Baritone in da house!

OldePhart

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
8,338
Reaction score
9
Location
DFW, TX, USA
My Mainland mahogany baritone got here a bit ago. Good setup and very nice sound. It's a second but the "finish issues," as Mike called them, are the sort of thing you have to be holding the uke and looking for them to find them. Since when I'm holding a uke I'm usually more interested in playing it than in looking for finish flaws I'm quite happy to save a little money with a second. :)

Well...just thought I'd crow a bit...now lunch is over and I have to get back to work. Will try to make a video sometime in the next couple of days.
 
A video would be nice. Johnny Cash, if you would (kidding!). That baritone should fit your voice well.
 
Woot woot! Congratulations on your new bari! Is it tuned DGBE? What strings does Mainland use? I became a bari convert the first time I played one (in fact, having baritones has turned me on to the harder stuff -- a tenor guitar with steel strings in DGBE tuning). Looking forward to the video. I've never heard a Mainland baritone and I'm curious about how they sound.
 
Congratulations!
I got the same a few months ago. A second also. The flaws on mine..I guess I would have felt a little bad about them for 10 minutes if I had paid full price, but all my other instruments have come to me pre-loved so I'm used to a little "personality".
Had it strung with the Guadalupe low-octave GCEA strings until very recently, martins on it now DGBE. sounds great. Sustain for days.
It comes with Aquilas, but my D string had a weird wolfy buzz to it so they got replaced right away. Also I had to file down the corner of the nut where my hand touches it in first position. 1 minute repair with a nail file and a piece of tape for masking.
enjoy!

NOTE: I think you're a "hang the humidifier between the strings" guy, or I seem to recall getting that idea from you. If your humidifier is touching a metal wound string you will eventually get some lumpy corrosion at that spot, or at least I did.
 
Congratulations!
NOTE: I think you're a "hang the humidifier between the strings" guy, or I seem to recall getting that idea from you. If your humidifier is touching a metal wound string you will eventually get some lumpy corrosion at that spot, or at least I did.

Thanks for the tip although, if I play this much I'll probably be replacing the wound strings often enough that it won't matter anyway.

Re the finish issues - I can't find anything on the uke that I haven't seen on Kala and Lanikai factory ukes in this price bucket that were sold at full price. So, yeah, Mike is pretty picky about what he ships.

I too have noticed the woofy D string with the Aquilas - I'm sure I'll be trying some other strings.

I also wasn't able to get the intonation quite perfect at the first fret - it was very close and I got it closer but one more stroke of the file and it's going to be buzzing on the D string. The action on the bridge end is pretty low for a baritone (Mike knows I like low actions, though). I'm seriously considering taking the frets down a few thousands at the first string change. They're not any taller than on most ukes and they seem to be very level but I'm thinking if I take a few thousands off I can get the intonation perfect at the first fret without buzzing. The aternative would be to shim the bridge saddle but since I like low frets anyway and I have the tools I think that's probably the route I'll go.

BTW - lest anybody reading this should think I'm talking about "defects" or that I'm unhappy with the uke - that's not even close. The uke is about as well set up as you can expect from a production uke at anything less than twice the price. I'm just very picky (especially about first-position intonation) and I have the tools and skills to satisfy my "picky." :)

John
 
Last edited:
Congrats, John! Welcome to the revolution. Deep and mellow, yeah?

Yep! Has a really nice tone other than the little bit of woofiness on the D string and I think that's the Aquila's. The wound G string is fine with nice crisp snap so it's not just a matter of it being a wound string. To be fair, it's not something most people are likely to notice but I'm one of those wierdos that learned to design tube amplifiers because I couldn't find an amplifier that would give me the overdriven tone I was looking for at low volumes. I probably put 200 hours just into the design of my best amp, so, yeah...I've been known to go a little bit overboard... LOL

John
 
congrats John, looking forward to seeing some video of you and the Bari.
I put worth browns on my bari, going to try the worth clears next, i like it without any wound strings, but hey we are all different, wot floats my boat, may sink the next guys lol.
Anyway congrats on the uke and look forward to hearing it :)
 
Try the Southcoast Linear strings. You won't be disappointed!

not to hijack but...
that's the G650's for DGBE?
what other options do they offer for Bari?
Their website is like an online class at a community college...and I went to art school

peewee
 
Hmmm, based on the info on their site it looks like the G650's are intended to be tuned to Bb on a baritone uke (20" scale). They show tuning them to G on the 650mm (25.5") scale - which would be full length guitar. They could doubtless be used for G tuning (DGBE) on the shorter scale but I suspect that intonation up the neck would probably suffer. I'm sure somebody has probably tried it and can correct me if I'm wrong... :)

I think the G650's are probably a mix'n'match of guitar strings - nothing wrong with that but I don't want to tune my baritone as high as Bb. I love the lowdown feel. If I was going to tune it to Bb I'd just as soon play one of my tenors in C.

If I can't find some baritone strings that really wow me I may experiment with some guitar strings but "shifted over" - i.e. using the 2-5 or even 3-6 strings instead of the 1-4 so I can get good tone and intonation tuned to DGBE on the shorter scale.

Actually, the AhKweelAh ( :) ) strings that came on it are pretty good except for the slight woofiness on the D and the very noisy wound strings (noisy as in when your nail hits them there is a lot of scratch sound even if you're careful not to brush along the strings). Playing finger style with the fleshy parts of the finger and thumb is actually quite tasty with those strings - it's only strummed that I notice the shortcomings.

