ElenaDuff
Well-known member
Great idea to have a thread for the baritones - I feel like I can finally play 'guitar' and get that nice deep sound, due to the small size. : )
They make GCEA strings for baritones. I don't like them personally, but enough people do that they exist, BUT they are an option that you can explore for not a lot of money. Another option is to string your bari with GCEA tenor strings, but I don't advise it if you have weak fingers. The strings will be extremely tight compared to the GCEA baritone strings. I decided to use tenor strings one one of my baritones, because the bari strings seemed really loose and sloppy for my playing style. (which is why I didn't like them). However, the sound is more like a really loud tenor and lacks the rich sound of a baritone.
But, as has already been pointed out, the finger patterns don't change. The chords and notes change, but not the fingering. If you compare GCEA tuning to DGBE tuning, the fingering looks something like this:
GCEA = DGBE
C ______ G
D ______ A
E ______ B
F ______ C
G ______ D
A ______ E
B ______ F
(All the minors and 7th's are the same finger positions too.)
The reason this is important to know if you play a baritone is that the different fingerings make the chords sound very different. As you can well imagine, when you play a G chord (for instance) using 3 fingers; it sounds rather different than playing a G chord with one finger. This is precisely why I keep ukes with different tunings around.
Adding this here for you to hear what the Guadalupe strings sound like on my tenor. The strings are a little slack on the tenor so this is tuned ADF#B. ...
... Guadalupe are for GCEA tuned an octave lower than the usual tones of a tenor. ADF#B is just tuned a whole step up to take up the slack (But still an octave lower) and you still play that tuning just as if its a GCEA. It just requires you to adjust your singing a couple notes higher. No big deal at all.
That Pono sounded wonderful and you played and sang great too! But another tuning to learn chords to! I'm just getting used to G tuning!
I've been waiting for the Worth Browns I put on my baritone to settle, to record them while I play something recognizable. I have some Worth Brown Fats that should yield a hi d and I'll try that on the Big Zebra before I get all crazy. I kind of like the re-entrant G tuning.
I may try tuning my Zebra Tenor to aDF#B. It has Brown Fats on it tuned dGBE and the strings are a little slack. Hmmm....
Another one should be arriving shortly. :uhoh:
I thought my UAS was over, but then I found a Lani LB70 spruce top bari being sold off for just £48!
Obviously, I ordered one, (original price was £120). :rock:
Just arrived, checked over, tuned, & played with - came with a dust cover & tuner included - but, with high D - don't think that will stay.
It has some minor marks on the top, a smallish ding in the back of the neck high up the fretboard, & a bit of glue by the binding.
No sharp frets edges, & string height seem to be OK, scale length seems to be just over 19.5".
All in all, I reckon it's a bargain!