Baritone guitar

Clifton Hyde with Mustapick Acoustic Baritone Guitar; Brooklyn, New York City 2007

The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. The Danelectro Company was the first to introduce the baritone guitar in the late 1950s. Shortly after, Fender released the Bass VI which can be described as either a baritone guitar, or a bass guitar. The baritone guitar was not originally popular with players or listeners. However, the instrument began to appear in surf music, as well as background music for many movie soundtracks, especially spaghetti westerns. In more recent history, the baritone guitar has found use within rock and metal. Baritone guitars also have the capacity to be used as a bass guitar if strung correctly.

A standard guitar's standard tuning (from lowest string to highest) is E A D G B E. Baritone guitars are usually tuned a perfect fifth lower (A D G C E A), a perfect fourth lower (B E A D F♯ B), a major third lower (C F A♯ D♯ G C) or an octave lower. Gretsch, Fender, Gibson (EB-6), Jerry Jones, Burns London and many other companies have produced baritone guitars since the 1960s, although always in small numbers due to low popularity.

Baritone guitars have larger bodies than standard guitars, especially in the case of acoustic instruments, and have longer scale lengths which allow the strings to be tuned lower while remaining close to or at normal tension. On a standard, steel-string, acoustic guitar, the scale length (the distance from the nut or string guide to the saddle on the bridge) is typically 24.9" to 25.7", and the strings range in diameter from .012" to .054". The scale lengths of various baritone designs range from 27" to 30.5", and the string gauges range from the normal .012 - .054" set to sets as thick as .017 - .095". Shorter-scale baritone guitars are more like long-scale guitars, having more midrange volume, whereas the longer scale lengths and heavier string sets give more bass to the instrument's timbre. Shorter scale baritones tend to be tuned C-C or B-B whereas longer ones are typically tuned A-A.

"Tic-tac bass" is a method of playing, in which a muted baritone guitar doubles the part played by the bass guitar or double bass. The method is commonly used in country music.

Baritone guitarists

The baritone guitar has been used on recordings by Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Dwight Yoakam, George Jones, and Willie Nelson, often doubling the acoustic bass part of the song. Brian Wilson often included Baritone guitars in his arrangements for The Beach Boys records, such as in "Dance, Dance, Dance" or "Caroline, No". Folk-Pop singer Jimmie Rodgers also favored the baritone guitar, which can be heard in the opening bars of his recording of "Woman from Liberia". Ian Mackaye plays a baritone guitar when playing with his band The Evens. Metal bands started using baritone guitars in the 1990s, as it became increasingly popular to "down-tune" or "drop-tune". Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny used baritone guitars made by Linda Manzer on his 2003 solo album One Quiet Night. Ani DiFranco often plays a baritone guitar, including those by David Berkowitz, Joe Veillette and Alvarez, frequently employing alternate tunings. Clifton Hyde has had his acoustic baritone guitar featured in the music of Sigur Rós, Gato Loco, and Pape Armond Boye. Dylan Carlson of drone metal band Earth played a baritone guitar on Earth's 2005 LP Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method). Nico Audy-Rowland of Trocadero is also known for playing a Dan Electro Baritone Guitar during his work for the theme music of the machinima series Red vs. Blue.Pete Loeffler of Chevelle Uses PRS Custom 22's,24's with Baritone necks also two custom Fender Stratocaster Baritones. Ko Melina of The Dirtbombs plays a Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom. Baritones have also been used by British band The Cure, making its first appearance on the dark and brooding album Faith in 1981. Teppei Teranishi of Thrice plays a baritone on the majority of the fire disc on The Alchemy Index. Dave Matthews plays a Baritone on certain songs such as "The Space Between" and "Some Devil". Parker Lauzon of Evans Blue uses an Ibanez baritone guitar on the second album "The Pursuit Begins When This Portrayal of Life Ends" on "Shine Your Cadillac", "Q", "Pin-Up", "Fear", and "The Pursuit". Brian 'HEAD' Welch uses Ibanez baritone guitars on his debut solo-album Save Me From Myself. Chest Rockwell uses a baritone guitar on their song Body Prop 3.

Buckethead took a different approach to playing a baritone by tuning only a half step below standard guitar tuning. Being roughly 6' 6" tall, Buckethead complained that most normal sized guitars felt like toys in monstrous hands. He worked with Sean Paden at Gibson to develop a 27" scale Les Paul that would be strung with .10-.52's to reach the tuning of Eb standard. Most recently Buckethead has begun playing in standard tuning again while still using Les Pauls with 27" scale lengths.

Numerous fingerstyle guitarists use baritone guitars, including Andy McKee, Don Ross, Martin Simpson and Dave Amato. Don Ross plays a baritone by Canadian Luthier Mark Beneteau, and Simpson has played baritones made by English luthier Ralph Bown. Andy McKee plays a baritone guitar made by another Canadian Luthier Micheal Greenfield.

The Les Deux Love Orchestra often performs with two baritone guitars playing together, a Jerry Jones and a Danelectro, as can be heard on their recording of Henry Mancini's "Experiment In Terror."

The Danelectro baritone was used by million-selling guitarist Duane Eddy on some of his huge hits, such as "Bonnie Came Back," "Because They're Young," "Kommotion," (all 1960), "My Blue Heaven"(1961), "Deep in the Heart of Texas" (1962), and "The Son of Rebel Rouser" (1964). The instrument was used almost exclusively on his best-selling album "The Twang's The Thang" (Jamie Records, 1960) and pops up regularly on singles and albums throughout his career (for instance, "Twang Thang," The Duane Eddy Anthology, Rhino Records).

The "twangy" sound of his guitars (which include Duane Eddy custom-builts by Guild, Grestch and Gibson) augmented the even deeper twangy sound made by the Danelectro baritone. Duane used the familiar black model and an unusual gray "Longhorn" model.

Mike Mushok of the band Staind has a signature model baritone guitar manufactured by PRS Guitars. Prior to his PRS signature model, Mushok had a signature baritone guitar produced by Ibanez called the MMM1.

Shawn Lewis from the band Hyperstatic Union plays an Avante AV-2 on the song(s) "In Remembrance of Him" and "Meet Him In the Air". You can hear the sound of the Avante AV-2 on their website.

See also

• Bass guitar
• Tenor guitar