Switched High-G to Low-G

johninmass

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I sure this has been asked before, but, I just had to do it. I switched from high-G to low-G in order to play chord melody solos (fingerpicking style). I ordered a book from Gerry Long and it is written for ukes with low-G, he even supplied a low-G string. I switched it and all is fine, except I am concerned about what affect this will have when reviewing most of the on-line information, which I am assuming will be mostly for high-G tuning. Any advise?
 
You'll find that some songs sound good with a low G. Others not so much. Part of that is how you use the low g and part is how the song is arranged. For my low G tenor I search specifically for low g songs (as in the Gerry Long book) and I've got a nice collection and variety of stuff I've found mostly on internet over time.
Good Luck!
 
I switched it and all is fine, except I am concerned about what affect this will have when reviewing most of the on-line information, which I am assuming will be mostly for high-G tuning. Any advise?

In my opinion, this high-g/low-g quandary is the root cause of UAS!!
 
In my opinion, this high-g/low-g quandary is the root cause of UAS!!

Agreed! The time it takes to change out strings and the retuning retuning retuning until the strings settle again, best to buy two or more ukes and string one high g and the other low G so all you have to do is swap ukes. Much faster! lol
 
Agreed! The time it takes to change out strings and the retuning retuning retuning until the strings settle again, best to buy two or more ukes and string one high g and the other low G so all you have to do is swap ukes. Much faster! lol

I should have bought two cheap ukes. Anybody got a good one they can sell me for say $50.:drool:
 
Starting My Collection of Low-G Songs

You'll find that some songs sound good with a low G. Others not so much. Part of that is how you use the low g and part is how the song is arranged. For my low G tenor I search specifically for low g songs (as in the Gerry Long book) and I've got a nice collection and variety of stuff I've found mostly on internet over time.
Good Luck!

I'll have to start seaching for low-G songs and start my own collection. The Gerry Long book is great for learning, but has very easy songs, I'm sure I'll get those down fairly quick. Any advise as to where I can find nice low-G songs?
 
Do you have to do anything to the nut or is the high-G slot big enough for the low-G string?
 
Do you have to do anything to the nut or is the high-G slot big enough for the low-G string?

Depends on the slot in the nut and the width of the string, some fit fine, some must be widened a hair.
 
Do you have to do anything to the nut or is the high-G slot big enough for the low-G string?

From what I've learned, with some unwound low-g strings you'll have to widen the nut. That's why I've held off on changing my Kamaka to unwound low-g. For now I'll keep the wound low-g. I hear fluorocarbons are thinner haven't had time to research the diameter of the strings yet. Please post whatever you find.
 
I've found there's several songs I play that just won't sound right with a high G. I've only found one song that didn't sound as good with a low G.
 
You can play any song with either a low g or high g tuning. It's the same tuning just a different octave. It will sound different of course, and as was said some songs sound better than others with it and vice versa.
 
Do you have to do anything to the nut or is the high-G slot big enough for the low-G string?

The strings that came with my Uke had a high-G and the string that was supplied with the Gerry Long book was a wound low-G. I measured both strings and found they were only 0.001 inch different. The low-G fit in the slot as well as the high-G. I did nothing to the nut slot.
 
From what I've learned, with some unwound low-g strings you'll have to widen the nut. That's why I've held off on changing my Kamaka to unwound low-g. For now I'll keep the wound low-g. I hear fluorocarbons are thinner haven't had time to research the diameter of the strings yet. Please post whatever you find.

I play a Kamaka HF3 tuned to low g. I've used a variety of low g combinations (wound like Aquila and Savarez Corum and unwound like Worth and Fremont Blackline). None of them required any changes to the nut width.
 
I play a Kamaka HF3 tuned to low g. I've used a variety of low g combinations (wound like Aquila and Savarez Corum and unwound like Worth and Fremont Blackline). None of them required any changes to the nut width.

Good to know. Thank you,
 
Agreed! The time it takes to change out strings and the retuning retuning retuning until the strings settle again, best to buy two or more ukes and string one high g and the other low G so all you have to do is swap ukes. Much faster! lol

This is what I'm trying to do. I'm waiting for a Mainland concert pineapple long neck which is on order with Mainland Mike. Both of our tenors are low G strings now.
 
From what I've learned, with some unwound low-g strings you'll have to widen the nut. That's why I've held off on changing my Kamaka to unwound low-g. For now I'll keep the wound low-g. I hear fluorocarbons are thinner haven't had time to research the diameter of the strings yet. Please post whatever you find.

I've used both Orcas and Worth fluoro with Low G and have found that while they aren't a perfect fit at the nut slot, they are good enough. I don't want to widen the slot just for Low G because I want to avoid the chance of buzzing if I go back to re-entrant.

Anyway, fluoros ought to be a good choice. They'll fit well enough for you. They do for me, anyway.
 
I found that if you are playing chords,it should make no difference
High G or Low G.Obviously,fingerpicking and playing Tablature will
show differerences,as the lower notes of Low G tuning give you more
'Bass notes' to play around with! But overall,no biggie,just play and
enjoy!
 
I'm new to ukes. I wanted to play Van Halen, as instructed here by Brad. It's a bawdy rocker, hard and fast and cool. I wanted to be hip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0Wuqf95q8k

Nope, can't be played in high G. Sounds atrocious (try it).

I was too lazy to change out the G string, so I stick now to playing Tiny Bubbles. I still have no friends.
 
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As a relative beginner, I too am intrigued by this business of low-G vs. high-G, and I've written (or posted to) several threads about it in recent days here on UU. Like many others, I'm a huge fan of Izzy's stuff, much of which was apparently recorded using a low-G Martin tenor, but there are also reports out there of his using an alternate pattern of shuffled stringing such that the unwound C string becomes the G string, as follows:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-36507.html

I intend to purchase a tenor instrument soon, just to play around with some of this stuff, but presumably, dropping a rather fat (unwound) C string to position #4 as the low-G in the way described (rather than using a wound low-G) would require some minor modification of the nut slot, but I'm dying to evaluate the playability and tone relative to a standard wound low-G arrangement.
 
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