Tipple Ukulele

Down Up Dick

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Wow! Yesterday, I tried a Tiple Uke in my favorite music store. Wow! what a sound. It sounded like a harp or something. But imagine changing all those strings. It was nice looking too. I don't remember what brand it was--Ohana mebbe.

What kinda music are Tiples used for? I don't think I'd ever buy one, but I sure liked it.

I also played "my" Kala 8 string's high priced brother. It was a little out of tune, and I didn't feel like tunng it, but it was still fun to noodle. Next spring (if I'm still above ground.) I'll get one.

Play a Tiple with your tipple! :eek:ld:
 
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Wow! Yesterday, I tried a Tiple Uke in my favorite music store. Wow! what a sound. It sounded like a harp or something. But imagine changing all those strings. It was nice looking too. I don't remember what brand it was--Ohana mebbe.

What kinda music are Tiples used for? I don't think I'd ever buy one, but I sure liked it.

I also played "my" Kala 8 string's high priced brother. It was a little out of tune, and I didn't feel like tunng it, but it was still fun to noodle. Next spring (if I'm still above ground.) I'll get one.

Play a Tiple with your tipple! :eek:ld:

They actually aren't as bad as you think because there is the classic end to the steel strings that just slips through the hole rather than having to tie them! So it is easy peasy!

That being said, I have popped a tipple string from time to time where I accidentally tuned it too high and...
OUCH!

I definitely prefer to re-string nylon over steel string. I had a little cut on my finger from the steel!
 
A tiple would be yet another tunning to learn plus being steel string and not amplifies it would destroy my nails which I use\need for Uke and classical guitar. (I have no problem with the RISA steel string electric ukes)

Instead of a tiple, I did order an 8 string Kala from Mim, to play some Latin American music and to use for rhythm tracks. Looking forward to it.
 
Instead of using steel strings both the 1923 Martin and the 1970 Yasuma (japanese martin)
are strung Dd GgG BbB eE with Aquila white. There is no need to relearn anything for a guitar player....except that the E and A strings are gone, and how much easier they are to take somewhere compared to the 1972 Yamaki 12 string dreadnaught.
 
Lovely instrumental, Camsuke, and what a sound. I hadn't realised the Tiple was different from the Timple - a Canary Islands instrument I have that you can hear here:



PS The lyrics are in the youtube description - it's my tribute to Fernando Pessoa my favourite Portuguese poet.
 
Technically, the origin instrument is a Tiple (t-play) from Colombia (or was it Peru) with 12 strings across 4 courses. Martin made theirs with 10 strings, and based it on a Tenor scale `ukulele. Horrendous intonation above the 4th fret, partially due to the uncompensated brass saddle.

For all of the "I don't like heavy tuning machines" on your `ukulele, this is definitely not for you.

Olarte, the string set sold by GHS Custom Shop is labeled as A D F# B, which tunes nicely to GCEA, so you play it exactly as an `ukulele. There is no different tuning, and you can put a pickup in, and play with nails. Of course, the right tiple, in the right hands, can (and will) be louder than most instruments at a Kanikapila, including 12-string guitars (this has happened already).

What kind of music? Personally, it lends itself to Spanish styles (think "Na Vaqueros" by Kuana Torres Kahele) and of course anything Gabby, but Redd Foxx found his own way with it as well. Can't forget Peter Moon and the old Sunday Manoa stuff.
Anyway, a little biased, but I think Ramon can handle a Tiple pretty well. I've posted this a few times, but I think its timely posting it here:
 
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Well, I surely like the sound of the Tiple. I listened to these and some on You Tube and enjoyed them a lot. Thanks to those who posted them here and told me a little about the Tiple. I really enjoy learning new stuff. :eek:ld:
 
I have an old (circa 1930?) Regal tiple, and yeah, the intonation can be a bitch. It improved a fair bit when I tuned it up from GCEA to ADF#B, so I often use it on songs in A, so I can play the easier key of G chords. I'd love to try one of those modern Ohanas for comparison.

It was actually a major customer of Martin's, William Smith, who came up with the idea. He had Martin build them for him. He got pretty pissed when Martin started selling them to other music stores too.

- FiL
 
"What Kekani & FiL said"...though I'm pretty sure it's Columbia.

I've had a few of these, and in addition to the playing styles mentioned, I found it also works well for those 12 string Blues. Think "Willie McTell". I used to like to play "Southern Can", for example, on a Tiple.
 
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People, please spell it right the tiple is from COLOMBIA, no U in it. :eek:ld:

I am Colombian and my wife and I are always amazed how often we find it misspelled! :stop: (she's a gringa by the way)

(There's always the Edit button.... Hint...)
 
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People, please spell it right the tiple is from COLOMBIA, no U in it. :eek:ld:

I am Colombian and my wife and I are always amazed how often we find it misspelled! :stop: (she's a gringa by the way)

(There's always the Edit button.... Hint...)

Damn! For shame! (used the edit button by the way). That's even worse than pronouncing `ukulele or Honolulu incorrectly, because at least the spelling is correct. Actually, most people spell `ukulele incorrect as well, they're missing the first letter.
 
Muchas gracias amigo, tu puedes comprender como es tan canson ver el nombre de mi patria escribido mal tantas veces, incluyendo en unos avisos de Starbucks ay calamba! :biglaugh: pero si debes corregir tu error en el "post" original hehe...

Perdóname Olarte! Mis disculpas su esposa también. Y por supuesto disculpas a todos los ColOmbianos!!

Thanks for humoring me. For some reason it is irritating when we see it misspelled in places like Starbucks or trader Joes and then here... Oh vey! Well I had to speak up. If anyone would understand it would he my fellow Ukers...:shaka:
 
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If it was good enough for Josephine Baker and for Bessie Love...

There's a very nice weblog on the (North-American) tiple: http://martintiple.blogspot.be/.

I spell it with one 'p' and say 'North American', because what Martin came up with was a hybrid, not the actual Colombian tiple. The story of its initial conception is very well documented in Michael Simmons' article in the first Ukulele Occassional issue of 2002.

It wasn't a recycled tenor ukulele with more stings, to the contrary: the Martin tiple saw the day of light in 1919, while the Martin four-string tenor only came around in 1927 (three years after Lyon and Healy coined the 'tenor' term).

To confuse you even more, here's a timeline for the smaller concert size:
- first, there was the Martin eight-string taropatch (1916), which was succeeded
- 'shortly afterwards' by a four-string version that was
- renamed in 1925 as a 'concert ukulele'.
 
Thanks for the information very interesting. It's always nice to find annual tidbit about the history of the ukulele and related instruments.

If it was good enough for Josephine Baker and for Bessie Love...

There's a very nice weblog on the (North-American) tiple: http://martintiple.blogspot.be/.

I spell it with one 'p' and say 'North American', because what Martin came up with was a hybrid, not the actual Colombian tiple. The story of its initial conception is very well documented in Michael Simmons' article in the first Ukulele Occassional issue of 2002.

It wasn't a recycled tenor ukulele with more stings, to the contrary: the Martin tiple saw the day of light in 1919, while the Martin four-string tenor only came around in 1927 (three years after Lyon and Healy coined the 'tenor' term).

To confuse you even more, here's a timeline for the smaller concert size:
- first, there was the Martin eight-string taropatch (1916), which was succeeded
- 'shortly afterwards' by a four-string version that was
- renamed in 1925 as a 'concert ukulele'.
 
day of light = light of day. That it's following a sentence ending on 'to the contrary' is accidental irony.
 
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