general consensus of the baritone

heavyg

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Do many here play the baritone, I feel drawn to it, I keep looking at those beautiful old Favilla baritones on ebay...thanks in advance for your thoughts..Glenn..
 
I like the baritone tho I haven't been playing my favilla much lately. I like my Favilla. I bought it off eBay about a year ago and they have been selling quite a bit cheaper lately then they were when I bought mine. I would highly recommend getting a Favilla but try and get one in decent condition and plan on taking it to your guitar man and getting it set up. Now would be the time to get one since the prices are better.
 
I've got a baritone - I find it a useful thing to have when I want to transpose a song or get a deeper sound. I have found that I tend to pick one size and play it for a while and then switch. I always seem to learn something new when I move to a different uke.

Also - if you're looking for a great deal on a baritone, keep an eye out for a Pono second - they sell them on ebay from time to time...

Also, glad to see someone else who spells Glenn with 2 n's
 
I always view the baritone as a cross between a uke and a guitar. It's its own instrument. I feel there is a time and a place for it. When my mom, sister and I are all jamming, my sister and I play on a standard tuned uke while my mom plays her baritone (her uke of choice), and the baritone adds so much more depth to the songs we are playing.

Dan
 
The OP started a thread just like this on the New Member Introductions Board, where I posted a reply. Maybe the mods can merge the two threads. In the meantime, I'm reposting my reply here.

Welcome to Ukulele Underground! When you refer to "the consensus ... among members here on the baritone," do you want to know whether people like baritone ukuleles in general, perhaps including how we compare them to tenor, concert and soprano ukuleles; whether there are specific brands of ukuleles people like better than others, whether we prefer them strung DGBE or GCEA, whether we prefer to string them reentrant (the fourth string has a higher pitch than the third string) or linear (the fourth string is the lowest pitched string), or maybe some other things about baritones? If you have specific questions, please feel free to ask them.

I have a few baritones, including a Pono mahogany, two Kamakas (a four string and an eight string), and a Mya-Moe custom myrtle baritone. At one time I had an Ohana mahogany baritone but I sold it in the UU marketplace. I like baritone ukuleles for their deeper voice. Having started on a concert and then moved to tenors, I found that the bigger spacing between the frets took some getting used to, but I've adapted and they don't present fretting problems for me anymore. My Ohana baritone was a great starter baritone, but I found myself playing it less as I got more expensive ones. All of my baritones are tuned linear DGBE, although I'm toying with the idea of stringing one of them linear GCEA, either like a tenor or an octave lower.

I'm not sure if I've answered any of your questions about baritones. Please feel free to post more specific questions.
 
There's no general consensus about baritone ukes. Some---including me---love them. Some are indifferent. Some dismiss them as "little guitars".

This past March, I got my first baritone uke (a Kala KA-B). I love it. So deep and mellow. Fun.

Be sure to check out the Humble Baritonics blog for plenty of great baritone uke videos and resources.
 
I once owned a baritone. Then I remembered I had a guitar. (That's a joke...)

Seriously--welcome!

The Arthur Godfrey uke craze in the 50s was a Barry craze. They were at that time the most popular size of ukes. I did have one--a Harmony--and it was very pleasing. For me, though I'm drawn to the tin pan songs of the 20s and 30s, and that says soprano.

But you should go with your heart on this one. Ohana makes a real nice Baritone; I think Kala does as well. Just make music!
 
If you're drawn to "The Darkside", (trademark my very humorous Uke Group colleagues,) then give it a go. I did and I love it though I still enjoy my sopranos

A couple of thoughts that may or may not help:

1) In the UK it is difficult to find many baritones in one place to try out though there are a few notable exceptions. This made it hard for me to work out what I wanted or even if I actually wanted to get started with a baritone. Hopefully you can find somewhere with a good range to try wherever you are. (I'm guessing the States if there are lots of Favillas on ebay.)

2) Most stock baritones come with wound strings on the base notes. I'm not keen but already had in mind I was going to replace them with something else - Living Water strings or Southcoasts

3) I was very unsure about the low D in the shop, so bought re-entrant strings as soon as I decided what I wanted. I now have low D Living Waters on my Pono but have another baritone on order which will get High D Southcoasts so I can have one of each :D

4) At home I often play soprano chords for songs on my baritone as an instant transposition. This suits my vocal register better.

Have fun!
 
I really enjoy my Pono with Southcoast strings. Some songs just sound better to me on a baritone. "Saint Jame's Infirmary" for example and a number of the songs in the Robert Johnson for ukuleles book. I'm sure it's the mahogany tone wood and the retuning to reentrant that makes the difference. Not a little guitar but deeper than a regular ukulele sound.
 
I have two Giannini of Brazil baritones. The one with Aquila gCEA does not impress me. It doesn't sound that much different than a tenor. I really like one of my tenors with the dGBE tuning dropped to cGCE. I find my bari to be too akward to use in the car while I am waiting for someone or something. Dropping the Bari down to cGCE is really a blues players' walk in the park.
 
I find Baritones to be the most useful kind of ukulele.

The keyword being "useful".

When I'm sitting and just playing for fun, I find myself grabbing a concert ukulele with re-entrant GCEA.
But when I actually need to record some of my music, the baritone is the most frequently used.

Funny thing that..
 
I bought an Ohana baritone about 3 months ago and haven't been able to put it down. Up until then, I was hooked on a tenor, but the baritone seems to be me. Picked up a 50's Harmony last week at a flea market and with a little loving care, I believe it's gonna sound great. A real deep, rich tone!


Do many here play the baritone, I feel drawn to it, I keep looking at those beautiful old Favilla baritones on ebay...thanks in advance for your thoughts..Glenn..
 
i like the baritone as well as the tenors. i have a mya moe baritone , a sideways 8 baritone, and a newly bought
kawika baritone on it's way. Sometimes you just like that deeper sound and difference for
some types of songs. Am really enjoying both the tenor and the baritones though.
 
I have a Pono acacia baritone and play it as much as I do my tenors. There are songs that it just sounds better with. Plus, I can play all of the songbooks that I have for guitar. I also like the deep rich sound compared to the other ukuleles.
 
I find myself drawn to sopranos and baritones - not so crazy about the ones in between. :shrug: I wouldn't say that makes anything a consensus, though. :)

John
 
I find myself drawn to sopranos and baritones - not so crazy about the ones in between. :shrug: I wouldn't say that makes anything a consensus, though. :)

John
I agree John. Those two scales seem to cover all bases.
 
I love playing my Pono baritone, and it is it's own instrument, however I would also put it right in between a guitar and a uke. Sometimes when I am playing it, it just feels to my like a little guitar without the two low strings. Playing my tenors feel just so much more like a ukulele to me, and when I want to go for that uke sound, I pickup the tenors. With that said, playing the baritone is still a heck of a lot of fun and in many ways sounds much more complete when playing solo, due to the depth, than playing a traditional uke.
 
I have a LoPrinzi baritone that I love playing. I like the way it sounds with my voice and I find it's a comfortable instrument... but I also love my long-neck soprano!
 
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