Early adopters (1960s) In the 1960s, it was often tuned an octave down from standard guitar tuning; therefore, these recordings used a retuned baritone guitar as a
six-string bass. The Danelectro baritone was used by guitarist
Duane Eddy in numerous recordings, including "
Bonnie Came Back", "
Because They're Young", "
Kommotion", "My Blue Heaven", "
Deep in the Heart of Texas", and "The Son of Rebel Rouser". The instrument was used almost exclusively on his best-selling 1960 album "The Twang's the Thang" and appears regularly on singles and albums throughout his career. The "twangy" sound of his guitars (which include Duane Eddy custom-builts by Guild, Gretsch and Gibson) augmented the even deeper twangy sound made by the Danelectro baritone. Eddy used the familiar black model and an unusual gray "Longhorn" model.
Brian Wilson occasionally included baritone guitars in his arrangements for
The Beach Boys records, such as in "
Don't Hurt My Little Sister" (recorded 1964 and released 1965; played by
Ray Pohlman) and "
Surf's Up" (recorded 1966 and 1971, released 1967; played by
Al Casey). Singer
Jimmie Rodgers also favored the baritone guitar, which can be heard in the opening bars of his recording of "Woman from Liberia" (1960). Singer
Glen Campbell used a baritone electric guitar on several of his big hit songs, most notably "
Wichita Lineman" and "
Galveston", where he played a distinctive baritone solo following the melody in both songs.
In country music Although they have never been as popular as their standard counterparts, baritone guitars have always had a presence in country music, often utilized for their deep, warm resonance and the body they provide to an otherwise bright mix. The following artists have played and recorded with a baritone and guitar: •
Sara Evans utilizes a baritone guitar in her song "
Suds in the Bucket". •
Merle Haggard •
Chris Hillman, singer and guitarist for the
Desert Rose Band plays one on the band's song "
Desert Rose". •
Alan Jackson A baritone guitar can be heard playing the lead parts in the song "
Life Keeps Bringing Me Down" •
Willie Nelson •
Brad Paisley can be heard playing one on the song "
Whiskey Lullaby" with
Alison Krauss •
Luther Perkins played a baritone guitar on several recordings for
Johnny Cash • Bobby Randall of
Sawyer Brown has used a baritone guitar on several songs including the solo to their cover of "
The Race Is On". •
Sturgill Simpson uses baritone guitar on the song "
Brace for Impact (Live a Little)" •
Chris Stapleton utilizes the baritone guitar in his music, including on the album
Traveller, in particular on the songs "Daddy Doesn't Pray Anymore" and "
Parachute". •
Aaron Tippin plays a baritone guitar on his song "The Sound of Your Goodbye" •
Dwight Yoakam plays a baritone guitar on the song "
Buenas Noches from a Lonely Room (She Wore Red Dresses)"
In heavy metal Baritone guitars became popular in
heavy metal music during the late 1980s, as it became increasingly popular to employ lower guitar tunings and dropped tunings. Early examples include
Carcass (using B standard) and
Bolt Thrower (using A standard on
Realm of Chaos). •
Pat O'Brien formerly of the band
Cannibal Corpse has a baritone guitar to allow him to use the tuning G without experiencing tuning problems because of his use of a
Floyd Rose tremolo. •
Dylan Carlson of
drone metal band
Earth played a baritone guitar on
Hex (Or Printing in the Infernal Method). •
Machine Head uses baritone guitars tuned to drop B and C standard (tuned 40 cents sharp (roughly A450)).
