Noob with Which Uke to Buy Question

I am an old guy with a desire to learn the uke. Sadly, I lived Hawaii (Kailua on the Traffic Isle) for a dozen years and never found the time. Now I have time and find myself stuck in the Lone Star.

Here's my question. I very much enjoy the sound of the Baritone. Looking at the online materials, everything (and I mean everything) is based on the conventional tuning of CGEA of the soprano/concert/tenor. So, which is the better thing to do - buy the Bari and the strings to tune it CGEA, or simply get a Tenor and learn it to the point that I am ready to get a Bari. Cost will not drive this decision.

Are there enough readily available teaching materials to just learn the Bari tuned DGBE?

Which would you recommend and why? Thanks in advance for your help.

Pilothawk,

I would think that most of the online material is in the standard tuning shown below:

G(4th), C(3rd), E(2nd), A(1st).

Either way,

Go ahead and get yourself a baritone if that is the sound you like. If there isn't a Mel Bay book on the Baritone Ukulele I will eat my boots. The techniques for the whole uke family apply universally so strums and fingerpicking techniques taught on the Internet will be pertinent no matter what size uke you have. The baritone chords are the same as guitar chords without the bass strings in case you are a guitar player.

Are you looking at a particular make of instrument?

My 2 cents

Choices thus far

I am thinking of either a Lanikai with the solid spruce top, or the Koloa with the solid mahogany. If anyone has any experience with these two, your appraisal will be greatly appreciated.

I just bought (and now have for sale) a baritone tuned as gCEA. Personally, I like the warm sound of it and it's nice not having to relearn chords. But for me, baritone is just too big to play comfortably.

I haven't played either of the ukes you are asking about, but every Lanikai I've tried has been well made and sounded pretty good. I know that both Mel Bay and Jumpin Jim have several books for the Bari, check Amazon or eBay and I'm sure you'll find some. I have an old Hilo Bari that I changed to low gcea a while back.

You can always buy strings that are GCEA, but if im not mistaken, it will sound similar when doing a chord, but not exact. There are plenty of online websites that show you baritone chords. once you learn enough chords you will see a C chord and know exactly how to play it on your baritone. I see 2320, and automatically know its a G. Songs that require picking would require a bit more figuring out, but its doable.

Perhaps there is a program you can enter a tab into and it will translate it to a baritone?

It all depends on what feels good to you. Try and play with both bari and tenor and see. I once had a bari and strung it like a tenor. It was a little deeper sound.....not like an OH BABY WOW YEAH THIS IS AWESOME kind of a sound, but it was slightly different. I didnt care for the bigger fret spacing and slight bigger body size. I ended up staying with Tenor sized ukes. Baritones are normally tuned like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar, but you can purchase strings in GCEA for the bari. Aquilla or Worth makes them....forget who.