and builder, wrote in 2014 that most baritone scale lengths run from 26″ to 30″, against 34″ to 35″ for a bass.

The reason for the extra length is tension. In the same article, Jones argues that a longer scale gives higher string tension, better intonation up the neck, a quicker attack and longer sustain, while a standard guitar simply tuned down a fourth or fifth leaves a floppy sixth string and growing pitch problems. That is a builder’s view rather than a measured result. For comparison, a Strat or Tele is 25.5″ and a Les Paul or SG 24.75″, as set out in our comparison of the four classic Fender and Gibson designs; a baritone adds a couple of inches more.

The other difference is from a bass. Seymour Duncan points to string count (a bass usually has four or five strings) and tuning: a bass sits an octave below a guitar, whereas a baritone is typically a perfect fourth below. Jones adds that some instruments sold as baritones were really six-string basses tuned E to E, and that open chords on those sound muddy. Hold that thought; it explains most of the Fender Bass VI argument below.

Scale lengths in practice

There is no single baritone scale length; each figure below comes from the source named.

• Gibson Les Paul Studio Baritone: 28″ with 24 frets, according to Jordan Wagner’s 2011 Premier Guitar review, which said the reviewed guitar shares the scale of Gibson’s original Les Paul Baritone.
• Gibson Victory Baritone: 28″, versus the 24.75″ typical of Gibson guitars, as reported by Guitar.com on 28 August 2026.
• Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom: 28.5″, per Rich Tozzoli’s Premier Guitar piece (first published 2010, marked updated 2022).
• Squier Paranormal Baritone Cabronita Telecaster: 27″, as covered in our review of the Squier baritone Tele.
• Jerry Jones baritone: 28″, and a Danelectro of the 1950s-60s at 30″, according to the Premier Guitar history by Thomas V. Jones.
• Fender Bass VI: 30.3″ in Tozzoli’s list; a Fender-derived summary on a UK dealer’s site gives 30″. The sources disagree by a few tenths of an inch, and we have not seen a Fender document that settles it.

In our view the practical range for a modern electric baritone is 27″ to 28.5″. Below that you are close to a downtuned standard guitar; above 30″ you are in six-string bass territory.

Tunings: B to B, A to A and the rest

Seymour Duncan calls B standard (B-E-A-D-F#-B) the most popular baritone tuning, five half steps below E standard. Premier Guitar’s Jones names B to B and A to A as the standard baritone tunings, and says luthier Saul Koll prefers B to B. Gibson’s own new model ships tuned B to B, according to Guitar.com.

• B standard (B-E-A-D-F#-B): a fourth below E standard. An open E shape sounds as B major.
• A standard (A-D-G-C-E-A): a fifth below. This is the tuning that most clearly invites the six-string-bass comparison, since it is deep and demanding on the strings.
• C standard (C-F-Bb-Eb-G-C): a major third below. Jones notes that it turns open G, D and C shapes into concert Eb, Bb and Ab, which suits horn-based arrangements.

Jones observes that many players keep standard fingerings, while others retune so that open chords sit comfortably. He also says singers use baritones to reach keys a standard guitar cannot. Wagner’s Les Paul Studio Baritone review discussed C, B and A tunings and said his test guitar was set to C#, a reminder that nobody is obliged to use the textbook tunings.

String gauges

None of the Seymour Duncan or Premier Guitar articles we read gives a recommended set; Seymour Duncan points readers to a string tension calculator instead. The makers of strings do publish sets.

• D’Addario EXL157, 14-68 Medium Baritone: described on D’Addario’s page as designed for traditional long-scale electric baritones, “such as B-tuned Danelectros”. The page’s tension chart lists the notes B3, F#, D3, A2, E2 and B1, which is B standard. The item numbers on that chart (PL014, PL018, NW026, NW044, NW056, NW068) indicate plain .014 and .018 strings with wound .026, .044, .056 and .068. Rich Tozzoli lists the same gauges for the D’Addario baritone set he used on a Jaguar baritone.
• D’Addario EXL158, 13-62 Light Baritone: described as designed for modern, shorter-scale baritones and as a good option for downtuning most standard guitars. The item numbers indicate .013, .017, .026, .036, .046 and .062.
• Gibson baritone strings: the Les Paul Studio Baritone reviewed in 2011 used Gibson’s standard .013 to .060 baritone set, according to the review.

We found no manufacturer page giving a standard A-to-A set for a 27″ to 28.5″ instrument. For A, use a string tension calculator, as Seymour Duncan suggests, and compare the result with the tension of the strings you are used to.

A short history

Danelectro and the six-string bass

Danelectro is the name that appears first in almost every account. According to Premier Guitar, Nathan Daniel founded the company in 1947 and it introduced a six-string baritone in 1956; Seymour Duncan likewise says Danelectro released the first mass-produced baritone that year. Premier Guitar’s own history is more cautious. It reports a dispute over who first mass-produced a true electric baritone, with some crediting Jerry Jones and others crediting Danelectro, and it says builders Joe Veillette and George Gruhn both argue that the first Danelectros were effectively six-string basses.

Vintage Guitar, in Peter Stuart Kohman’s survey of six-string basses (August 2014 issue), describes the Danelectro UB-2 of 1956 as a six-string instrument tuned “like the guitar-but an octave lower”, with a 29½” scale and a $135 price. The Longhorn Model 4623 followed, sold from 1958 to 1968 at $150, with a 24-fret neck. Kohman reports six-string basses cataloged through 1966.

So the honest summary is that Danelectro’s 1950s instruments are the common ancestor, but whether they count as baritones or basses depends on the definition, and the two terms were not cleanly separated then. Veillette told Premier Guitar that the first true electric baritone was his Shark, conceived around 1980 with Harvey Citron and developed with John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful. That is a single builder’s account, and Gruhn’s own claim, as reported by Jones, is that the true electric baritone is a recent development.

