Hi
I've had my 5 string tenor for a few days now and it's had a lot of play. I'd to share my thoughts on how it works with the songs we play and compare to other's experiences. Here's what I have found:
My new instrument is lovely, very resonant, great intonation, great tone, volume and sustain. It is the best ukulele I own. The only trouble (a lesson learnt too), would be that the string width seems to be standard and I'm used to my 4 string tenor which has much more space and is hence, for me, easier to play. Now with the extra string the space between the low g and the C string is slightly less than normal. I've had to adjust my playing for this but if I could go back in time it is something I would have specified for my custom build.
Holding down two strings is much more effort and I find that instead of holding down the other three courses lightly I tend to push with the same pressure across all strings and so my fingers are hurting a lot more and I find playing more tiring. You have tobe more accurate with the paired strings, as one is quite thicker than the other it can be easy for you to think that you are pressing down sufficiently only for one of the two to buzz on the fret.
In a lot of ways it works with many songs as I expected; I hear the drone of high G when playing lots of finger picking while the low g appears to "glue the rest of the song together" in the background. This is ecpecially the case for when I am using the 4th course as a bass string and i have found it works well with playing blues; it adds a unique and intersting sound to the song. Sometimes, when playing my linear-tuned tenor, I've thought that it could just be a small guitar, with the 5 string arrangement it's now strictly something else.
I've found that it also has some 8-string flavour, as my girlfriend pointed out that it sometimes sounds like there are two ukuleles playing at once. Strumming is much fuller, surprisingly so for the addition of just one extra string.
I had hoped it would add a unique flavour to clawhammer; it is definitely unique, but I'm not sure I like it as much as with 4 string reentrant tuning. The octaved sound appears to take over the song a bit too much as apposed to the complementing high g drone. This might be a case of learning to play differently where I catch the 4th course with less force; I'm quite used to playing rough. I've played a couple of classical songs where the melody is in the two bass strings (G and C) and this sounds strange with one octaved course and another course being a single string. When playing songs where the melody is in the treble strings then it can add an interesting edge that is pleasant. Again in this case, if I can describe what I mean well, I find it gives the song a unique ukulele, feel of high reentrant tuning but it includes a bass to fill the song and glue it together, which I, personally, like. When it comes to songs that play melodies across all the strings, songs arranged specifically to take advantage of the high g string, then it can sound interesting. Sometimes good, sometimes interesting, sometimes it doesn't fit, in which case, you can try adjusting your style to hit the high g only, or more softly (which is something I need to start doing!).
I feel that I really need to explore it more, take time to adjust my playing style and learn how to exploit it. Overall, I think 5-string ukuleles are very cool and should probably become more popular with time.
What's your experience?
I've had my 5 string tenor for a few days now and it's had a lot of play. I'd to share my thoughts on how it works with the songs we play and compare to other's experiences. Here's what I have found:
My new instrument is lovely, very resonant, great intonation, great tone, volume and sustain. It is the best ukulele I own. The only trouble (a lesson learnt too), would be that the string width seems to be standard and I'm used to my 4 string tenor which has much more space and is hence, for me, easier to play. Now with the extra string the space between the low g and the C string is slightly less than normal. I've had to adjust my playing for this but if I could go back in time it is something I would have specified for my custom build.
Holding down two strings is much more effort and I find that instead of holding down the other three courses lightly I tend to push with the same pressure across all strings and so my fingers are hurting a lot more and I find playing more tiring. You have tobe more accurate with the paired strings, as one is quite thicker than the other it can be easy for you to think that you are pressing down sufficiently only for one of the two to buzz on the fret.
In a lot of ways it works with many songs as I expected; I hear the drone of high G when playing lots of finger picking while the low g appears to "glue the rest of the song together" in the background. This is ecpecially the case for when I am using the 4th course as a bass string and i have found it works well with playing blues; it adds a unique and intersting sound to the song. Sometimes, when playing my linear-tuned tenor, I've thought that it could just be a small guitar, with the 5 string arrangement it's now strictly something else.
I've found that it also has some 8-string flavour, as my girlfriend pointed out that it sometimes sounds like there are two ukuleles playing at once. Strumming is much fuller, surprisingly so for the addition of just one extra string.
I had hoped it would add a unique flavour to clawhammer; it is definitely unique, but I'm not sure I like it as much as with 4 string reentrant tuning. The octaved sound appears to take over the song a bit too much as apposed to the complementing high g drone. This might be a case of learning to play differently where I catch the 4th course with less force; I'm quite used to playing rough. I've played a couple of classical songs where the melody is in the two bass strings (G and C) and this sounds strange with one octaved course and another course being a single string. When playing songs where the melody is in the treble strings then it can add an interesting edge that is pleasant. Again in this case, if I can describe what I mean well, I find it gives the song a unique ukulele, feel of high reentrant tuning but it includes a bass to fill the song and glue it together, which I, personally, like. When it comes to songs that play melodies across all the strings, songs arranged specifically to take advantage of the high g string, then it can sound interesting. Sometimes good, sometimes interesting, sometimes it doesn't fit, in which case, you can try adjusting your style to hit the high g only, or more softly (which is something I need to start doing!).
I feel that I really need to explore it more, take time to adjust my playing style and learn how to exploit it. Overall, I think 5-string ukuleles are very cool and should probably become more popular with time.
What's your experience?
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