John
 
thats why i like the fluro carbons of the worths all 4 strings are fluros, i noticed the scratchy sound from the wound string on mine when i got it, they also do clear fluros for the bari, but i know its all down to personal preference, but check out the worths clear or brown fluros :)
 
My Mainland mahogany baritone got here a bit ago. Good setup and very nice sound. It's a second but the "finish issues," as Mike called them, are the sort of thing you have to be holding the uke and looking for them to find them. Since when I'm holding a uke I'm usually more interested in playing it than in looking for finish flaws I'm quite happy to save a little money with a second. :)

Well...just thought I'd crow a bit...now lunch is over and I have to get back to work. Will try to make a video sometime in the next couple of days.

I drove over to Mike's shop last Sunday and purchased a Mahogany Baritone -- also a 2nd. I originally thought I'd like the Red Cedar model, but fell in love with the Mahogany. Very minor discoloration in the binding and rosette -- hardly noticeable. The set-up is spot-on and it sounds awesome with the Aquila's in DGBE. I've ordered a set of Southcoast linears for it for low-g GCEA tuning. I've use them on my Harmony Baritone and really enjoy them. For the money, the Mainland is impossible to beat. Mike and his wife are great folks, as you probably already know. Good luck with yours.

Being new all of this, I didn't realize that DGBE tuning sounds the same as low-g GCEA tuning only lower in pitch. However, I don't like the finger squeaks on the wound strings.
 
yes I use Southcoast strings a lot, and the G650s are to be tuned to Bb, which I do, because I happen to like Bb tuning. For G tuning I use Martins and D'Arrios (sp). Of course they are wound D and G, which for some is a dislike. but I happen to like wounds. I also really like the A23 flat wounds in Bb tuning which are all metal classic strings. Really a great sound. depending on what I am playing, they (tunings) all have their particular place and sound. I think you are going to really like your Bari once it is settled in and you find the right string combination. Good luck!! Lozark
'
'
 
Congratulations, Jon! I wish I could play baritone. No way... go for it!
 
Congrats on the bari -- I picked one up a couple of weeks ago and can't seem to put it down.

Peewee:
not to hijack but...
that's the G650's for DGBE?
what other options do they offer for Bari?
Their website is like an online class at a community college...and I went to art school

I just ordered some of Southcoast's G23s. Check out the email Dirk sent me in response to my questions (I hope you don't mind me passing this along, Dirk). It's pretty sick:

I see you've placed an order, and the strings you've ordered are the best we have for what you want to do. Usually, however, I discourage people from going too low in their tunings. I understand, for example, in the case of the little guy, that most people buy them for their portability and aren't too concerned with sound.

However, when it comes to customs, or nice quality instruments in any size, it always seems a shame to me to not try to get the best sound out of them. In our opinion, neither the Tenor or Baritone are usually tuned well. The key to understanding good sound is in understanding the capacity of body volume to give full resonance to the range of notes in your tuning.

Here's a couple of handy tables I lifted from the site of the famous (former) ukulele luthier Davd "Kawika" Hurd.

Calculated Air Resonances

Soprano
Concert
Tenor
Baritone
Classical Guitar

~260
~225
~195
~155
~98
Nearest Note
mid C
mid A
low G
low D#
lower G

Tunings
Course#
Soprano
Concert
Tenor
Baritone
Classical Guitar
First Course
A (440)
A (440)
A (440)
E (329.6)
E (329.6)
Second Course
E (329.6)
E (329.6)
E (329.6)
B (246.9)
B (246.9)
Third Course
C (261.6)
C (261.6)
C (261.6)
G (196)
G (196)
Fourth Course
G (392)
G (392)
G (196)
D (146.8)
D (146.8)
(Fifth Course)




A (110)
(Sixth Course)




E (82.4)

When any of the notes in your tuning go below an instrument's resonance, at best, you lose the full effect of that note. At worst (and this occurs most often when a note is just a touch low) it can cause some unpleasant harmonics. As you can see above, C is actually a touch low on a Soprano, low G a touch low on a Tenor, and the low D is way out of range on a Baritone. In the case of the Baritone, it doesn't cause anything unpleasant, as can occur on a Soprano or low G Tenor, but the low D is what I call "choked". Of course a lot of people don't mind this, and a lot of others actually like it. While there's nothing wrong with that, we go in a different direction, and so we don't put out strings for applications we're not fond of in the first place.


Whoa.
 
I just ordered some of Southcoast's G23s. Check out the email Dirk sent me in response to my questions (I hope you don't mind me passing this along, Dirk). It's pretty sick:

Whoa.
Connor013: Thanks for the info. Are the g23's the (reluctant) DGBE option?
I actually do sort of get the science behind Dirk's point of view, resonant frequency of instrument vs driving frequency of string, and resulting uneven response.
But it seems like according to the table, acoustic guitars are then tuned too low as well? Maybe that "choked" bass note is exactly that weird compression in the bass notes that drives (guitar) flatpicking along? Maybe it's not technically ideal, but maybe it can be sonically compelling anyhow.
It's interesting stuff, and I love his pragmatic viewpoint.
thanks again
 
yes I use Southcoast strings a lot, and the G650s are to be tuned to Bb, which I do, because I happen to like Bb tuning. For G tuning I use Martins and D'Arrios (sp). Of course they are wound D and G, which for some is a dislike. but I happen to like wounds. I also really like the A23 flat wounds in Bb tuning which are all metal classic strings. Really a great sound. depending on what I am playing, they (tunings) all have their particular place and sound. I think you are going to really like your Bari once it is settled in and you find the right string combination. Good luck!! Lozark
'
'

Yeah, I'm leaning towards trying some of the flatwound guitar strings. THey're probably a lot more available, locally, too. Local stores tend to have a couple of packages of Martin M600s for soprano/concert uke and nothing else. :)
 
Top Bottom