Baritone restrung as a piccolo bass to accompany uke?

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HeavyDuty

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Reading the current Kamoa bass uke thread has me thinking about picking up an inexpensive baritone and restringing it as a piccolo bass (EADG an octave up from "normal" bass.)

There have been a few threads that have touched on this tuning (I know DaleR has tried it), but I'd like to see what experience other people have had specifically retuning a baritone - buying a Kamoa is out of budget for trying this out. I've messed around a little accompanying uke videos and found that playing up an octave was a pleasant tonal complement.

My main concern is that it be loud enough to play along acoustically with ukes. If I have to plug in, I'm bringing my U-Bass... or my P5.

I'm just a bass player that's looking to branch out a little. :D

Thanks!
 
Actually, I have already sessioned with it. I have even used a small clip on mic through my Pignose and it works great. It has a much lighter sound, very different than a guitar too. Small sessions this bass baritone is just fine, the uBass can be saved for the big session stuff.:cool:
 
They are just light classical guitar strings! Very cool sound and once amped a little bit, it can keep up with the Jones'.
 
Just read the previous threads. It has been discussed at length. Yes! Unless you have a guitar hero/ strum freak/ drummer type of jimmy guitar player. With a couple of real guitar players it keeps up just fine.
 
HeavyDuty said:
My main concern is that it be loud enough to play along acoustically with ukes. If I have to plug in, I'm bringing my U-Bass... or my P5.
Click to expand...

The small body and lower string tension mean the lower notes don't have as much power, but loud enough IMHO.
With a couple of ukes in a small room you'd hold your own.
With more players or in a larger room, I prefer an amped u-bass.

Did you see this thread on the bargain baritones? http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?77465-Baritone-Bargains

You'd need to widen the nut slots to accommodate guitar strings.
I went with Martin "high tension" classical strings, but since the G string was unwound, borrowed the G from a baritone uke set.

The good thing about playing with ukes is that in standard tuning, their lowest note is middle C, so you're below their range.
(Even in low G tuning, the lowest note is open G on the guitar, oops, I mean piccolo bass.)
 
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Dave, thanks for that link - I think I'm going to try one of the blems.

Dale, that was the thread that inspired this. I didn't want to take the Kamoa thread more off topic.
 
My new Cherub guitar clip on mic just came in. Tried it on my dolphin and although it is still clipped onto the headstock, the sound is much better. Will try on the bass baritone later this evening. I am sure, because it is a larger surface area, it will also work better on the bass baritone too! Here is a link, and it is only $7.55:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UJO41S/
 
On bargain bari on the way.

Dale, you seem to have had good luck with this. What specific strings did you use? Are they all wound, or are some plain?
 
Light classical strings...and the top G is nylon. I just went to the local guitar shop and spent $6.50 for them. I do not remember what brand they were. Tension is almost too loose and you might have problems high on the top notes, but if you play it like a bass, it is just fine well up the frets.
 
Cool, thanks. I don't know much about classical guitar strings, I wonder if the "harder" strings would have better feel? I may need to play around with this!
 
I never did try a heavier string. Because of the loose tension to get it to tune down, I suspect it would be just fine. If it starts seeming like too much tension for your particular bari, just loosen them and switch to the light classical ones. They almost do not have enough tension. Really neat sound and I think we are onto something here. One of my local colleagues tried it and liked it quite well too.
 
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On a hunch, I tried that same clip on mic setup, with the Piggy with one of my harmonicas. Clipped onto the bass end, it works in spades! This is a very versatile mic and I do so love my Piggy amp.
 
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