Robb Flynn, singer and guitarist from the band, has a signature
Epiphone Baritone Flying V model called "Love Death". •
Brian "Head" Welch of
Korn uses
Ibanez baritone guitars on his solo album
Save Me From Myself. •
Dino Cazares of
Fear Factory used both seven-string and eight-string
Ibanez baritone guitars on
Genexus. •
John Petrucci of the band
Dream Theater has used
Music Man baritone guitars on several songs, in the tunings A and B. •
James Hetfield of
Metallica uses his signature ESP baritone guitar "The Grynch" on the song "Invisible Kid" from the 2003 Metallica album
St. Anger, and occasionally uses it when the band plays songs from the album. Hetfield also used a Danelectro 58 Longhorn Baritone guitar on a blues arrangement of Metallica's "Fuel" first performed at a 2024 benefit concert for the All Within My Hands foundation. •
Claudio Sanchez of
Coheed and Cambria uses a
Gibson Explorer baritone for "Key Entity Extraction II: Hollywood The Cracked" from the band's album
The Afterman: Ascension and "Key Entity Extraction V: Sentry The Defiant" from the album
The Afterman: Descension. •
Devin Townsend of the
Devin Townsend Project and
Strapping Young Lad often uses baritone guitars due to his preference for open B and C tunings. His specific instruments are
ESP Custom 7 string used in Strapping Young Lad, his
Peavey signature Flying V, and the "Ziltoid" Flying V built by
Framus. •
Stephen Carpenter of
Deftones began using baritone 7-strings in 2002, due to his constant exploration in down-tuning. While previous albums were recorded with standard-scaled 6-strings tuned to as low as drop C, their 2003
self-titled album was recorded with a baritone 7-string tuned to G. • Other baritone 7-string artists include
Jeff Loomis of
Nevermore, who has used baritone Schecters since 2002 and currently has several signature models. The
deathcore band
Whitechapel has recently made use of baritone guitars, and have released signature models with ESP that feature baritone scale lengths. • Josh Middleton and Adam Christianson of progressive metalcore band
Architects use baritone 6 string ESP,
Ibanez, LSL and
Mayones guitars, tuned to a variation of C standard, where the bottom string is tuned to either G or F. This tuning was first utilized by late guitarist and co-founder of the band, Tom Searle, with the G tuning making its first appearance on the 2009 album
Hollow Crown, and the F tuning first appearing on the 2014 album
Lost Forever // Lost Together. Both tunings are still used by the band in their newer music. •
Tracy G Used a custom-made baritone guitar on
Dio's 1996 release
Angry Machines. He continues to use the baritone guitar on all his releases. • Roman Ibramkhalilov of
Jinjer use custom OD baritone guitars since 2015, with the album "King of Everything" and in their most famous track and internet react phenomenon, "Pisces". • Erik Bickerstaffe of Experimental Metalcore band
Loathe uses a Gretsch G5260 Baritone guitar and Squier Vintage Modified Baritone Jazzmaster tuned to an octave below E standard
In other rock music Rock guitarists also use baritone guitars.
Benjamin Burnley, the guitarist/singer from
Breaking Benjamin, uses custom-built PRS and ESP baritone guitars for their songs in Drop A tuning.
Ko Melina of
The Dirtbombs plays a
Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom.
Teppei Teranishi of
Thrice plays a baritone on the "Fire" disc of
The Alchemy Index and
Major/Minor.
Ian Mackaye plays a baritone guitar when playing with his band
The Evens.
Aerosmith's
Joe Perry plays a six-string Fender VI bass tuned in G (which was later stolen) on "Back in the Saddle" on the 1976
Rocks album, and currently uses a Music Man Silo Baritone.
Eddie Van Halen used a baritone guitar on the songs "Spanked" And "Runaround" from
Van Halen's 1991 album
For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. His specific guitar was a double-necked
Ernie Ball EVH
Music Man (the top neck being the baritone), which can be seen in music videos and live performances.
Pete Loeffler, the guitarist/singer from
Chevelle, uses a custom built PRS baritone and Fender Sub-Sonic baritone guitar for their songs in drop B tuning.
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, and had a custom built fanned-fret baritone made by Novax called the Expression.
Dave Matthews plays a baritone on certain songs such as "
The Space Between" and "
Some Devil".
Parker Lauzon of
Evans Blue uses an
Ibanez. Irish blues rock artist
Hozier utilizes a baritone guitar on the song 'Jackie and Wilson' and has used one in some live performances of his hit single '
Take Me To Church'.