Premier Guitar says electric baritones were used in 1960s studios to double bass lines, producing the “tic-tac” sound heard in country and other genres, and Seymour Duncan says Nashville producers used baritones to double upright bass lines for the same effect. Neither article, in the form we could read it, names a specific session with date and credit, so we treat the story as a widely repeated studio practice rather than a documented first.

Fender and the Bass VI

Fender introduced the Bass VI in 1961. Kohman writes that it was announced in summer 1961, went into production that fall at $329.50, and that Leo Fender was aware of (and possibly annoyed by) Danelectro’s success. It had three Stratocaster-style pickups, a Jazzmaster-style body and a floating vibrato, and Kohman dates the fourth “strangle” switch and Jaguar-matched pickups to 1963. Premier Guitar says production ran until 1975; Kohman says it was listed through 1974. That is the sort of one-year disagreement that old catalogs and price lists produce.

The relationship to the baritone is where care is needed. Fender, as relayed by a UK dealer’s guide that credits Fender’s own article, describes the Bass VI as a six-string bass, not a baritone, on the grounds that it uses bass strings, a longer scale and a tuning an octave below a guitar. D’Addario’s EXL156 set, described as custom made for the Fender Bass VI, spans 24 to 84 and carries a tension chart from E1 to E3, which is a bass-register set. Seymour Duncan, by contrast, says many classic baritone sounds came from Bass VIs converted to baritones, and Tozzoli’s Premier Guitar piece includes the Bass VI among the baritone-family instruments it discusses, noting that it is often called a baritone though its 30.3″ scale is short-scale bass territory, and quoting a player who tunes his to E-to-E. For what it is worth, our Robert Smith gear guide describes the Bass VI on The Cure’s Disintegration as a baritone guitar tuned an octave below standard.

In our view the clearest way to keep the terms straight is by function: tuned E to E on bass strings, it is a six-string bass; tuned between roughly A and C on guitar-style strings, it is a baritone, whatever the headstock says.

Gibson

Gibson came to baritone later. Premier Guitar reports Gruhn saying that Gibson, Martin and Fender did not make electric baritones early on, and Kohman’s survey does include a Gibson EB-6 six-string bass from 1960, built as an ES-335 spin-off, and says the later SG-styled version lost a pushbutton baritone switch. Kohman cites only 66 recorded shipments in 1962 to 1965.

Premier Guitar reviewed the Les Paul Studio Baritone in 2011: 28″ scale, 24 frets, a 496R neck humbucker and a 500T at the bridge. Guitar.com says Gibson had the SG Baritone, the Explorer Baritone and the Les Paul Studio Baritone in the early 2010s, and says it has been a while since Gibson’s last baritone releases; the 2026 Victory Baritone follows them. As reported on 28 August 2026, it has a 28″ scale, B-to-B tuning, two ELEV8 humbuckers and a price of $2,499 / £2,149 as quoted in the report.

Comparison of three approaches

Who uses baritones, and why

The use cases cluster into a few groups.

Twang and film-score country. Seymour Duncan names early adoption in surf, country-western and spaghetti western scores, and lists Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” and “Galveston” among songs with baritone parts, alongside Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss’s “Whiskey Lullaby”. Premier Guitar names Duane Eddy among baritone users, and TV Jones says Setzer’s former tech borrowed a C-tuned baritone prototype he had built, that Setzer used it with the Brian Setzer Orchestra and on rockabilly songs, and that a Gretsch production deal followed.

Low-tuned rock and metal. Seymour Duncan says baritones were adopted by hard rock and heavy metal in the 1980s and names Dino Cazares, Mark Holcomb, John Petrucci and Brian “Head” Welch. In our Robb Flynn guide, the Machine Head guitarist’s Epiphone signature model is quoted as “a 27 inch scale baritone neck”; the same page says the band uses C# Standard and lower.

Songwriting. Kristin Hersh told PopMatters, “I’ve often played baritone and dropped down to C-Sharp”, and told musicOMH in 2022 that the 50 Foot Wave album Black Pearl was written on baritone guitar, as covered in our Kristin Hersh profile. A baritone also changes the vocal range a guitar can comfortably support.

Studio doubling. Tozzoli’s piece says a baritone can handle low-end bass parts, and quotes a player, Goodwin, on using one to thicken bass tracks, play chords an octave below a guitar and take high-register leads. The studio tic-tac sound above is the historical version of the same job.

Pickups and setup

Low tunings turn a muddy pickup into a worse one. Thomas V. Jones, in Premier Guitar, recommends pickups that give a clearer response and do not mask harmonics, and Seymour Duncan’s pickup advice for baritones emphasises pickups voiced for lower tunings, which, as a manufacturer’s blog, is promotional. For background on humbucker design, see our PAF humbuckers explainer.

Setup matters too. Tozzoli mentions that necks can bend under the extra string tension, so a stable neck and a truss rod with room to move are worth checking. Koll, as quoted by Premier Guitar, says a Bigsby and a good rig make B-to-B tuning work well.

Buying notes

Gibson’s Victory Baritone was quoted at $2,499 / £2,149 in Guitar.com’s report of 28 August 2026. Premier Guitar’s 2014 list of street prices (Danelectro ’56 Baritone at $419, Fender Blacktop Baritone Telecaster at $499) is more than a decade old, so treat it as a guide to which models existed, not to what they cost in 2026. Check the maker’s page for a Fender price.

Before comparing prices, check the scale length in inches, the tuning the maker intended, and which string set the guitar ships with.

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