
Originally Posted by
Mattayus
I never understood why people put THICKER strings on a baritone scale guitar. The whole point is so you can use lighter strings but get the same tension as thicker strings. I think maybe marketing language is to blame as a lot of companies have a super chonky string gauge set that they label as a "baritone" set (referring to tuning rather than scale length) and people assume they're meant for a long scale guitar.
That's endemic to Fender, and any other makers who intended their first baritone offerings to be marketed as a bass to compete with the Danelectros, or some vague point on the spectrum between guitar and bass. Fender's first baritones were marketed as basses, and the iconic one, the Bass VI, still is. Obviously fatter strings are preferable on bass for all that nebulous stuff about, "the fundamental" and "piano like sustain".
Fender does it because historically their "baritones" aren't guitars with longer scale lengths, they are Bass VIs with slightly shorter scale length. Bass VIs are 30", which is about as low as you can go and be widely considered a "short scale bass". They probably think the market for these is mostly people who want a Bass VI sort of thing.
Fender never did baritone guitars historically, up til the modern era where you start seeing production baritones, the only model they did that fell between guitar and bass scale lengths was the bass VI.
There are actually entire books on it, because the history is contested and no one agrees exactly where "baritone guitars" end and "short scale basses" begin. Basically, a lot of the baritone guitars were made when people looked at the Danelectros of the era and thought they were long scale guitars and not basses.
Confusingly, a lot of people determine whether it is a bass or a guitar by the pickup placement, since other than a bunch of 80s basses from Carvin and shit like that basses don't traditionally have their "bridge" pickup as close to the saddles as a guitar. Despite that, the Bass VIs are still considered basses even though the pickups are much closer to guitar positioning. There's no generally agreed upon litmus test. Some say string spacing, but there are models like the Bass VI with extremely narrow string spacing for a Bass that are still generally considered basses.
It's interesting you bring it up, because it is confusing. I think it's for tonal reasons. If you take a custom bass with an extremely short scale and a guitar with an equivalent scale, the bass is always going to have thicker strings for the "that sounds like a bass" tone. There are dudes with extremely short scale basses who use traditional ~.100s. A baritone guitarist tuned to the same standard E will probably go for something slightly thinner.
TL;DR: Most of the earliest baritone guitars were made to compete with models that were marketed as 6 string basses. So historically they have bass string esque gauges. The "dudes wanting baritone for shreddy metal" is a relatively new demographic, brands like Fender are more familiar with the guys who wanted it for shit like surf rock.