Best budget Baritone electric

Fretwired

Danelectro ...

https://www.andertons.co.uk/danelectro-56-baritone-electric-guitar-in-black

Gretsch ... with Bigsby ..

https://www.andertons.co.uk/gretsch-g5265-jet-baritone-in-black-sparkle

Octafish

Fretwired said:

A Chapman .. £519 ...

https://www.andertons.co.uk/chapman-v2-ml1-modern-baritone-standard-in-gloss-graphite

I'd imagine that falls into the OP's description of looking "too metal", which they don't want.

Moominpapa

Octafish said:

 Fender did do 27 inch scale Telecaster Baritone. Been discontinued, but there's one here.

My son bought one of those baritone Teles off eBay a few months back. Really nice guitar - he likes it a lot.

Henrytwang

You might be able to find an old Squier Subsonic, I bought a good one for less than £200. It has humbucking pickups but as they have 4 core leads I added a switched pot which allows a handy single coil option .

AuldReekie

I have a Fender Jaguar Baritone Custom, cost around £500 12 years ago.  Swapped thwe p/ups for SD and its a really well made guitar, real "spaghetti western" machine.  If you find one second hand, you'll be getting a good guitar and probably within your price range.  More info 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fender_Jaguar_Baritone_Custom

ewal

ICBM said:

If you're only tuning down to B you can do it on a standard scale length - if you think about it four of the strings are tuned exactly the same as normal, they're just in different positions. One is a semitone lower (F# instead of G) and the bottom B is the only one you'll have a problem with. I've used cut-down double-ball-end bass strings, the smaller ball is the same size as a guitar one - a 60 or 65 gauge seems about right. Obviously you will need to file the nut grooves out, but nothing else. I've done a couple of conversions on Telecasters like this - one I even went down to A at one point, using a 15-gauge top string, a wound 22 second, and a 75 low A - but that was pushing it, not least because I had to unwind the outer wrap of the A string to get it into the tuner post...

I've got 68-12 s on my Toronado tuned down to B. No need to do anything to get the 68 in to the tuner post. I haven't even bothered filing the nut as I want to be able to switch back to standard gauge strings if required. Works well enough. Very slightly flabby and less twangy in comparison to the Descent I tried out a few weeks ago.