Tuning GCEA to F Bb D G

I have been having some difficulty singing with my tenor uke tuned reentrant GCEA. Last night I decided to drop it a full step to F Bb D G and it made a big improvement.

I did a search on the internet and found some posts on UU about tuning a baritone to the same tuning. I tried to do that last night but my cheap G string broke.

I am assuming that you tune the baritone up, not down. Also, the posts I saw said to get a reentrant D string. Will it not work with the linear D?

How about a low G when dropping the tuning on the tenor tuned GCEA? Will that work or should I keep the reentrant G string on?

I haven't experimented much with different tunings but I haven't been playing quite a year yet. This is something I plan on doing more, especially after searching some of the posts here.

I appreciate your help with this.

That's an awfully big leap for standard strings on a Bari . .

Couple things. First, how does your tenor play/sound tuned to Bb? If you're happy with it, great. If not, look into "highter tension" strings (which tuned down a whole step should be about normal.

The Geekiest "stock" solution is to look at Southcoast's website, where Dirk has tables showing the tension at different tunings at different scale lengths. If you like Flourocarbons, he'd be my go-to, especially for different key tunings.

Absolutely recommend Southcoast for Bb on a baritone, either linear or reentrant. Going up 3 half steps is rarely a good idea with any standard string set.

Almost any tenor set is fine dropping down a step as most tenor sets are already designed for a higher tension. Of course there are some exceptions. And either high g or low g should be fine to.

Have fun experimenting.

This is not about your tuning, but you playing.
Why not just transpose all your songs down a step?
If you play with others using an alternate tuning can be confusing.

Load all your songs into ONSONG in the .txt format it will transpose to any key you want. Best app on the market for musicians and wanting to play in different keys. Then again if your key that you sing in is always with a F Bb D G stringing then I'd just get a Bb set of proper tension strings and be done with it. I just like to be able to change to any key without changing strings, thus my Capo is my friend as is OnSong.

SailingUke said:

This is not about your tuning, but you playing.
Why not just transpose all your songs down a step?
If you play with others using an alternate tuning can be confusing.

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