Baritone uke rant!

I'm really tired of hearing people say 'why don't you just play a guitar, if your going to get a baritone ukulele?".

The tone/timbre/style of playing is ukulele, because it is one.
Everyone seems to dump on it because of the DGBE tuning which i happen to really like (i also love the standard GCEA also). But no one seems to get made when people drop to a Low G on their tenors or concerts...which is essentially the same thing as DGBE just in a higher key.

For me I got a solid body electric steel string baritone uke for 2 reasons. I make ambient music which was up until now baritone electric guitar based and i need a solid body instrument to run through my pedals and amp, I'm a much better ukulele player than guitarist so it makes sense to make uke my main instrument. I wanted a longer scale with more base in a similar range as guitar because it gives me more room to create more sounds/textures. Over all I'm still holding the uke in the same position you would any other uke, and strumming at the bottom of the fret playing with my fingers and strumming the same chords you would on a soprano....its still a uke! Sorry for the rant just tired of hearing people slam on the baritone it totally has its place and i think is the ultimate size for electric solid body uke in my opinion (not that the risa tenor isn't awesome too).

From a fellow ambient music maker (check out the Peter Principle named vids on our YouTube channel, or search for Mensheid Bloedbad [translation: humanity bloodbath..] for a little darker stuff) I can only say I love the Bari. But I haven't used it yet for ambient purposes. I always grab my basses for that. I just love the warm soothing sound of a Bari. I have Living Water strings on them and that all Fluor carbon set of strings is just perfect.

I mainly play tenors at the moment but at one stage I was playing a lot on the baritone. I also play a couple of concerts and I have 1 soprano. I like the depth of the baritone but for me its mostly about the pitch that I'm playing a song in. I transpose with different tuned instruments and I usually play tenors tuned E, A, C#, F# or F, A#, D, G.. Yes you can be not so lazy and just play different chords but certain chord positions have certain characteristics.

Anyway, for me its about the song and not the instrument. I play the instrument and tuning that works for the song.

Anthony

Screw what anyone tells you, play what you want, lately i been playing with the tuning on my bari's, dgbd, gadg/gdac and cdgc, sounds so different from the common guitar, and its making me enjoy bari's so much more now

Baritone ukuleles are cool. Period.

I'm a huge bari fan. I have two, one tuned DGBE and the other GCEA and like another poster to this thread I pick up the one that suits the song best.
Cheers
Gary

Skroo'em. I usually respond to questions like that (they aren't really questions but judgements) by simply saying, "why do you ask?" or "why would I want to do that?" I don't like being in a position where I feel I have to defend myself in the face of a dumb question. Let them defend themselves.

I don't play baritone much, but I certainly appreciate it when I hear it. There are some excellent players out there.

I usually just say something like , because it annoy's people like you or the other two strings were out of my price range...

I wonder if the "hardcore" ukers don't envision coconut palms, soft sandy beaches, and grass skirts when they pick up their sopranos, concerts and tenors. I like those images as well and have a tenor that goes well with that type of music. But 90+ percent of the time my wife and I play baritones. We actually like a guitar music better than ukulele. Believe me, if these super senior hands could handle a guitar we'd go that direction. The voice and sustain of a good guitar is much better than the higher "brighter" thunk of a ukulele. At the bottom line the baritone IS a size of ukulele, but most of all a beautiful musical instrument that, whether played expertly or not gives us real pleasure at any level. Just one persons opinion. Just enjoy playing whatever size(s) you have and don't worry about other opinions.

i didn't realize so many people were ranting against baritones.

I hadn't realized that so many people were ranting about bari ukes, either.

However, who the heck cares what other people say? I play the instrument I like and the music I like. If someone has something negative to say about my instrument of choice, I really couldn't care less.

I love my bari.

lizziep said:

I play the instrument I like and the music I like.

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Well said lizziep!
I recently discovered that I like re-entrant tuning on my baritone - dGBE, it gives me that lovely low, rich voice, but feels more ukulele like to me than low D.
I think the point of being on a forum is to hear about other peoples discoveries and see if they ring true for you..... not to take a stand and defend it as some universal truth. We're always learning.

I was misinformed once upon a time. I thought a baritone was a stunted guitar.

Once I was lost.

But now I'm found.

Why don't you just play a guitar, if your going to get a baritone ukulele?

grammar po-po

Paul December said:

Why don't you just play a guitar, if your going to get a baritone ukulele?

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YOU ARE or YOU'RE not "your"

One could easily go nuts listening to what others declare to be best, or how you "should" do things.

One thing I've learned from reading this forum is that soprano ukes are best, the only real ukulele. And they don't sound right unless you have Aquila strings....wait, no that was a couple of years ago, now it's Worth Clear Fluorocarbon Martins I think. just twelve frets, no longneck. Genuine Koa (Hawaiian) and the manufacturer starts with a K, but not if it's under $800. Peg tuners only. Old Martins are wonderful, new ones are trash. Tenors with low G are the only way to go. D tuning is much better than the C tuning that the vast unwashed use. Re-entrant tuning gives the only real ukulele sound. Concerts are the best because they still sound almost soprano, and give you a little more fingering room and volume. Dolphins are the best, except for Fleas and flukes. Dolphins are OK but not all that great. They're better with D tuning. They're better with C tuning also. One should never buy a Lanikai or a Kala because there's a lot better brand that only costs a...little...more. It's best to have only one ukulele, which of course must be a D-tuned soprano tenor baritone with low G re-entrant tuning. You don't need frets higher than 12. You should have a cutaway so you can get to the frets past 14 more easily, which you don't need but if you insist on having them, you might as well be able to get to them. You must join a group so you can chukka-chukka every week, and swap uke stories. You must ALWAYS go to a luthier to tune your ukulele properly. You can set up or repair a ukulele pretty well yourself. Never buy anything from ebay or Amazon, except old Martins from ebay for which you pay thousands. Old beat-up ukes that appear to having been made with an ancient chainsaw are best, and nothing new sounds as good. The wood was better in those days. Laminated plastic ukes are best, that way they don't crack. Solid wood ukes are always better than anything, and you're not really 'there' until you only own one very expensive solid wood uke that you're so happy with you don't want anything else, ever. Collecting ukes is fun, line the walls with them, and play whichever one strikes your fancy. And of course, if you're going to play a baritone with standard tuning, you might as well play a guitar, or a tuba.

Just select whatever you need from the above, and ignore the rest, or add whatever you need, because I'm sure I've missed some.

Hahahah, that was pure gold.

jcarlos said:

Hahahah, that was pure gold.

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This was more or less meant to be a friendly discussion/rant. Most of the comments I have gotten were from some friends of mine. And just to explain I am first a guitarist im 32 i started guitar at 14. I totally can play guitar well, but i feel my skills on the uke are still much stronger and i feel i have a more unique style on the uke and overall i'm much more comfortable with ukes. As for using different ukes for different songs I do actually do that for what im working on new i'm mixing both steel string electric baritone and acoustic/electric concert uke and its a nice mix.

I just find it funny people are so against baritones. Yes it does have a more guitar like sound as compared to smaller ukes, but the technique used to play it and because of the size it still has its own sound. Its very much a unique instrument. Up until recently i was a soprano/concert only player (i still have never played a tenor other than in music shops I'm working on including one in my collection soon just for another voice) but since revisiting the baritone (which i played at a friends house some years ago, i found its the perfect instrument for me a perfect mix of guitar and uke 2 instruments I play well but with the feel of the instrument i feel more comfortable with.

anyway thats all, didn't mean to piss anyone off ...I appreciate some of the more serious comments though.

Love my baritone......'nuff said!