Baritone - can it go gCEA/GCEA?

orangeena

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Hello,
At uke club on Wednesday a friend was excited to show off his new KALA KA-BE Mahogany Baritone. However, he has decided that he wants it tuned to gCEA or GCEA so he can play along with the rest of the group, and a school he does some work with. Of course when he tried to bring it up to normal gCEA with the strings it came with, the A snapped over the bridge. So he as put another set on and tuned an octave down and naturally it is very quiet and buzzy/muddy. He has to put it thru an amp just to be heard.
I advised him that a Baritone is not naturally tunable to concert uke pitch, but this is what he wants. We are both worried that he will rip the bridge off if he tries this with normal strings. Does anyone know if what he is trying to do is possible with some other brand or style of strings?
Thanks
Max
 
Hello,
At uke club on Wednesday a friend was excited to show off his new KALA KA-BE Mahogany Baritone. However, he has decided that he wants it tuned to gCEA or GCEA so he can play along with the rest of the group, and a school he does some work with. Of course when he tried to bring it up to normal gCEA with the strings it came with, the A snapped over the bridge. So he as put another set on and tuned an octave down and naturally it is very quiet and buzzy/muddy. He has to put it thru an amp just to be heard.
I advised him that a Baritone is not naturally tunable to concert uke pitch, but this is what he wants. We are both worried that he will rip the bridge off if he tries this with normal strings. Does anyone know if what he is trying to do is possible with some other brand or style of strings?
Thanks
Max

It's possible to get strings for a baritone that enable it to be tuned GCEA. You might get away with tenor strings for tuning to standard ukulele pitch but the tension will be very high (it's already high on a tenor) but most who do tune seem to go for tuning down an octave but you need strings specially for the purpose. Some like it some find the tuning muddy. If the Berkshire in your location is Berkshire UK, I suggest you get in touch with Ken Middleton's Living Water Strings. He will be able to put together a custom set for you.

OTOH what's this nonsense about not playing with the rest of the ukulele group because of the tuning. You can play with others tuned GCEA. You just use baritone chord shapes instead of GCEA chord shapes. I have my tenors tuned dGBE and have no problem playing with others in GCEA tuning. If it says 'C' play 2010 instead of 0003, for 'G' play 0003 instead of 0232 and so on. Just learn the baritone shapes that correspond to the chord names in the music/chord chart for the song.

PS If your Berkshire is somewhere in the USA, try Southcoast Strings they will have a suitable set.
 
Thanks Tootler. I will get on to Ken Middleton for him (We are Reading Ukulele Group in Berkshire UK).

I told the chap he just needs to learn the baritone chord shapes but he is not keen. I know!
 
I have my baritone GCEA with Living Water strings and it sounds far better at that tuning (to my ear) than it did at DGBE. I think I'll change it to dGBE at some point but either way, Ken will sort you out with decent strings for C tuning.
 
I told the chap he just needs to learn the baritone chord shapes but he is not keen. I know!

It's not that difficult. It's just the same shapes, they just represent different chords. Baritone G is the same as soprano-tenor C, Baritone D is the same shape as tenor etc. G, baritone C is the same as tenor etc. F. Just count up 5 and you get the baritone chord name for the equivalent tenor etc. Shape. It just takes a little practice. I'm a recorder player and had dealt with the same issue going from a C recorder to an F recorder. Once you've got over the initial hurdle, it gives you extra choices for playing songs.
 
Without going through all kinds of contortions and tension calculations...

Aquila makes GCEA re-entrant BARITONE strings, in the SAME pitches and SAME OCTAVE as all the other scales of uke, in both Nylgut, and LAVA string sets, which are approx $5 everywhere Aquila strings are sold.

If you friend is not picky about strings, this is THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE to get GCEA on a baritone...

Everything else is more involved.

Please show this to your friend and then report back:

https://www.stringsbymail.com/aquila-baritone-ukulele-strings-all-nylgut-gcea-tuning-23u-4850.html

and

http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/aqlasebagctu.html
http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/aq23unysofit.html
 
I have my baritone GCEA with Living Water strings and it sounds far better at that tuning (to my ear) than it did at DGBE. I think I'll change it to dGBE at some point but either way, Ken will sort you out with decent strings for C tuning.

