Bb tuning and gauge

Theblackegg

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2017
Messages
148
Reaction score
22
I play Tenor scale Kanilea and it seems to sing the sweetest in Bb flat reent tuning, it just seems to get that soundboard working. When in c tuning just seems to lack sustain and sound a little dull.

I tend to favor a thinner gauge fluro but since dropping my tuning a full step wanted to know if I'd be better off, from a resonance and volume point of view with a thicker gauge or maybe even shifting over to nylon?
I play acoustically and have always found nylons to sound pretty dead unless plugged in.
I've read a few posts about B and Bb tuning but like to know your person experiences.

George
 
I tune my tenor the same way for the same reason. I've found a good combo with Living Waters for the f, D and G and a Thomastik Infeld flatwound CF27 for the Bb. I found the Living Water C string too slack at Bb. I'm really pleased with the tension and sound of that set up.

Edit: I'm using standard Living Water tenor strings tuned down from g, E and A to f, D and G in case that wasn't clear!
 
Last edited:
Most string instruments take C or G. Because they sounds good of Key of C. Size do not matter on string instruments because we can change pitch by strings and tension. There are A to F tuning in Sax-phone and there is Bb tuning. Because the length of tube decides the pitch. There may not be many information here about Bb tuning in ukulele. Good luck!

free image host
 
Since I got my baritone last January I shifted my Tenors to dGBE tuning. It gives a gravitas that C tuning just doesn't have. My Caramel CT-100 just sounded Loud in C, but in G using a D'Addario Carbon tenor strings it is powerful as My baritone and and has a almost bell like tone. It is rapidly becoming my favorite instrument because of it voice and ease of play that the lower tension strings set gives it. Also it is much better intoned in High D reentrent tuning. Five steps lower made a big difference and I can play baritone chords which makes my life easier to learn.

I have tried several dGBE Strings sets but the Bari-Tenor stings with their heavier gauges don't sound as good as the Carbons or Fremont Blacklines. The thinner strings give plenty of volume, good intonation and a soft touch. Worth Brown FATS did work pretty well but I prefer the D'Addarios for the sound they give.

I don't think I've ever seen the chord forms for Bb tuning? It makes my head hurt to figure it out for myself as I'm such a newbie.
 
Last edited:
Size do not matter on string instruments because we can change pitch by strings and tension.

I will respectfully disagree on this point. The larger a stringed instrument body, the deeper notes it can properly resonate at - hence why a double bass has a larger body than a violin to choose an extreme contrast! So, although we now tune soprano, concert and tenor ukuleles the same, in fact tenor ukuleles will support a lower tuning of A or Bb and some would argue that sopranos actually sound better tuned up to D. Southcoast Strings have some excellent web pages discussing this. The proof, as ever, is in the playing and it is entirely up to the player as to what they like to hear - to my ear my tenor sounds perfect in Bb and strangled in C. To someone else's it may not.

As for chord forms, just take two frets off what you've currently got. So a C chord down two frets becomes Bb. G becomes F. A becomes G. Takes surprisingly little time to get used to it!
 
I compiled my own chord chart so I could easily look up different tunings and insert the chord diagrams in to songs (when playing various different tunings I find it much easier simply to read the diagrams, just as you would find on old sheet music, than to try and mentally transpose the chord letters). If you're interested, my chart is here :-
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-9wEHIl9zhE14roGTOgoUKgVA54xD-cvuEkaeh48r6o/edit?usp=sharing
Do take a copy if you find it useful. Obviously you can add/remove columns on the left depending on which tunings you want to work with.

I tried my tenor tuned to A briefly, but the strings were a bit slack (they were just bog-standard tenor C strings). When I get around to it I'm going to try baritone strings on my tenor with that tuning. They might be a bit thick, but I'm guessing the tension will be about right.
 
I also prefer Bb tuning and have stuck with thinner/medium strings. I tried nylon strings and did not care for them. But strings are relatively cheap. I'd say take a string changing journey and report back!
 
I love living water strings! but had recently had some serious intonation problems with them, the A string was nearly a full step out at the 12th and put me off buying them again. Maybe just a bad batch.
Also not to keen on wounds, love the sound but tend to find them slow sliding between notes and chords after playing with slippery fluros for so long. Do you have any of the above mentioned problems when playing?

George
 
That's what I use:

G: .0244in / .62mm
D: .0291in / .74mm
Bb: .034in / .86mm
F: .026in / .66mm

Any type of clear fluorocarbon will do. Savarez KF, Worth, Southcoast, Oasis, PHD, Fremont, Martin... - doesn't matter.
You can buy strings as singles online.
 
