Gibson Unleashes the Victory Baritone: The Longest Scale
28-inch scale, ELEV8 hunbuckers, two colors
5,0 / 5,0 | 
Looks like Gibson is taking a liking to longer necks and heavier sounds! After the recent Les Paul Long Scale, they’ve now extended their… Victory lap with the new Victory Baritone models. These come with an even longer neck and two stunning colors.
Victory Baritone
It’s been close to two years that Gibson brought back the Victory series with a 25.5 scale length. Recently, they’ve added a Floyd Rose model, so we know they’re taking this whole more-metal thing pretty seriously. Therefore, it only makes sense that they’re now adding two Victory Baritone models to this series.
We still get that angled, almost strat-like (careful there, Gibson!) double-cut mahogany body, a glued-in, mahogany neck (with a Rounded profile) and an ebony fretboard. So far, so good. But this thing is 28″ long, even surpassing many Fender Baritones. That allows for some serious down-tuning.
The rest is pretty much the same as the other Victory models: compound radius, 24 medium jumbo frets with acrylic dot inlays, and a classic Explorer-style headstock. It’s a little too narrow to my taste, but at least Gibson is trying things with a more modern twist.
The Victory Baritone features a double-cutaway mahogany body with the newly-refined Victory body contours. The glued-in, 28” scale mahogany neck has a comfortable Rounded profile and is topped with a compound radius ebony fretboard with 24 medium jumbo frets and adorned with acrylic dot inlays. The classic Explorer™-style headstock is outfitted with a GraphTech® nut and Grover® Mini Rotomatic® tuners for excellent tuning stability.
B-to-B Tuning
Gibson says the Victory Baritone models come with a B-to-B tuning, so you’ll be able to create some Doom-y riffs right away. As for the hardware, these models come with a Tune-O-Matic bridge and Mini Rotomatic tuners from Grover. Note that compared to the other Victory models, the baritone guitars don’t feature a pickguard.
As for pickups, these models come with two Gibson ELEV8 humbuckers with Alnico 8 magnets and custom-gauge wire. Just like the other models, the Victory Baritone come with a single volume and a single tone control, plus a three-way switch. Both pots have push/pull functionality for coil-splitting and for selecting either the inner or outer coils.
This allows for a wide range of those typical 80s single coil sounds just as much as more mid-rangey humbucker tones.
Price & Availability
Gibson has gone for two very beautiful colors, British Racing Green* and Graphite Metallic*. Each one is available from Sweetwater for $2,499. A matching Gibson hardshell case is also included.
Just like the other Victory models, these guitars are proof that the traditional manufacturer isn’t stuck in the past and is willing to venture out into new territories. What might still be a hindrance for some, I suspect, is the rather high price. Because at this price point, Fender fans will want something from Fender or PRS, and Gibson fans vice versa. But it could also turn out to be the exact right move at the right time for Gibson.
More on the new guitars from Gibson
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