Roll call: Players of 5ths tuning

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LimuHead

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I've seen that several people here on UU have ukulele tuned in 5ths.

Although I play a low G tenor for my professional gigs I have a concert ukulele tuned GDAE that I set up to take the place of my mandolin. I really like how much easier it is to tune (only 4 strings -- not 8!) and the lower tension of the strings. I really like the extra space between strings on the fretboard. The straight-forward nature of 5ths tuning also makes sight-reading, improvisation and transposing a joy!

I mostly play Irish tunes on it at this point and also enjoy playing through the Classical Fakebook.

I'm also studying Scarpology for mandolin.

If you play 5ths tuning please chime in.

I'd like to hear what kind of instrument & tuning you use (GDAE, CGDA, other?), the music you play, if you're a reader or not, and what you like/don't like about 5ths tuning.

I will add that at first chords in 5ths tuning sounded 'too wide' after coming from the close harmonies of ukulele & guitar, but the open sound of 5ths tuning is starting to grow on me.

I'd love to hear from other 5ths players out there!

Aldon
 
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I'm sure others will join us :)

I have a pineapple soprano with a set of Aquila 5th's on it tuned GDAE, it subs for my mandolin late of an evening. My baritone is also tuned GDAE, but an octave lower, a substitute for my tenor banjo initially, but now an instrument "in it's own right".

I play mostly folk and traditional tunes on them, more or less whatever takes my fancy. I've got dozens of music books that range from the Medieval to more or less the current day.

I like the 5th's tuning because it gives me a wide range of notes in the first position with just four strings :music:
 
I have only one uke - it's a baritone tuned GDAE. I can't be bothered at this late time in life to learn tunings other than fifths.

Started on violin at 9, professionally at 20, then viola, then mandola and mandolin recreationally in my 40s. The baritone uke was a recent acquisition, actually intended as a stand-in for an octave mandolin until I can get one, but I have quickly grown to love it as an instrument in its own right. As long as it's in fifths. :D

Fifths tunings allow me to learn new stringed instruments with my left hand on auto-pilot, as I learn new things to do with my right hand.

bratsche
 
I doubt that I'd do this, but I'm curious.

(1) Are there chord charts for this tuning?

(2) Are string sets available, or do you have to put singles together? I'm guessing the string gauges would have a wider span of thicknesses. (I'm going to look at Southcoast to see if they offer any.)
 
Thanks, Ubulele. Guess I should have thought to look for mandolin chords (one self-administered dope-slap).

All my ukus are tenor. Will I break those soprano strings?

edit: I just found an Amazon review that said these will break on a tenor ...

Most of the chord forms look pretty easy; just a matter of re-learning, and I'm not so far into this that I can't do that now. As soon as I can find the proper strings I'll put them on my Caramel and see how I like it.
 
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Okay, waitaminnit ... is the mandolin tuning linear? I've found a few videos and they're tuning non-linearly: from the low G, they tune UP to the D, but the second string is the A BELOW D ...

... then I just went to a page with a mandolin tuner, and it IS linear, so I'm guessing they're using the peculiar tuning on a uke so they can do it with a uke string set? Is that it? That still doesn't quite make sense. Maybe the first string would be so thin you can't find them (in plastic) ... I think it would have to be substantially thinner than the usual .020-ish range for first strings.

Fishing line?
 
Here is the link to the thread "How to string Baritone Uke in GDAE" on the MandolinCafe forum that first sparked my interest a few years back. It's under the Tenor Guitar section. They're tuned CGDA, and there's some overlapping discussion, but it's all about achieving fifths tuning on baritone and tenor ukes in either GDAE or CGDA. Not entirely conclusive, but it helped me when I decided to take the plunge. I'm still experimenting to find my ideal string combo, though. The guitar strings from the cheap D'Addario Pro Arte set do work, but the wound ones are too noisy under the fingers for me. (Thomastiks are next on the audition list, and I'd also like to try a low D Living Water for my 3rd string at some point.)

bratsche
 
plastuku said:
Okay, waitaminnit ... is the mandolin tuning linear? I've found a few videos and they're tuning non-linearly: from the low G, they tune UP to the D, but the second string is the A BELOW D ...

