The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, with a longer scale length

Scale (string instruments)

In stringed instruments, the scale length is the maximum vibrating length of the strings to produce sound. In the classical community, it may be called simply "string length" or less often "mensure." On instruments in which strings are not "stopped" or divided in length like for example the...

 that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. It first appeared in the classical music realm. The Danelectro

Danelectro

Danelectro is an American manufacturer of musical instruments and accessories, specializing in rock instruments such as guitars, bass guitars, amplifiers and effects units.-History:...

 Company was the first to introduce the electric baritone guitar in the late 1950s, and the instrument began to appear in surf music

Surf music

Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...

, as well as background music for many movie soundtracks, especially spaghetti westerns. In more recent history, the baritone guitar has found use within styles like rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

, metal

Heavy metal music

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...

 and improvised music.