baritone's and tenors tuned in fifths

I tried tuning my baritone in fifths for a couple of weeks as an experiment. It's a Lanikai CK-B strung with the regular DGBE d'Addario nyltech set, with lower 2 wound. It seemed to work fine, but I can't vouch for long-term stability of the strings (I put it back to DGBE after a couple of weeks) and I was concerned about the extra tension on the instrument. Judging from the feel of the strings, it didn't seem too extreme. The (wound) D string tuned down a step was not too loose/floppy, either--it sounded nicely, no fret buzz.

I might try it again one day, but I have my hands full with instruments at the moment without learning another new tuning. I just retuned my tenor banjo to DGBE for the same reason -- got tired of it sitting around waiting for me to learn the new chord shapes!
 
I just received this good news from a SouthCoast strings bulletin today:

5ths Tuning Sets -

5ths tuning refers to set-ups where the notes of a linear tuning are spaced in 5 step intervals, instead of 4 step intervals like the Ukulele and Guitar. The Violin and Mandolin families are tuned in this fashion, and it's also the most common tuning for the Tenor Banjo and Tenor Guitar. We had a 5ths tuning set once, but discontinued it over a year ago. With the wide range of notes that linear 5ths requires, using classical strings involves compromises that in the end we decided to do without.

We're very pleased to have finally arrived at a beautiful resolution to that situation. Drawing on a variant from the Tenor Banjo and another from the Tenor Guitar, we will now offer strings for the two most common 5ths tunings for all Ukulele sizes.

5ths tuning on the Ukulele is now no longer something you can "kinda sorta" get by with, it's a valid option with sounds so lovely that a standard tuned player may have to think twice. We won't be putting out a String Tips for these sets, but details are on our new 5ths Tuning page, here:

http://www.southcoastukes.com/tips.htm
 
Does anyone have a tenor or baritone tuned in fifths? What strings are you using?

I don't really like the sound of 5ths tuning, i cant stand the sound of mandolin's or alike instruments is like nails on a chalk board for me.
 
Great news! Purchase of these strings is not mandatory!

i saw a video where certain kala ukes came set up for 5th's thought it sounded awful.
If i wanted to play that style i would just get a mandolin or bouzouki etc
Actually bouzoukis sound nicer with the lower tuning, i think its the sharpness
of 5ths on higher range instruments on lower tuned instruments I think it can sound decent
(like a tenor guitar tuned in 5th' works for me actually at least as a listener).
 
I did a little more research and discovered that Southcoast's set is designed for re-entrant fifths tuning, with the low C raised to middle C (cGDA). They provide a well-reasoned and articulated explanation on their site why low C isn't a great idea on a baritone uke due to the higher resonant frequency (compared to tenor guitar) of the soundbox.

But... if you just like to mess around with this stuff like I do, I've found that low C sounds decent on bari. And I happened to discover that d'Addario makes a 6-string nylon set for requinto guitar, which is typically an inch or two longer in scale than baritone uke. That set is designed for traditional requinto tuning, a fifth up from regular guitar (A d g c' e' a').

So using that set, here's a combo that should work for bari fifths/linear tuning (low C):

(low) A string in 4th position, tuned up to C (bari scale is shorter, so this should be safe--but I've found that standard bari d works OK dropped to c; or alternately, use the requinto d string and tune down to c)
g string in 3rd position, tuned to g
c' string in 2nd position, tuned up to d'
a' string in 1st position, tuned to a'

d and e' strings would be unused.
 
I've got a small (child's) guitar with a 19" scale-length, so much the same size as a baritone ukulele, that I've re-strung with just four nylon strings in fifths, specifically GDAE (low to high) at the same pitch as a normal guitar. I used the original strings that were on the instrument when I acquired it, the wound A, wound D, plain G and E and re-grooved the nut for equi-distant spacing.

My point is, on a larger instrument, normal guitar strings work fine :D
 
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I tried it on a soprano, to see if I could play some of the tunes I learned on a mando on it. It sounded awful. I bought a mandolin.
 
Have everything (tenor guitar, tenor banjo, mandolins, soprano ukuleles and concert ukuleles) all tuned GDAE. Have been using Aquila 5ths on the ukuleles. Aquila has a GDAE set for sopranos and a CGDA set for concert. On the concerts I just use the Aquila GDA from the concert set and 20lb test monofilament line for the E string (it tunes and sounds fine).

Am glad to see another vendor looking at the 5ths market, especially for tenor and baritone which Aquila doesn't currently service.
 
Reviving thread...

I bought a junky baritone ukulele for my first try at converting a Ukulele to a resonator ukulele. But I thought I’d try a tenor guitar tuning before I start the project.

I found the website “http://stringtensionpro.com” very helpful. It is D’Addario’s string gauge calculator. Type in the scale length, note/octave, and approximate gauge or tension.

Scale is 487 mm, (19-3/16 in)
Tuning is C3, G3, D4, A4
Used the individual string tensions from a D’Addario standard baritone ukulele string set, EJ65B.

Results:

C3 - 14.870 lbs., 0.0380 in. wound
G3 - 14.370 lbs., 0.0300 in. wound
D4 - 10.320 lbs., 0.0300 in. Clear nylon
A4 - 11.770 lbs., 0.0240 in. Clear nylon

I’ll order the strings and try it out.

Ed
 
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