In the Market for a Baritone Ukulele - A Few Questions

I liked the cedar and acacia both. Mim's demo was great!

I've been through a lot of ukes and one of my favorites is the older pre paper label favilla baritone. Lightly built, nice mahogany, 19" scale. I used to have 3 but have concentrated on tenors now and have sold them. they pop up on ebay occasionally.

I'm with Strumsilly. My favorite is the pre-paper label Favilla. 2nd would be a later Favilla.

WCBarnes said:

I have played a couple Pono baritones and didn't care for the neck. They both sounded great, but the neck was too much for me (I'm not trying to bash Pono, they are great instruments and have a faithful following, but I prefer a thin neck so they are just not for me). I recently picked up a Kala with a cedar top and was blown away! My plan was to buy it just to see if I liked the sound of cedar and then look for a more expensive uke and move it on, but that plan has gone out the window. This Kala is wonderful. I no longer feel the need for a different one. I played around with several different baritone strings, but didn't love any of them. I now have it strung with Thomastik-Infeld classical guitar strings and these are far better than any set of baritone strings I have tried. The tension and sound is just what I was looking for. They do have wound strings, but they are smooth wounds and don't really bother me (I am not a fan of traditional wound strings).

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I recently acquired my one and only uke, a gently pre-owned Pono baritone mahogany deluxe. I have nothing to compare it with other than my mandolas, but find the neck is quite comfortably shaped, although glossy, which I'm not used to. The outer strings seem a bit close to the edge of the fretboard, and I occasionally mash them off while playing. Either I will get used to being more careful, or will make it a new nut some day...

My aim was to tune in octave mandolin GDAE tuning, so I'm still experimenting with strings. Initially tried ones from the D'Addario Pro Arte EJ46 guitar set, but the round wound strings are SO noisy (I shift around a lot). But it was a cheap way to go. Then I bit the bullet and bought the Thomastik set CF127 - a lot of money basically to get the two lowest flatwound strings and a couple plain nylon spares. But I was quite surprised to find that the wound strings in this set have loop ends, with both a steel and gut "double loop". What am I supposed to do with these - attach them to the bridge in a different way, or cut the ends off altogether and make the typical knots? Or did they do this because a knot would slip out, since they're flatwound?

Still have much to learn, but this baritone is a nice beast I've grown attached to already.

bratsche

A couple of other thoughts - if I were in the market for a beginning baritone, I'd think about a Clearwater Roundback baritone - here's a review. http://www.gotaukulele.com/2016/07/clearwater-ucw7bpu-roundback-baritone.html. They used to be available on ebay - and the tenor, concert and soprano versions still are, so I suspect they may be back in stock at some point...

The other thought was - if you really want a narrow neck - and could live with steel strings, how about a tenor guitar in Chicago (DGBE) tuning? About the only reason I don't have a tenor guitar is I'm not sure my fat fingers are compatible with the fretboard width.

Well, I finally got my baritone! It's a Pono rosewood/ spruce pro classic model & I love it!!! I haven't found the neck to be too big or "beefy" at all. In fact, I actually find it easier to play than my smaller Kala tenor.

The only thing that bothers me *a little* is the loose feeling of the strings. My tenor uke is nice & tight, and strumming it is such a breeze. But, I guess the size of the baritone means that the strings have to be looser & a bit "floppier." Oh well.... It will take some getting used to. But, I do love that rich, mellow sound! I was worried that the spruce top would be too bright for my ears, but I haven't found that to be the case at all. This bad boy is super mellow.

That's gorgeous! Love the 'burst!

So glad you found what you were looking for after all of your deliberation. Did you buy from HMS?

OhioBelle said:

That's gorgeous! Love the 'burst!

So glad you found what you were looking for after all of your deliberation. Did you buy from HMS?

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I actually got it from Kilin Reece. It was "gently used," so it saved me a few bucks.

Go to the Southcoast site and select a set of strings that give the kind of tension you like. Unsure? Contact Dirk and talk to him.

Ralph

That's a beautiful Baritone, I take a look at the Baritone section of the
HMS site fairly often I have been drawn to that ukulele. I love a sunburst finish.