Kala ukes tuned in 5ths

didgeridoo2

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This video popped up on the mandolin cafe forum. It was shot during the Tenor Guitar gathering in Astoria, Oregon.

 
Interesting... but why?

Should we start demanding mandolin manufacturers make instruments tuned like ukes? Or are these folks making a statement that mandolins are not made properly, or produce the proper sound?
 
Interesting... but why?

Should we start demanding mandolin manufacturers make instruments tuned like ukes? Or are these folks making a statement that mandolins are not made properly, or produce the proper sound?
It is interesting and, unfortunately, not a great demo of these instruments because the players don't seem to be serious about them. I don't think it has anything to do with mandolins because these were sent by kala to the Tenor Guitar gathering. Supposedly, the tenor is tuned to CGDA and the concerts are tuned to GDAE.
 
It's not exactly rocket surgery, is it? Sure, you can tune a uke like a mando/tenor guitar/tenor banjo etc etc. You can tune a mando/tenor guitar/tenor banjo like a uke too. I suppose it's admirable that Kala will supply them, but most people ditch the strings anyway.
 
That's interesting........could open up some doors with the old-time and bluegrass crowd. I'm curious what the exact pitches they are tuned to are. I've recently been introduced to 5th tuning by way of the tenor guitar, and it's quite cool. Even just the inverted chords add a nice and different flavor to some of the same old stuff. I can see how this would be interesting to mess around with.
 
As a tenor guitar player, I tune mine in the "Chicago" manner - like a baritone uke - DGAE. I've experimented with fifths but get too easily confused trying to recall the chord patterns. Old dogs, new tricks and all that. I sometimes tune my reso in an open chord, though, for a bit of slide practice.
 
I've kept my tenor guitar tuned to CGDA just to force myself to learn to play in 5ths. It's a challenge and I know I could just go to Chicago tuning I get too frustrated.
 
What happens to the chord shapes? Read that the geetarr had to change things on the B string to compromise between enabling one to grab chords and picking..........
 
Hmmm, uke tuned in fifths - uh, pardon me but that's a mandolin... :)

Interesting how we've come full circle, though. I remember a few years ago it was popular to convert mandobirds into ukuleles...

John
 
I like the fifths tunings a lot. It's more fun to play melody lines and you get a surprising amount of sound out of a CGDA concert uke. I did eventually decide to focus my serious practice on standard/linear tuning because the different chord shapes were confusing me whenever I'd pick up my guitar. But it's a cool option that should be taken seriously.
 
My original uke, an Oscar Schmidt OU280SWK, rarely gets played anymore. Think I'll try the fifths tuning. Who puts together a good string set for this?
 
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