Five string tenor ukuleel

M3Ukulele

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I’ve always been a high g player. Then HMS had Kimo on a pod cast with Aaron, and that sparked me to try low G seriously on a Uke. Wow that is cool sounding in low G. So then HMS show a Kanilea , five string and started reading up on that. The demo HMS does sounds great.


I’m curious on players response to five string. I know Tamaine double the low G, but I really like high g , top string, low G below. That would allow all the cool things high g gives you but with fuller sound.

For those that have had on or still play a five string! Is it possible to not only play both G’s but to pick high or low as circumstance dictates. Or I are they just so close, you can’t isolate one.

All comments welcome.
 
I love the sound of a 12 string guitar and once bought either a six or eight string ukulele. The ukulele had one major problem for me. It was very hard to put any kind of bend in the strings.

Doubling a string makes it harder to bend, to give that subtle little varying of tone. Do you need that?
 
I’ve always been a high g player. Then HMS had Kimo on a pod cast with Aaron, and that sparked me to try low G seriously on a Uke. Wow that is cool sounding in low G. So then HMS show a Kanilea , five string and started reading up on that. The demo HMS does sounds great.


I’m curious on players response to five string. I know Tamaine double the low G, but I really like high g , top string, low G below. That would allow all the cool things high g gives you but with fuller sound.

For those that have had on or still play a five string! Is it possible to not only play both G’s but to pick high or low as circumstance dictates. Or I are they just so close, you can’t isolate one.

All comments welcome.
I sure noticed that Taimane played a 5-string uke but this is first time that I heard that it had two low Gs. She sure has a very unique and energetic playing style. This reminds me of a taropatch uke, where all four strings are duplicated on a concert scale. The contrast is an 8-string tenor where the G and C strings have octave partners, and the E and A have unison partners like with a 12 string guitar. The vast majority of 5-string tenor ukes follow this model and combine the linear and re-entrant tuning approaches. This will give some extra power to strumming. If you play finger style then you can practice playing either the high or low G, but this requires a very high level of skill for sure.
 
Having played high G for the longest, I only bend notes on c, e, and a. So, no that’s not an issue. With high G it’s the syncopated drone not and cool things you can do in high G that to me make it sound like a ukulele. Trying Low g, I find a few songs really suit the more guitar like sound . I like it. Kimo indicated and showed it give more range in linear. He’s doing so,e cool things in low G. For me, it’s seeking out and learning more low G tunes.

The 5 string Uke just sounded cool. You can still drone but also have a fullness. I just don’t want to go down that rabbit hole and get sick of it quickly and move on. For me, I’d have to play one a bit. I have considered making my so,I’d top TT, into a five string by making a new nut and adding a UPT tuner in middle of head stock. I don’t think I’d go down that rabbit hole either u TIL I at least played a five string .

For me, despite being in a large city, nobody has anything like that. We have the usual guitar stores which have a few Kala ukes, etc in the low end.

Thanks for comments. Looking for more.
 
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I’ve always been a high g player. Then HMS had Kimo on a pod cast with Aaron, and that sparked me to try low G seriously on a Uke. Wow that is cool sounding in low G. So then HMS show a Kanilea , five string and started reading up on that. The demo HMS does sounds great.


I’m curious on players response to five string. I know Tamaine double the low G, but I really like high g , top string, low G below. That would allow all the cool things high g gives you but with fuller sound.

For those that have had on or still play a five string! Is it possible to not only play both G’s but to pick high or low as circumstance dictates. Or I are they just so close, you can’t isolate one.



All comments welcome.
I have a custom koa 5 string that has the double g....high string on top. It is possible to isolate and play the high or low one with some practice. Also, the luthier who reduced the size of the neck depth told me that either string can be taken off so it can be a tenor with a high g string or one with a low g string. I have played it with both strings on. Like the full sound. As I bought two other tenors, one with high and one with low, since then, I am selling the 5 string.
 
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