Baritone uke strings and tuning

dirtiestkidever

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2012
Messages
535
Reaction score
17
Background: Like many here I played guitar for many years, recently got a tenor uke, and am hooked. I rarely touch my guitar anymore, though sometimes I do miss the fuller deeper sound. Some songs that sounded good on guitar just don't translate well to the tenor (little feat's willin is a prime example, it can be done but it isn't the same). So I just bought an old Baritone. It is currently tuned DGBE (linear) with some old Martin strings (two wound, two not wound). The strings are old and need changing anyway.

What I want to play: If Jon Duncan or Ken Middleton play it on a bari, I probably want to play it too (for example this, this, and this). I mostly just watch videos to learn how to play songs. This works well for the tenor since most are tuned gCEA but it seems baritones are often tuned in different ways with different strings. I want to start learning the baritone by learning some of these songs. I have the right instrument but now I need the right strings. Not only brand but the right type (wound? clear? linear? reentrant? D? G?). I am a little overwhelmed.

And finally, the question: What strings should I purchase? I will probably try a few. I am definitely going to order some Living Water reentrant (high D) strings to give the KM songs a try. But what about for the other stuff? When Jon plays 'Julia Miller' he says the bari is tuned to F? What exactly does this mean. And which strings would one use to achieve this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Hi Doug, the strings used on those two clips of mine you linked are a re-entrant DGBE set of black nylon strings that came with that Tanglewood baritone. I would like to know what they are too, as I love them. They are really easy on the fingertips and have a surprisingly rich and warm tone. All I can suggest is to email someone at Tanglewood and see if you can find out what they use on their stock baritone TU-5 model.

I have experimented with other bari sets as well though. From my experience my fave is a non-wound heavy gauge re-entrant set offered by Dirk Wormhouldt at Southcoast. Another UU bari player - far superior to myself - and member here is dr bekken. He also uses this same re-entrant set on his recordings. This set is in standard baritone G tuning (DGBE) with a high D. This is probably the one I'd go for. I also think it's great to try Ken's re-entrant set too. I haven't tried them myself yet but intend to very soon. I usually prefer non-wound strings myself as I don't like the feel of the wound sets and feel the tone is more consistent across all strings with a non-wound fluorocarbon set. Worth also make a re-entrant bari set but I wasn't rapt with those.

On the 'F' tuning thing, I've just tuned the uke down two 1/2 steps from G tuning to F...so instead of standard DGBE it's tuned CFAD. I sometimes like to loosen the tension a bit and feel a bit more warmth and depth to the sound. It also just seems to sit better with the vocal sometimes. With that Little Feat song, you really are crying out for the Low D string to get that bass run sounding authentic...maybe get yourself a couple of sets with the low D too, just to give you that bit more range and flexibility. I have used a low D on some songs for that exact reason. eg Hey Hey, My My, Willin

here's a link to Dr Bekken using the Southcoast re-entrant set
 
Thanks a ton. That is extremely helpful.

My apologies for starting a thread so similar to other ones about baritone strings. I read those other threads but I had questions specific to certain songs and styles of playing so I decided to start a new thread.

Thank you both again.
 
Top Bottom