THE DARK SIDE: Does preferring Guitalele mean I'm no longer a Ukulele player?

Is a Guitalele player still an Ukulele player?

  • Yes

    Votes: 23 41.8%
  • No

    Votes: 25 45.5%
  • Other

    Votes: 7 12.7%

  • Total voters
    55

kissing

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I began with ukuleles. Fell in love with it.
Played it day and night. Sometimes I fell asleep with it in my arms.

A few years later, I began taking baby steps into playing guitar.
Guitar, I have always played as a sort of "necessity". The added bass strings gave me more options and I ended up quite liking 6-string fingerpicking.

A few years pass.. and to the present, I got myself an Aria G-Uke (acoustic electric), and I am just totally in love with it!

It gives me the sweet highs of the ukulele (it IS essentially a tenor ukulele body), but also those two bass strings to play with as on a guitar.

At current, I've sold off most of my actual ukuleles, and the G-uke is my main axe.

Guitars have always come and gone in my collection, but they were never seen as an alternative to the ukulele. However, lately I am finding that this Guitalele is more-or-less "The One" for me in terms of an instrument that has everything I want. I find myself grabbing the Guitalele than any other instrument. It doesn't have the bulk of the guitar, yet I find it more satisfying than ukulele.

Have I lost my way?? If I have no more ukuleles in my collection, but just this Guitalele, am I still an Ukulele player? Do I have a right to participate in this forum? Identity crisis. Should there be a Guitalele Underground? (though for sake of alliteration, maybe it should be called Guitalele Ground).



That being said, I've tried several Guitalele-like instruments, and this one by Aria is my favourite so far!
 
There are two possibilities:

a) You're fine.
b) Thou shalt burn for all eternity in a lake of fire, oh vile heretic!

I would suggest just picking the one you're most comfortable with :)
 
There are two possibilities:

a) You're fine.
b) Thou shalt burn for all eternity in a lake of fire, oh vile heretic!

I would suggest just picking the one you're most comfortable with :)

That's a summary of exactly how I'm feeling :(
 
I guess that you are still a ukulele player, you just don't have a ukulele. Like when Woodie Guthrie pawned his guitar. He was still a guitar player.
 
To me, a guitarlele is a short scale guitar, not a ukulele. So for rhetorical purposes, I wouldn't view you as a ukulele player. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't be here. :) Always enjoyed your posts, and you are an excellent ukulele player, when you do play an actual ukulele. ;)
 
34 Star Wars uke September 2015.jpg
This is my Dark Side Ukulele
 
I think it's uke if you think it's uke.
Uke isn't just an instrument. It's a mindset of open inclusion and sharing.
4/5/6 strings, short or long scale, whatever.

There's a spirit to it that I think is more important than details.
 
If I have no more ukuleles in my collection, but just this Guitalele, am I still an Ukulele player? !

Nope, that "G-Uke" is not a uke...
 
I sometimes feel the same way, since I'm exclusively a baritone player. Sure I got a soprano and a tenor, but I don't play them anymore. Even then, both of those are in linear tuning, too! I say call yourself what you like. We don't check any IDs around here and I've heard that they even let in regular guitar players.

What does make it "-lele" though? I think it's more like a small classical guitar. But then my baritone ukulele is a classical-styled tenor guitar in Chicago tuning. I might go with that... tenor guitars (for some reason) don't face the same prejudice you see against ukes (when they are essentially the same thing).
 
Exactly, just like my baritone is more of a nylon strung, single course, guitar shaped octave mandolin. And my tenor, a NS,SC,GS mandola. ;-) As for guitars, I actually took a Baby Taylor (3/4 size) and surgically converted it to an 8 stringer (octave mandolin, as well) - but I much prefer playing my baritone ukulele version.

I don't really understand the sentiment that uke is "a mindset of open inclusion and sharing". To me that's what music is. The instrument - whichever instrument, I mean, and however one prefers to tune it - is just the sound box with strings, the implement for making the music.

bratsche
 
That's a summary of exactly how I'm feeling :(

If you were to play your guitalele in a closed room where no one could see you then it might be argued that you are in a quantum state, in which you can be considered to be both a ukulele player and not a ukulele player at the same time. Of course, if someone walks in on you then their observation will result in the collapse of the wave function (i.e. the game's up).

This effect is known as Schrödinger's Ukulele Player :)
 
I'm going to have to vote no as well but it's an interesting question. What happens if you tune with reentrant strings like Dr. Bekken does with his Eddie Freeman Special tuning? Is it a ukulele then? Still have to say no though it is closer and kinda keeps you thinking like a ukulele player.
 
I voted "no". I'd call it a hybrid between a guitar and an ukulele...so I'd say it's neither. Others could disagree. Then again, you can still play uke so you could argue that you're still a uke player without a uke....
Just be glad that you've found the instrument that really does it for you and enjoy it.
I don't think you'd be breaking any rules by participating around here regardless. I'd be surprised if anyone complains. If you still enjoy being around here, hopefully you can stay and continue that. You do have uke knowledge.

I had a friend some years back that would not call himself "guitarist" or "bassist" or any such term as that.. He played quite a few things, and said he'd only term himself simply as "musician".
 
I dunno. I play my cordoba mini like a linear uke with 2 extra bass strings. I don't even use the 2 extra bass strings some times.

Guitar players would say I don't play it like a guitar.
 
I am going to disagree with those who say it is a "small guitar", because that is an oversimplification in my opinion. If Guitaleles are merely small guitars, so is an Ukulele. There is little difference between a tenor ukulele and the guitalele - they use the same body, same strings.. the only difference is in the neck, nut and saddle.

Ukulele strings ARE classical guitar strings (*gasp* think of the children!).

Furthermore, those who say that a Guitalele is just a 1/2 sized classical guitar could not be more wrong. Smaller sized classical guitars, usually aimed at children, have considerable narrower spaces between the strings, whereas Ukuleles and Guitaleles have "adult" spacing between the strings. Small classical guitars are always tuned EADGBE.

To make a point, a big manufacturer of student classical guitars, Valencia, have made classical guitars of all sizes for decades. Only recently did they release a Guitalele model - which has a considerably different neck and body (and they charge more for it, for some reason).

I have played my ukuleles in Linear tuning for years now. Re-entrant just never suited my playing style. From my perspective, a Guitalele is still very ukulele-like in its execution and sound. When I record with it, it will sound a lot like an ukulele, rather than guitar.

Eg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsE1VEhh_5g
 
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