New Guitalele Day

My Yamaha Guitalele arrived today after a bit of a wait. It's a rather interesting little beastie. I've always been more comfortable with the uke than the guitar, but the extra low strings do open up some new possibilities for interesting chords without forcing me to rupture my hands trying to make the shapes (though I'll admit that I have the same problems with bar chords on this instrument as I do on the guitar. I think my fingers may simply be too skinny to make good bar chords. Of course, the action is also a little high). The strings are pretty close together, so everything can get rather cramped at times. The skinny fingers do come in handy in this respect.

However, the instrument is surprisingly resonant, even on the nylon strings (which are sometimes a TEENY bit overwhelmed by the steel ones). It's quite loud for such a tiny thing; it's really only slightly bigger than my tenor. The intonation isn't absolutely perfect, but it's pretty close. The chords sound full and rich, and the tone is quite warm.

All in all, I'd describe this thingy as being worth the relatively small amount of money I paid for it. It certainly hasn't replaced the ukulele in my heart, but it's a nice little instrument all the same.

Very cool! I'm saving up for a D-VI myself.

Congratulations on your new instrument! I'm curious about guitarleles because, like you, I would probably break fingers trying to make chord shapes on a full-size guitar fingerboard. I hope you post some photos of yours and perhaps even a sound sample.

i'm yet to play one of these instruments, but hope to in the future.

mds725 said:

Congratulations on your new instrument! I'm curious about guitarleles because, like you, I would probably break fingers trying to make chord shapes on a full-size guitar fingerboard. I hope you post some photos of yours and perhaps even a sound sample.

Click to expand...

There may be a sound sample eventually. I'm still rather embarrassed about how slowly I change chords on this instrument. I would take a picture, but I think my camera is lost forever beneath a pile of Stuff.

Kem said:

There may be a sound sample eventually. I'm still rather embarrassed about how slowly I change chords on this instrument. I would take a picture, but I think my camera is lost forever beneath a pile of Stuff.

Click to expand...

You know no one will judge you poorly here. Post a video =)

Dane said:

You know no one will judge you poorly here. Post a video =)

Click to expand...

Eh...don't know how. Don't even know how to make one. DON'T JUDGE ME.

*Runs away*

video camera, press record, take out card, put car into computer, pull file into windows movie maker, drag to timeline, click publish movie, go to youtube and upload, then post the link =)

Dane said:

video camera, press record, take out card, put car into computer, pull file into windows movie maker, drag to timeline, click publish movie, go to youtube and upload, then post the link =)

Click to expand...

Again, my camera is buried beneath a pile of Stuff. I shall find it eventually. I shall go on a quest for it. There may be elves involved.

I have been interested in this Yamaha too. But I think I will be more likely to save up for the Koaloha D-VI, if I can try one of those out first. My uke storage situation is pretty tight, so every new addition is a real challenge. I don't like the idea of hanging uke cases (or anything) on the wall over my bed (earthquake country, y'know), but I am seriously thinking about it.
–Lori

I like mine, too. The first thing I did was take it to a luthier and she optimized it for not much money. They really are neat little instruments and worth the little money they cost. For me, it's best to stay around the end of the neck as far as chords are concerned- it gets a little cramped up top as you can imagine. I imagine if one is interested in one of these, they could capo a regular guitar at the 5th and it would approximate the feel.

I have one on order (from Germany to the US--taking too long) (don't understand why Yamaha doesn't distribute it in the USA), have read that the stock strings that come on it are bad (surprised, with a Yamaha), and am trying to decide, what kind of strings to put on it. What have others found to work well?

A set of classical guitar strings? If so, what kind, and what tension? (tuning the gl1 to its standard tuning--aecgda (starting with string 1).

Or a set of tenor ukulele strings (with low G) for strings 1 through 4, and classical guitar strings for five and six? I would think that would work too (as it is basically a tenor uke with two added strings), but I would think might sound and play quite different). Also, which tenor uke strings, and which classical guitar strings would go with it well for strings 5 and 6? (Some tenor uke low g sets, Worth for example, have unwound low G. That would certainly be quite different from guitar strings, where the fourth string is always wound.)

What have others tried, and found to work the best?

Thank you.

I asked KoAloha what strings they use for their D-VI (Same scale length about as GL-1 I think) and this is what they said

Aloha Dane,

We use a combination of LaBella flamenco strings for the bass and our own flurocarbon for the treble. You can actually use any normal tension classical guitar strings for the D-VI model.

Click to expand...

Dane said:

I asked KoAloha what strings they use for their D-VI (Same scale length about as GL-1 I think) and this is what they said

Click to expand...

Thanks. What is the difference between classical and flamenco strings?

I use Savarez Corums, Blue label, High Tension, classical guitar strings on both the Yamaha Guitalele (tuned A to A) and also on my full size classical guitars (tuned E to E). These are the best all around Classical string set IMO, and there is no need to mix and match. As stated before, a Guitalele is the same as a regular classical guitar capoed at the fifth fret.

maikii said:

Thanks. What is the difference between classical and flamenco strings?

Click to expand...

Well I just recieved my D-VI today. I play a steel string acoustic guitar, and an electric. So I'm not sure the difference between the 2 types you mentioned exactly. Classical guitar strings though means that there are 3 nylon or flourocarbon strings, and 3 wound strings. Perhaps flamenco (which is what KoAloha uses for the wound) are thinner than normal acoustic guitar strings? Because my acoustic and electric guitars have thicker wound strings

I looked up online the difference between classical and flamenco guitar strings.

I only could find one link about it, which is very interesting, a thread on a forum for flamenco guitarists:

http://www.foroflamenco.com/fb.asp?m=117147