Requinto as a six string baritone uke?

I was thinking about changing the nut on a requinto and restringing it as a six string baritone uke (D gG B eE, I think). Has anyone tried this, or have any input on why no one else has apparently done this?

Thanks for any input.

If you are a strummer, then the arrangement will work well. It is my least favorite way to have anything strung. Aquila makes an 8 string set for baritones , but I don't know about a bari 6 string set. It is usually tenor and smaller as single-double strung.

The operational bottom line is: If YOU like it, don't worry about what others think. You might want to hear a tiple; an eight string taropatch ukulele, or a mandolin with uke strings and tuning for comparison before you alter the requinto.

TheCraftedCow said:

If you are a strummer, then the arrangement will work well. It is my least favorite way to have anything strung. Aquila makes an 8 string set for baritones , but I don't know about a bari 6 string set. It is usually tenor and smaller as single-double strung.

The operational bottom line is: If YOU like it, don't worry about what others think. You might want to hear a tiple; an eight string taropatch ukulele, or a mandolin with uke strings and tuning for comparison before you alter the requinto.

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Thank you! I will take a look at those. I have been able to find two examples of a six string baritone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1g746vMq_w and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPBOpiQ0p-c

tuned to "high D," both of which sound great to me. I haven't been able to find an videos of a requinto strung this way, but I did see there is at least one example of a requinto strung as a tenor guitar (http://www.earnestinstruments.com/conversions.html), which gets me at least in the right tonal range.

As the body of a requinto is a bit bigger than a baritone, using low D or high D should both sound OK, whereas low D on a baritone body tends to sound boomy.

I will definitely take a look at the instruments you mentioned, and appreciate the suggestions.

Tried replying earlier, and it wouldn't go through, but just wanted to say thank you for the suggestions.

Would you also have to change (or at least re-hole) the bridge? I have a requinto that I'm not playing much and I'm intrigued by the idea of a six-string baritone-like instrument.

mds725 said:

Would you also have to change (or at least re-hole) the bridge? I have a requinto that I'm not playing much and I'm intrigued by the idea of a six-string baritone-like instrument.

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You would have to re-hole the bridge, but that seems like it wouldn't take too much extra work (I'm in Tijuana and can have a luthier do it here fore pretty cheap). I haven't been able to find anyone less who has done it exactly this way, and I am torn between doing this, and just having an extra deep baritone made for six strings, to allow enough volume to accomodate a "low D" six string tuning. I figure if I had an extra half inch added to a regular baritone size (which is economically feasible because I can have it made in Tijuana), that would accomplish pretty much the same thing; but the requinto would be cheaper, since I could just pick one up used and modify it.