New Luna Guitalele/Guilele/ "6-string" Baritone Ukulele?

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ranilus

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Hi all,

I was looking at ukuleles on the web and stumbled upon this:

71-SVItIzDL._SL1500_.jpg

Looking further, it seems that EVERYONE carries these: guitarcenter, musician's friend, austin bazaar, eBay, even Wal-Mart has these.

Even more interesting, it is advertised as a 6-String Baritone, but we all know that this is a guitalele. Even the item description says something about it being a "small guitar".

So.... is this a new model? Or is it an old model so crappy that nobody talks about them anymore and only non-popular uke online retailers carry them?

The $169 price tags seems pretty big - for an all laminate. Gretsch's root series guitalele is at the same price point, but with solid mahogany top. Cordoba sells a guilele at $200 with pickup and cutaway. Yamaha's all laminate guitalele is only $99.

I have been looking for a good guitalele (good build quality, good sound, decent price i.e. <$200). Does anyone know anything about this Luna "6-String Baritone"?
 
Very interesting. I may at some point be interested in getting one of these nylon string thingies to play with. That luna will have to come in at or under yamaha's cost to get anywhere. I suspect gretsch has really set the standard with their root series.

You should have tossed up some links where you were at it:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/folk-traditional-instruments/luna-guitars-6-string-baritone-ukulele

Looking around for info and videos on these guitaleles they really are being hard marketed to guitarists, etc. Not much said for ukulele players thinking of dabbling in the dark side. That being said I will NEVER play something with steel strings.

This has a 19" scale, the yamaha gl1, gretsch g9126, cordoba gp100 are ~17" scale. The youtube video i watched this luna looks HUGE.
 
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I thought they were relatively new and introduced in January at NAMM (I want to say that I heard about it in UU's NAMM 2013 Luna video ETA: Okay, maybe not. My memory is not what it used to be...it was just luna's NAMM 2013 YT video ). I remember Yvonne saying that it was a tad larger than most guitaleles in that it has a baritone sized body and a wider fretboard.
 
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I wasn't sure if posting an external link to a seller was allowed.

I did not realize these are one size larger - I guess it makes sense since guitaleles thus far are all tenor scale. This explains the higher price!

Now - since these are bari size, does that mean they are tuned EADGBE rather than tuned up? That would be real exciting!
 
At what point does a 6 A String Baritone Ukulele becomes a 3/4 size guitar?
 
Barbablanca said:
At what point does a 6 A String Baritone Ukulele becomes a 3/4 size guitar?
Click to expand...

Technically, a six-string baritone ukulele has six strings but only four courses, with two courses doubled. In G tuning, that would be D-Gg-B-Ee. If there are six separate courses of strings, (such as EADGBE) then the instrument is not technically an ukulele but a guitar. The Luna instrument in the first post of this thread is a guitarlele, or a small guitar, or a requinto, bit it's not a baritone ukulele.

Here's a video that explains what a six-string baritone is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPXUWlXiyos
 
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We got 30 some a few months back and they are all getting returned. I've slowly been going through them and every single one has issues, mostly abnormal top rotation. The Luna Ukes rarely need to be returned but these are all defective. Fwiw, buy from someone that takes returns of buying online. These have structural problems.
 
They seem relatively new (This coming from a frequent ukulele/guitalele online browser of many years). They only appeared online this year, I think.
 
ranilus said:
Hi all,

I was looking at ukuleles on the web and stumbled upon this:

View attachment 60891



Looking further, it seems that EVERYONE carries these: guitarcenter, musician's friend, austin bazaar, eBay, even Wal-Mart has these.

Even more interesting, it is advertised as a 6-String Baritone, but we all know that this is a guitalele. Even the item description says something about it being a "small guitar".

So.... is this a new model? Or is it an old model so crappy that nobody talks about them anymore and only non-popular uke online retailers carry them?

The $169 price tags seems pretty big - for an all laminate. Gretsch's root series guitalele is at the same price point, but with solid mahogany top. Cordoba sells a guilele at $200 with pickup and cutaway. Yamaha's all laminate guitalele is only $99.

I have been looking for a good guitalele (good build quality, good sound, decent price i.e. <$200). Does anyone know anything about this Luna "6-String Baritone"?
Click to expand...


if its 6 strings tuned in a linear fashion that arent courses of strings
i would venture to say it is just a small guitar like the yamaha guitalele .
An actual six string baritone however is totally amazing one of my 'must haves'
when i hit the big time and can afford one. I'm sure for what it is its prob
just as good if not better than the yamaha luna isn't known for having bad quality ukes.
 
AndrewKuker said:
We got 30 some a few months back and they are all getting returned. I've slowly been going through them and every single one has issues, mostly abnormal top rotation. The Luna Ukes rarely need to be returned but these are all defective. Fwiw, buy from someone that takes returns of buying online. These have structural problems.
Click to expand...

Dang! Thank you Andrew for the value info. Almost bought one. So glad you shared your insight.
 
river_driver said:
A 3/4 guitar typically has a 22 inch to 23.5 inch scale.
Click to expand...

I've seen baritones with a 21 1/2 - 22" scale. I think once it hits 23" inches its a tenor guitar. But mostly its about the tuning and courses of strings. If its tuned in a EADGBE or higher octave of that with six linear strings than its a guitar if its course of strings aka 4 strings but with 2 strings that are paired like a mandolin but stilled played in G tunings like a standard baritone its a uke. The sound is very unique and very much like a uke and sounds nothing what so ever like a guitar in any way shape or form.
 
ranilus said:
Dang! Thank you Andrew for the value info. Almost bought one. So glad you shared your insight.
Click to expand...

I like Luna's. We have hundreds of Luna ukes in stock for a reason. I looked again at the specifics, 30 we received and 26 have severe dishing on the top. It's not subtle at all and this is not a common thing. We aren't being overly critical. There is no way we can sell these. Yet, when I talked with Luna they claim others haven't complained. So anyway, just ask the dealer if the bridge is slanted forward and if the top is bulging behind it and sinking in front. That's what is happening on the ones we received at least.
 
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