I have two baritones, one tuned to dGBE and the other to CGEA (Living Water Strings) and like both tunings. Still coming to grips with traditional baritone tuning, though, even if the chord shapes are just the same but with different names!
 
Without going through all kinds of contortions and tension calculations...

Aquila makes GCEA re-entrant BARITONE strings, in the SAME pitches and SAME OCTAVE as all the other scales of uke, in both Nylgut, and LAVA string sets, which are approx $5 everywhere Aquila strings are sold.

If you friend is not picky about strings, this is THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE to get GCEA on a baritone...

Everything else is more involved.

Please show this to your friend and then report back:

https://www.stringsbymail.com/aquila-baritone-ukulele-strings-all-nylgut-gcea-tuning-23u-4850.html

and

http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/aqlasebagctu.html
http://www.stringsandbeyond.com/aq23unysofit.html

I've tried the Aquilas - they were a hoot to play. Gave my cheap Lanakai baritone a huge sound.
 
In general, I think it's a waste to buy a bari only to put it in the same tuning as the smaller ukes, but as others have said, there are string sets for both reentrant and linear C tunings, precisely for those unwilling to adapt to more appropriate bari tunings. I'd go with Living Water rather than Aquila.

When I've wanted to get GCEA tuning on my bari (for instance, to avoid carrying two ukes around), I just put a capo on the 5th fret. If your friend plans to play in C tuning often, he might want to push his bari up to A tuning (EAC#F#) using a standard bari string set, then capo at the 3rd fret. Then, without the capo, he still has deeper, fuller bari sound. I keep a bari tuned in A because it's a nice match with my voice, particularly when I want to sing in the key of E.

Having baris and capos is also a great way to easily transpose songs that aren't notated in keys friendly to your voice range. So I'd encourage your friend to keep the bari in G or A tuning, even if he prefers to go reentrant.
 
Quite sensible and cost efficient advice on the part of Mr. Ubulele and Dirk of Southcoast Strings would most likely concer that tuning to A would bring the baritone closer to its better resonance. Placing a capo at the third rather than the fifth fret might also make it easier to work with.
 
I'm new around here (first post). I followed the advice to get the special Aquilas to do the reentrant tuning GCEA on my baritone. I have to say that I do like my baritone better GCEA than with either the standard bari low D or high D tunings.

I would recommend not giving much slack on the GCEA bari strings as they are threaded through the tuning gear hole because I had to wind so much to get the strings up to pitch and I ran out of space on the tuning peg collar with a couple of the strings. I had to unwind those strings and and then go with very little slack as I began to wind to get it done properly.
 
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Vic, I had the exact same thing happen with the Aquila Cordoba Mini strings. Although I was lazy about it and just kept winding - kudos for doing it properly!
 
I have been playing ukulele for just over three years. I played mostly tenors tuned GCEA or GCEA. About a month ago I bought a Baritone tuned DGBE. I was encouraged by DownUpDave and others on the form to give it a try. I am really enjoying the sound of this tuning. It adds color to the mix when played with Ukes with standard tuning. It was not too difficult to learn the chord shapes although I am still learning some of the more uncommon chords. You just have to remember to switch your brain from tenor to Baritone. All this to say don't give up too easily on standard Baritone tuning. I like it you might too.
 
I had to wind so much to get the strings up to pitch and I ran out of space on the tuning peg collar with a couple of the strings. I had to unwind those strings and and then go with very little slack as I began to wind to get it done properly.

I have only strung a couple of baritones, but I have now restrung over 100 ukuleles. What I find on standard tuning is that I leave no slack on G, E, or A, and a little slack on C. On a baritone ukulele, linear, I go for Living Waters with all fluorocarbon unwound strings--and leave just a little slack on D and G.

Some people like to make a coil of extra string on each tuning post on the headstock...I just cut off that extra amount
 
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