Alex Turner, Nick O'Malley and Jamie Cook of the band
Arctic Monkeys have used baritone guitar on the songs 'Star Treatment', 'Science Fiction' and 'Batphone' from the band's sixth album
Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino respectively.
Pat Smear has played baritone guitar with the
Foo Fighters on their album
Wasting Light.
Andy Moor and Terrie Hessels of
The Ex have traded off between baritone guitar and guitar since 2005, when the last bass player left their band.
Blink-182 guitarist and vocalist
Tom DeLonge has occasionally used the baritone guitar for darker tones. Two notable examples are the band's songs "
Adam's Song" from
Enema of the State (1999), and "Obvious" from
Blink-182 (2003).
Jesse Hughes of
Eagles of Death Metal opted for a baritone guitar on many of the songs on their 2015 album
Zipper Down.
Brian Jones played a baritone guitar on the riff in the
Rolling Stones's 1964 song "
Heart of Stone".
Bucky Pizzarelli played a 6 string Danelectro baritone with
Billy Mure on the 1957 Album Supersonic Guitars.
Spider Murphy Gang lead singer
Günther Sigl plays a baritone guitar through many of his solo concerts. Daniela Villarreal played a Fender baritone guitar in drop A in
The Warning's 2024 song "Automatic Sun ". Caleb Bird of the two piece band Tweak Bird from Los Angeles exclusively uses a baritone guitar.
Geordie Greep, former vocalist and guitarist of
Black Midi, used a Reverend Descent RA baritone guitar during his tenure with the group.
In jazz Jazz guitarist
Pat Metheny used baritone guitars made by
Linda Manzer on his 2003 solo album
One Quiet Night, his 2011 solo album ''What's It All About
and his 2024 album MoonDial''.
Ani DiFranco often plays a baritone guitar, including those by
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. Bob Lanzetti, guitarist for the modern fusion band
Snarky Puppy, frequently employs an electric baritone guitar as well.
Allan Holdsworth used baritone guitars built by luthier Bill DeLap.
Mark Lettieri, solo artist and guitarist with
Snarky Puppy, released two funk/fusion albums centered around the baritone guitar:
Deep: The Baritone Sessions and
Deep: The Baritone Sessions, Vol. 2 in 2019 and 2021, respectively, the latter of which also received a Grammy nomination for
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album at the
2022 Grammy Awards. Lettieri also utilizes a baritone guitar with
Vulfpeck side project, The Fearless Flyers.
Fingerstyle players and others Numerous
fingerstyle guitarists use baritone guitars, including
Andy McKee,
Don Ross,
Martin Simpson, Sergio Altamura,
Iain Micah Weigert, and
Dave Amato. Don Ross plays a baritone by Canadian Luthier Marc Beneteau, and Simpson has played baritones made by English luthier Ralph Bown. Andy McKee plays a baritone guitar made by another Canadian Luthier Michael Greenfield.
Brian Setzer played the Gretsch/TV Jones Spectra-Sonic baritone on the song "Mystery Train" during the
Brian Setzer Orchestra tour. Blues band
MonkeyJunk features a baritone guitar instead of a bass guitar. Australian musician
Stu Thomas plays a Barracuda baritone guitar by
Burns London, tuned an octave lower than a regular guitar. He uses it as a bass when playing with
Dave Graney & The mistLY, and as a "regular" guitar when he accompanies himself solo as
The Stu Thomas Paradox.
Dave Gonzalez started playing a baritone with
The Hacienda Brothers, consisting of a
Fender Bass VI neck on a
Fender Jazzmaster. YouTube guitarist
Sungha Jung plays original and cover instrumentals on Lakewood Acoustic Baritone Guitars. Guitarist Brian Patrick Carroll aka
Buckethead played a baritone signature model
Gibson Les Paul.
Phoebe Bridgers plays a
Danelectro baritone model. Producer and multi-instrumentalist
Bibio has utilized baritone guitars. ==See also==