Does a tiple count as a uke?

Fran Guidry

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I bought a 1949 T-18 on Ebay for a bargain price ... which was due to the marginal condition of the instrument, I'm afraid. Fortunately I found someone who did a lovely job of restoring the tiple with a neck reset, fret job, and new saddle, and now it really sings, especially with the right driver, Ledward Kaapana.





Fran
 
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Here's another video featuring Led on the tiple. His "Aloha `Ia No `O Maui" is one of our favorite jam tunes, simple but saucy, and I think this particular session is going to the top of my favorites list:





Fran
 
Along with my ancient banjo-'uke, my 4-triple-course cuatro-menor, the charango and Venezuelan cuatro in my future, and my baritone tuned as a plectrum banjo, I count my tiple as an 'uke-like object (UKO). I've read that tenor 'ukes evolved from the tiple, so it has an ancestral place in the lineage. Selah!
 
Direct lineage? No, but a very suitable instrument in a uke players "arsenal." Kind of a taropatch on steroids. Assume you read this:

American tiple[edit]

The tiple was redesigned in 1919 by the American guitar company C.F. Martin & Co. for the William J. Smith Co. in New York. This tiple is smaller than the Colombian version, closer in size to a baritone ukelele. It has ten steel strings in four courses of 2, 3, 3, and 2 strings, tuned similarly to a D-tuned ukulele: A4 A3 • D4 D3 D4 • F#4 F#3 F#4 • B3 B3. Similar instruments were developed by other companies around the same time.

Tiple strings and tuning: Guitar-style metal strings are used, and in addition to the original ukulele-style tuning (above) used, the American tiple is sometimes tuned like the upper four courses of the guitar.
 
The tiple was redesigned in 1919 by the American guitar company C.F. Martin & Co. for the William J. Smith Co. in New York. This tiple is smaller than the Colombian version, closer in size to a baritone ukelele.
Yes, the tenor-size USA tiple (TIH-pull) *is* closer to a baritone than to a Columbian tiple (TEE-play) but it's still virtually identical to a tenor, body-wise. Mine is anyway.

Tiple strings and tuning: Guitar-style metal strings are used, and in addition to the original ukulele-style tuning (above) used, the American tiple is sometimes tuned like the upper four courses of the guitar.
The overall interval layout is the same as 'ukes and 4-string guitars, with the lower strings in each course being 4-3-4 intervals. But there's a tonal disconnect in the top two courses, a mirror of the disconnect in 6-string 'ukes.

Consider: An 'uke tuned linear (say in GCEa) allows a smooth transition of notes from string to string. My KA6, originally strung g-cC-E-aA, allowed such transitions only on the two middle courses. It's a bit easier since I restrung it G-cC-E-Aa. Now it's almost a Venezuelan cuatro. The USA-mutant tiple, tuned gG-cCc-eEe-aa, allows smooth transitions on the lower three courses, but taking a melody from the second to first string sounds weak because the second is SO much bass-ier.

Strumming the 6-string 'uke or 10-string tiple presents no problem. Picking (counter)melodies requires new fingering techniques.
 
I have referred to the tiple as the hellspawn of a ukulele and a barbed wire fence. I try out different songs on my tiple, and I'm always surprised at which ones sound good on it. For example, the Beach Boys' "Sail On Sailor" sounds great on tiple.
 
Hello Fran!

Great to see you posting here - especially with music like this!

I restored a number of those little beasts myself. All but one needed a neck reset. Yes, you certainly have a good driver for yours.

4ia - I found blues nice on those Tiples - Leadbelly & Blind Willie McTell. "Good Night Irene" & "Southern Can", if I recall. I don't have a Tiple now, but they were fun.
 
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