My 8string baritone sounds tinny

I bought a Vietnam-made 8 string Baritone uke that is solid spruce top & solid acacia sides & back. It came with Aquila strings tuned DdGgBBEE.

It is waay too bright which I think is due to the Aquila low d & low g being unwound "Lava" strings. It also is near zero on sustain & projection. In short, it sounds tinny. Total bummers. (I have another 8 string Bari... a Kala with a solid cedar top. It sounds great but the strings are of unknown make.)

I am hoping it's the strings that are making my Vietnam Bari sound so lousy. There are VERY few string sets made specifically for 8 string bari. So I want advice on putting together a string set on my own. The following paragraphs explain my ideas for doing this but I am not talented in this area so... I seek your comments -- Please!

First I plan to buy 2 sets D'Addario EJ87B Titanium strings which are made for a 4 string Baritone tuned DGBE...
... titanium .028, .033 •• silver plated copper .030W, .035W. These 2 sets will give me the following for the 8 string Bari...

DGBBEE

...so all I need is the octave higher d & g.

For the Bari g string I have 2 ideas...
... tenor E string tuned up one-&-a-half tones (3 frets)
or
... Bari E string tuned up 1 1/2 tones (3frets)

For the Bari d string I have 2 ideas...
...tenor C string tuned up 1 tone (2frets)
or
... Bari B string tuned up 1 1/2 tones (3 frets)

I am no expert on this kind of stuff so I would appreciate your advice very very much. My plan B is to get Ken Middleton to put together an 8 string Bari set for me but FIRST I want to make a serious effort at putting together a set on my own -- with your counsel to guide me, of course.

I anxiously await any comments that you folks care to offer.

Top two strings from the Southcoast LMU-NW set would get you d and g for baritone: http://southcoastukes.com/uku-nw.htm
Could also do SLMU if you're worried about being too bright.

Jim Hanks said:

Top two strings from the Southcoast LMU-NW set would get you d and g for baritone: http://southcoastukes.com/uku-nw.htm
Could also do SLMU if you're worried about being too bright.

Click to expand...

I ordered lmu-nw... the slmu-nw was out of stock.

When you say use top two strings, I assume you mean numbers 1&2 strings, counting from the bottom as I hold the uke -- correct? (Some use top to mean the literal top strings positionally when playing, whereas others use top as referring to higher notes in terms of sound. I assume you refer to top in terms of sound. Jim, I am not being snide... I actually do not know for sure which concept is correct. Duhhh)

I never argue with good advice & I rate yours as AAA, so I went ahead and ordered. But, for my edification, please critique my ideas for the d and g strings.

Much Aloha,
bellgamin (bill)

bellgamin said:

I bought a Vietnam-made 8 string Baritone uke that is solid spruce top & solid acacia sides & back. It came with Aquila strings tuned DdGgBBEE.

It is waay too bright which I think is due to the Aquila low d & low g being unwound "Lava" strings. It also is near zero on sustain & projection. In short, it sounds tinny. Total bummers. (I have another 8 string Bari... a Kala with a solid cedar top. It sounds great but the strings are of unknown make.)

I am hoping it's the strings that are making my Vietnam Bari sound so lousy. There are VERY few string sets made specifically for 8 string bari. So I want advice on putting together a string set on my own. The following paragraphs explain my ideas for doing this but I am not talented in this area so... I seek your comments -- Please!

Click to expand...

8 strings, generally, are bright. Personally, its the octave high C I really don’t care for on Tenors. Oddly, I see a LOT of Kala with Aquila. Basically, an already bright instrument, with bright twinkle strings. Great, if that floats you.

Since you want to play with sets, I’d suggest messing with gauges and tensions on the treble strings (specifically lower tension), and play with wraps on the wound strings. I like bronze or copper wound vs silver for a less bright tone.

Another way to see if the problem is from the uke vs strings is by swapping the good sounding strings from you KALA to this Vietnam made uke and compare. Just be sure the KALA set is not cut too short for re stringing.

I find that 8 string instruments do sound bright and I have 8 string tenors and a brucewei 8 string baritone as well.
Mind you I like and use Aquila strings so its hard to rule that out. My Mele 8 string tenor came with flurocarbon strings to start with and it was a little bright even with flurocaron strings.

bellgamin said:

When you say use top two strings, I assume you mean numbers 1&2 strings, counting from the bottom as I hold the uke -- correct? (Some use top to mean the literal top strings positionally when playing, whereas others use top as referring to higher notes in terms of sound. I assume you refer to top in terms of sound. Jim, I am not being snide... I actually do not know for sure which concept is correct. Duhhh)

Click to expand...

You're right that "top" is not always clear. Yes, I meant in terms of sound. The strings should come in numbered pouches. You'll use pouch 2 for the 'd' string and pouch 1 for the 'g' string (and this is the thinnest/highest sounding string).