Some Baritone questions

OK. So. Got my new Bushman bari last week and last night had our first session trying it out in the Ukes of Hazard.

Apart from hurting our brains as we tried to drag ourselves out of uke fingering into guitar fingering (my brain most of all because I've never played guitar!) we noticed some things and wondered about some things.

The Ukes of Hazard are a duo with two tenors - a Kala Archtop and a Lanikai.
We found the bari a bit overpowering if we played the full chord progressions along with the tenor (part of that will just be the better quality of the instrument).
Does anyone play a bari in a small group or duo? What role do you give it in the group to balance with the other instruments.?

The bari DOES sound more like a small guitar than a uke - or is that just me? I know you'd never get that "bright" uke sound on the bigger instrument but it crossed our minds that one could tune a bari Gcea if you found the right gauge strings. What are the issues with that? Anyone done it? Dumb idea?

We've got under-saddle pickups on our tenors and play through a small PA. Best to mic the bari or install a pickup?

When playing baritone with another uke player, how long does it take to stop hurting your head every time you look at the other player's fingers or power into a well learned solo on the wrong fret? ;-)

I can answer a few of those, but I am totally new to Baritone.
First- I play mostly with my wife, and it is apparent she will never stop looking at my fingers when she gets lost, so the Bari goes away when she is playing.
Second- yes, strung as a standard Bari, it is totally over-powering. I think you would need 25 sopranos to even hear them when I play the thing. Mic- uh...no way.
Third- Strings. Remember what made you fall for a tenor? That rich sustain you can't get from a soprano or concert? Totally sweet....and totally amplified if the Bari is strung gCea. C-tuning the Baritone give you a tenor sound on steroids, which I like a lot.
I tuned mine this way for a bit but decided I liked the challenge of learning a new set of chords (I like to hurt my head), and that it slowed me down on the learning curve (keeping the shalom in the home as Uke is my wifes first instrument). Also, with two other tenors- it seemed silly to have another one that sounded so much like them. It sounded great, and you can get the right strings (with the right tension so you don't rip the neck off) at Elderly. They are Aquila.
Course, when I decide I am sick of hurting my head, the other option is going Low G C-tuning, and I have found those strings as well for a Bari (thanks Lozarkman). They are here.
Hope that helps-

It's only natural for a bari to sound like a guitar, considering they're tuned the same in DGBE.
And let's face it, a guitar is just a big uke.

But the Bari's "uke" factor comes in from its shorter scale length, smaller body and having just the 4 strings. I think it does have a 'bouncier' uke feel to the tone than a guitar, where the tone is muddier and deeper. I like playing high barred chords on the Bari - you get the 'uke' character out of it when you need it - and when you play the normal lower open chords, you get some 'guitar' character.

You can tune a Baritone uke in gcea - Aquila have a Baritone gcea string set just for that.
But it will then sound like a big tenor

thanks

Thanks team. Very helpful

nice work on scoring the new uke.

will be down your way in the first school holidays after christmas, so when do the ukes of hazarrd play?

merry christmas too.,

Cliff

kalmario said:

nice work on scoring the new uke.

will be down your way in the first school holidays after christmas, so when do the ukes of hazarrd play?

merry christmas too.,

Cliff

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Hi Cliff! It would be great to meet you.
I think next year we'll continue to play Saturday mornings 10-12 at Deville Cafe/Bar in New St.. But drop me a line when you're coming - and we can at least have a beer and talk ukegeek stuff.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Baritone Uke. After about 18 months having fun with gCEA soprano's I bought a baritone on a whim, and found I liked it so much that I now mostly play baritone. Not all baritones strung ukes are equal in their character and tone, as I have acquired a cheap pear shaped f hole 'tenor' uke by Blue Moon Ukuleles which has the scale length that suits DGBE baritone strings, and sounds warm, bright and sparky, and I also have a Kala mahogany bari, also DGBE, which is deeply resonant, very bassy, and nearer to a guitar sound. Try the Aquila gCEA strings if you want to stick with the same chord shapes as your soprano wielding friends, but its easy to make the transition to DGBE, as the chord shapes are the same, just count up 4 (that is what would be C is now G).

The baritone can overpower reentrant tuned ukes. You have to either step away from the mic some or turn down your volume if you have a pickup. When I play with pickups I go through an A B switch and put a EQ pedal on each input to even the volume. Mics are easier, just step back . I gave up on trying to switch between ukes on the same song, muscle memory always messes me up when I get tired. So when I perform, I play some songs always on the Baritone and some songs always on the Concert. I also found out it's best to play a set or half a set on each and don't switch between instruments from one song to the next. I play with another uke play (my wife) and she plays sopranos. We will play ukes tuned to aDF#B when I play the concert and she plays gCEA when I play the bari tuned to GCDE "er mistake there I meant DGBE"

Hav fun with your Bari!!

gCEA or GCEA

am I right in thinbking most baritone strings in uke tuning are gCEA rather than GCEA? I like the idea of a low G. I suppose you could stick a guitar string on there for the G

Although our Baritone has a bit different body configuration, I think you can liven up most of the standard models by going away from the "little guitar key of G".

Bill1 had some excellent suggestions. We make string sets for two of those - our Heavy Guage Ukulele set for high re-entrant key of G and our Linear Ukulele Set for key of C. Both of these sets are formulated without wound strings and give much more of a ukulele feel - much less overpowering.

If you want the snap of the wound strings, you'll get much better response going up a bit in your tuning, and again have a lighter feel. Our A23 Wound String Set will put you at B flat. It is a much better fit for the Baritone body than G, and since you're transposing to a new key anyway, make sure you learn the one that will sound best in your group.

http://www.southcoastukes.com/stringuide.htm

Ron said:

Does anyone play a bari in a small group or duo? What role do you give it in the group to balance with the other instruments.?

The bari DOES sound more like a small guitar than a uke - or is that just me? We've got under-saddle pickups on our tenors and play through a small PA. Best to mic the bari or install a pickup?

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I often play a baritone uke with the COUP (Columbus Ohio Ukulele Peeps). I have no problem at all with the jam sessions. I just play. Some people in the group get confused when they look at my hands and try to follow along, but, now, several other COUPsters have baritones. Personally, I think they add a lot to a jam session by filling in the bottom.

Ron said:

am I right in thinbking most baritone strings in uke tuning are gCEA rather than GCEA? I like the idea of a low G. I suppose you could stick a guitar string on there for the G

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MOST baritone strings are DGBE... like the top four strings of a guitar.

Pippin said:

MOST baritone strings are DGBE... like the top four strings of a guitar.

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Yeah got that, thanks. I'm considering changing the GCEA but notice (or think I notice) string sets tend to be gCEA.

btw - unexpected side benefit of bari. Xmas breakfast. Out with ukes to fill in an hour. Pretty girl there without her guitar - can't play uke - can, of course, play baritone. Pleasant hour spent swapping songs and singing together. Lovely

Have to learn how to transcribe notes meant for the guitar E and A to fit the 4 strings. Playing the uke a while and knowing the chord shapes translates pretty easily otherwise. Also going from the guitar to baritone and vice versa doesn't take that much more work.

Most of my Uke playing (70%) is done on my Bari Kala Spruce top with Southcoastukes linear strings, which give you tuning in C, gCEA, which I really like. For picking, these strings give you the lower few notes which many times come in very handy. Like has been said, it gives you the feel of a larger tenor, but I like the fretting and picking room much better. I also have one bari tuned to GCEA, which I also like sometimes for strumming and song accompaniment. Both my tenors are tuned to high and low G rentrant tuning. Lozark

Thanks team - I think I know what I need and want. Will let you know the outcomes