Baritone CGDA or GDAE tuning help

I have a question for those of you that tune your baritone to CGDA like a tenor banjo/guitar.

1. Can I use my standard DGBE strings to try it out CGDA tuning?

2. What strings do you use for CGDA?

3. Does anyone play a GDAE tuning?

4. Can standard DGBE strings be used to try GDAE tuning out?

5. What strings do you use for GDAE tuning?

I was thinking about buying a tenor guitar but with a couple of Baritones laying around I thought I would give the alternate tunings a try to see how I liked them. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Regarding #s 1 and 2, I tune CGDA using the DGBE Aquila baritone guitar tuning set (part #ABGT) and the Aquila tenor six-string set (part #AT6). The first two strings from the ABGTset are saved, and the other two are tossed. That gives me the "CG". For the "DA" I take the third "E" and first "A"strings from the AT6 set and tune them "DA". This combination keeps the tension reasonably close to what the DGBE tuning pulls. To summarize:

Aquila NylGut
C - wound (from #ABGT, D string)(guitar tuning set, baritone)
G - wound (from #ABGT, G string)(guitar tuning set, baritone)
D - .77mm (from #AT6, E string)(tenor six-string set)
A - .62mm (from #AT6, A string)(tenor six-string set)

As far as GDAE, haven't tried it on the baritone, but I don't use it much on my tenor guitar anymore.

Ton of information is available at southcoastukes.com. I have found this resource to be invaluable as I am currently playing linear CGEA on a baritone.
Stu.

3. Does anyone play a GDAE tuning?

4. Can standard DGBE strings be used to try GDAE tuning out?

Click to expand...

Answer to "3" ... yes

Answer to "4" ... in part.

The treble string remains the same.
The 2nd string gets tuned down two semi-tones.
The 3rd string is the same as the old 4th string, but it'll probably be too short unless it's new. For "test" purposes it's quite possible to tie on a spare length of string (from the new 4th, see below) so's to reach the tuning mechanism.
The 4th string is a guitar 6th string.

Do note, for melody work, (and in the interests of "just trying it out"), a great many fiddle/mandolin arrangements make no use of the fourth (bass) string, meaning, unless you're needing a lot of 4-string chords, you can "get away" with just three strings. In this case, the "moved" third string can be attached to the fourth-string tuner temporarily and won't need to be any longer !!

YMMV, but it works for me

Thank you, just what I was looking for, great info!

I've tried a variation on Kypfer's excellent advice above to convert a bari to GDAE
G = Guitar low E
D = Guitar A (my existing D was too short to reach the 2nd peg.)
A = Guitar G (my Bari B string's intonation went haywire when I detuned it to A)
E = Baritone E string

I used a $5 normal tension nylon D'Addario set from GC.
The 2nd (A) string feels like it could use a little more tension, so if this tuning sticks, I'll order a few different hi-tension guitar G's to try out.
my Bari has a 19.5 inch scale length.

so far so good. It's a challenge to make many of the mandolin chord shapes on a baritone fretboard, but a pleasure to work out fiddle tunes with the same geometry as a fiddle. Old Joe Clark, here I come!

thanks Kypfer!

Ukuleleblues wrote :

Thank you, just what I was looking for, great info!

Click to expand...

peewee wrote :

so far so good. It's a challenge to make many of the mandolin chord shapes on a baritone fretboard, but a pleasure to work out fiddle tunes with the same geometry as a fiddle. Old Joe Clark, here I come!

thanks Kypfer!

Click to expand...

You're very welcome, guys

As far as the chord shapes go, IMHO a lot of "mandolin" chord shapes have a wide stretch "just because you can" on the short fingerboard ... there are several instances I use where one can substitute an open string for an awkward 5th fret and still have a "full" chord, just a slightly different version of it.

Here is the GDAE octave mando-baritone tuning in action on a morose rock ballad, hastily recorded for the seasons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hdAJOk1_mks

Fifths on a ukulele works well regardless of uke size. Here's a sound sample of my Kala KA-BE baritone tuned CGDA using the string formula I mentioned in Post #2 of this thread.

https://soundcloud.com/steveztv/kala-ka-be-toes-sample