Baritone guitar advice needed

[lownote]

Anyone got any advice on where to fit a baritone guitar into the mix at a blues jam?  I just bought one and I'm a bit stumped what to do with it.

Tuned BEADF#B, it's like a regular guitar but a fourth down.

So I could play rhythm if I can remember guitar chord shapes I last played 50 years ago. And transpose the chords, so for a B concert sound I need to finger an E chord, and so on. 

Or I could play guitar lead, which I've never done before, but the very basics seem to be simple enough according to beginner videos I have watched.

Or I could effectively play six string bass but an octave up, at least on the bottom four strings anyway.  And six string bass I have recent experience of. 

Or all three of the above.

Thoughts or experience would be appreciated.     

 

EDIT:  Sorry, I just seen there's a bari strand.  Perhaps if some kind mod could move my post over?

 

Edited August 28 by lownote

[Suburban Man]

On 28/08/2025 at 07:31, lownote said:

Anyone got any advice on where to fit a baritone guitar into the mix at a blues jam?  I just bought one and I'm a bit stumped what to do with it.

Tuned BEADF#B, it's like a regular guitar but a fourth down.

So I could play rhythm if I can remember guitar chord shapes I last played 50 years ago. And transpose the chords, so for a B concert sound I need to finger an E chord, and so on. 

Or I could play guitar lead, which I've never done before, but the very basics seem to be simple enough according to beginner videos I have watched.

Or I could effectively play six string bass but an octave up, at least on the bottom four strings anyway.  And six string bass I have recent experience of. 

Or all three of the above.

Thoughts or experience would be appreciated.     

 

EDIT:  Sorry, I just seen there's a bari strand.  Perhaps if some kind mod could move my post over?

 

My limited experience of using a baritone is that chords mostly sound like mud. Bass or lead lines with a plectrum seemed to work well 

[BigRedX]

30 minutes ago, Suburban Man said:

My limited experience of using a baritone is that chords mostly sound like mud. Bass or lead lines with a plectrum seemed to work well 

 

Depends on the construction of the guitar, scale-length and tuning and the amount of processing applied.

 

The 28" scale Baritone guitar I had that was tuned B-B produced wonderfully rich sounding chords even in the first position. That was with a fairly clean sound. On the other hand the 30" A-A tuned guitar I tried was only useful for individual picked lines.

[Suburban Man]

24 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

 

Depends on the construction of the guitar, scale-length and tuning and the amount of processing applied.

 

The 28" scale Baritone guitar I had that was tuned B-B produced wonderfully rich sounding chords even in the first position. That was with a fairly clean sound. On the other hand the 30" A-A tuned guitar I tried was only useful for individual picked lines.

Valid! 
My Baritone was longer scale