Help! With Baritone Tuning

Hi Ukers ... hoping you can help me with this one

I ordered a Samick Baritone when I was at the NY Fest and I got it yesterday. It does not have on 'regular' Baritone strings! The 3rd and 4th strings are not the usual wound baritone strings.

The 4th string is as fine as the 1st string... it may even be a tad thinner....

I'm wondering how I'm suposed to tune this baritone? should I tune it like a concert? i.e. GCEA ... or should I tune it like how a baritone is supposed to be tuned ... DGBE but the 4th string, the D, - would have to be tuned to high D instead of low D as there is no way the present string could be tuned to low D. ? ? ?

I'm at a loss as to how to tune this instrument! Would appreciate it if you can help me with this dilema! ... i.e. how to tune these strings! And thanks!

There are some Baritons tuned in gCEA, maybe your strings are meant to be tuned like this

UkuCouS said:

There are some Baritons tuned in gCEA, maybe your strings are meant to be tuned like this

Click to expand...

If it was to be tuned gCEA, the g string would have to be thicker... as it is at the moment - the 4th string is the same size as the 1st string... it may even be a tad thinner...

The only thing I can think of is... it's to be tuned as a regular Bari ... DGBE ... but the 4th srting, the D, would have to be a high D as it certainly cant be a low D.

? ? ? I'm perplexed!

Groovy said:

If it was to be tuned gCEA, the g string would have to be thicker... as it is at the moment - the 4th string is the same size as the 1st string... it may even be a tad thinner...

The only thing I can think of is... it's to be tuned as a regular Bari ... DGBE ... but the 4th srting, the D, would have to be a high D as it certainly cant be a low D.

? ? ? I'm perplexed!

Click to expand...

that doesnt really make sense. youre saying that in gCEA the 4th string should be thicker than the 1st string, which is a full tone higher.

so why would a dGBE tuned uke be allowed to have the same size 4th and 1st strings, respectively?

sometimes the 4th string will be slightly thicker than the 1st string. but this is not always the case. two semi tones of a difference when you are already at a playable tension in the string isnt going to make that much difference. so you can actually use the same diameter string for both courses. #4 will be a little softer, of course, but its shouldnt be that noticeable. also, just because the strings are the same diameter, doesnt mean that they are of the same tension. nylon's characteristics during manufacture can be changed. so two strings of same diameter may have different strengths.

my advice to you... if you have a tuner, tighten the strings up to where the tension feels comfortable to you. then using the tuner, find which tuning is the closest to what you are playing at that tension. dGBE and gCEA are pretty far apart from each other. so it shouldnt be hard to see how those thrings were meant to be tuned.

and if all else fails, get a pack of classical guitar strings and string up the first 4.

NukeDOC said:

and if all else fails, get a pack of classical guitar strings and string up the first 4.

Click to expand...

That was my initial thought... Although I tend to favor the path with the least critical thinking involved.

Can a baritone be tuned GCEA instead of gCEA?

Yes, but you have to use strings for a Tenor ukulele. Don't use Baritone strings and try to tune the uke like a Tenor. You might snap the bridge right off. Well.....actually, you could snap the bridge off tuning it to a Tenor with tenor strings, but depending how the uke is built will tell... I did it to mine and its holding. I used worth browns which doesnt have a wound G string....btw, I used the low G.

Did you switch-up all four strings with the tenor strings or did you only switch the G string? Do you think a string from a small classical guitar would work as a replacement for the low G?

go out and buy new baritone strings, no use in stressing over a pair of mystery strings on ur uke already.

Rubbertoe said:

Do you think a string from a small classical guitar would work as a replacement for the low G?

Click to expand...

when u say classical guitar and if u mean the nylons then yeah u can use it on a uke concert-tenor, not sure about sopranos, but if u dont want to buy a pack of guitar strings and trash the 2 other strings out, buy D'addario J71's they are the bottom three strings of the J4602 classical guitar strings Hard Tension and J4401 classical guitar strings Extra Hard Tension.