I use Worth Clear strings for Bb tuning on my tenor, the regular version (Worth CT). There are two Worth Clear/Brown sets that are heavier (Heavy and Fat), which will give you more tension. The C/Bb string could have a little more bite, but it's not too bad, I feel.

Bb seems to be ideal for most tenor ukuleles, just like D tuning seems to be perfect for many sopranos. I originally struggled a bit with having ukuleles in different tunings, but the desire to get the best voice out of my instruments eventually won over the desire for convenience, and it's not so hard to memorize three fretboards and three "labels" for chord shapes, and it's not even necessary (I just like to know what chord or note I'm playing). The "Ukulele Handbook" by Axel Richter (available as ebook and paper book) includes all chords for A, Bb, C, D, Eb, and G tuning on ukuleles. Really nice to have. :)

Intonation problems can also happen if your ukulele is set up for thinner (usually) or thicker strings than the ones you've put on.
 
I love living water strings! but had recently had some serious intonation problems with them, the A string was nearly a full step out at the 12th and put me off buying them again. Maybe just a bad batch.
Also not to keen on wounds, love the sound but tend to find them slow sliding between notes and chords after playing with slippery fluros for so long. Do you have any of the above mentioned problems when playing?

George

Funnily enough, I had a bad E string in a Living Water set recently. Although it's probably the 15th set of strings I've had from Ken so one bad string out of 60 isn't too much of a worry! You'll find it in a lot of flourocarbon strings - they're rarely rectified (laser tested to ensure the same diameter along the entire string) so can have some variations like that. The Ukulele Review podcast mentions this in their setup episode - worth a listen.

The key thing about the Thomastik Infelds is that they're flatwound, rather than your usual roundwound strings. This means that they are smooth and feel much more like a plain string. Pop into a music shop and take a look at strings on a violin or similar - they're the same. There's little friction when sliding and virtually none of the noise you'd expect from a wound string. If you think about the slides violinists/cellists/etc. do you can begin to appreciate how smooth they must be! A lot of folks here use the CF30 as a low G for these reasons in fact.
 
I compiled my own chord chart so I could easily look up different tunings and insert the chord diagrams in to songs (when playing various different tunings I find it much easier simply to read the diagrams, just as you would find on old sheet music, than to try and mentally transpose the chord letters). If you're interested, my chart is here :-
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-9wEHIl9zhE14roGTOgoUKgVA54xD-cvuEkaeh48r6o/edit?usp=sharing
Do take a copy if you find it useful. Obviously you can add/remove columns on the left depending on which tunings you want to work with.
Man, if I'd known about that 18 hours earlier I wouldn't have spent several hours last night working on an F tuning chord chart — as mentioned in another thread I have a Caramel sopranino that for now is in F tuning. Well, at least now I know about the Python fretboard library, which is pretty cool. Thanks for the chart!
 
I have a Kala KA-SRC-SC with Worth Brown re-entrant FAT set detuned to Bb and it is amazing. I think Worth FAT are great for Bb tuning. Right tension, good sustain, great volume. Just perfect.
With Linear tuning, FAT 4th string is too floppy for my tastes and I'd advice Worth Clear Fat LGEX set (Brown does not make LGEX).
Tried with Living Water but strings become too floppy for me.
 
@OP: hi there - it occurs to me that the reduced tension you are getting from tuning down may well be an important contributing factor with regard to the improvement in overall tone you are hearing. Especially since it seems that the sustain is better - which can often occur as the result of lower string tension. So switching to higher gauge/tension strings may well turn out to be a step backward. It seems that right now you have the instrument singing the way you want it to - so maybe it's a case of 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' :), i.e. if you are not experiencing any intonation issues then maybe just leave the current strings on :)
 
Excuse the thread hijacking; this can go to another thread if there's more. Anyway, https://github.com/dmpayton/python-fretboard. One drawback is the size of the diagram is fixed, but you can tweak that in the source code.
ZOMG!!! Thank you so much for this! Now all I need is a way to stop the world from turning so I can do a 100-hour deep-dive into the code and hack this for all the 4-stringed setups I use...

which if course I would share should I ever get anywhere with this.

There aren't enough hours in the day.../sadface
 
Bb is my favorite for tenor too: https://jimhanks.wordpress.com/2016/08/26/why-b-flat-for-tenor-uke/

For strings, I recommend Southcoast SMU-NW for a medium tension. You can go SMU or even HMU for higher tension or SLMU-NW for lower.

I've also had decent results with Martin M600 (yes, these are soprano/concert strings) and PhD tenor strings.
 
Top Bottom