... then I just went to a page with a mandolin tuner, and it IS linear, so I'm guessing they're using the peculiar tuning on a uke so they can do it with a uke string set? Is that it? That still doesn't quite make sense. Maybe the first string would be so thin you can't find them (in plastic) ... I think it would have to be substantially thinner than the usual .020-ish range for first strings.

Fishing line?
Click to expand...

The Aquila 30U set, GDAE 5th's tuning on a soprano, (violin/mandolin tuning) has an E string of 15 thou diameter, that's 0.015" or approximately 0.38mm ... that's Nylgut remember, not ordinary nylon or fluorocarbon, if that makes any difference.

My baritone tuned GDAE (an octave lower) uses three of the original DGBE strings with a guitar E string as a bass string.

Hope this helps :music:
 
I have a Pono Tenor ukulele tuned in 5th's ~ CGDA. I initially had it strung linear and though I loved the warm sound, I felt the low C (A string from classical guitar set) was getting a bit lost in the mix when strummed. Now I have it tuned in re-entrant using a cobbled together set of strings. I am using Fremont Soloist for the G and Savarez singles for the C D and A strings, but you could use any set of low G strings to get this tuning. Switch the Low G and the C strings around so C is 4 G is 3 , then tune your E string down to D ( I bought a Savarez single with slightly higher gauge to keep tension same at D ) and your A string is in normal slot. I think this configuration sounds great. I will send a sound sample later today.
 
My concert banjolele uses an Aquila CGDA set. I couldn't find a low, low C or a high, high E, so I gave up on fifths for my other ukuleles. I don't fingerpick them much anyway, and I don't care for the fifths chords.

I really like fifths on my Irish tenor banjo and mando-banjo though. :eek:ld:
 
Thanks, bratsche and kypfer. I'm still in the middle of my research. Odd I can't find much on a general web search yet, and Southcoast didn't seem to have anything about this, but I might send them an email.
 
Most of my playing time is on a linear C6 tenor and a reentrant C6 concert, but I do have a cheap soprano tuned in 5ths (GDAE) using the Aquila set. I mostly use it to try to play classical violin repertoire and fiddle tunes, since I used to be a violinist years ago, but my right-hand technique isn't really up to fast runs, so it's not quite as satisfying as I had hoped. Maybe as my right-hand technique improves, it will get to be more fun. We'll see.

David
 
Okay, I finally found a post elsewhere with a reference to Southcoast and why they gave up on 5ths-tuned string sets for ukes.

Their page on that is here:

http://southcoastukes.com/021.htm

Their main objection seems to be the resonance of small instruments at low frequencies; the secondary problem being the thin first string. I'm perfectly happy with the sound of the low G on all three of my ukes, so, to me, that issue disappears.

I still want to try this; just have to figure out the string gauges needed. The mandolin chord forms look easy in most cases, and solve some problems for me in some, and I like that the symmetrical tuning reduces the number of chord forms and makes them all movable (according to other people here who've done this, including Booli).

Still researching.
 
Ever since I tried a mandolin a few years ago, fifths has been my favorite. Everything I have is tuned fifths. Doing so has made me better on all instruments since playing any one reinforces the other.

Have not had any sound quality issues on normal CGDA on concert ukes and above. Sopranos just don't handle low-C at all, so re-entrant CGDA is on the Flea for now. Have re-entrant CGDA also on the Martin T1K, but that's only out of the convenience of using the low-G GCEA set that came with the instrument.

Have given up trying to go GDAE on ukes due to the thinness (and breakage) of E strings. The only E I ever found tgat would not snap through normal use was 20-pound test mono fishing line. The sound was okay, but not great at all.
 
I recently acquired a tenor guitar from another UUer and am learning to play in fifths (CGDA) on that. I really like the wider chord voicings that tuning affords.
 
I have some string sets for 5th stringing...I shall find out what size and string one that way. I am familiar with mandolin and violin so it will be no big deal. It's odd...I never thought of doing it with one of my own until I read your post. Thank you.
 
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TheCraftedCow said:
I have some string sets for 5th stringing...I shall find out what size and string one that way. I am familiar with mandolin and violin so it will be no big deal. It's odd...I never thought of doing it with one of my own until I read your post. Thank you.
Click to expand...

For what its worth, I use the Aquila Concert CGDA string pack on my tenor ukes all the time. They take the tension with no problrm and sound great.
 
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