Roll call: Players of 5ths tuning

Down Up Dick said:
I have a concert banjolele, a concert uke and a tenor guitar all tuned in CGDA fifths. My tenor banjo and my mando banjo are tuned in GDAE fifths. I might change my DGBD baritone uke too, but I kinda like the way it is.

Though I usually prefer the lower tones, I like the CGDA sound better. Fifths tuning is fun to play I highly recommend it.

I just received two books of Bach’s Cello Suites. One in GDAE and one in CGDA. I’m banging away at the first Prelude now. It seems doable. The books are written in regular music and tabs, so I can play them on a flute too, if I choose to.

Most of the pieces have no chords or only a few easy ones. That suits me just fine. Chords are not my forte’. :eek:ld:
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Started using "reentrant C CGDA" a while ago on the banjo-ukes as an experiment, mainly because I can use low-G GCEA uke strings (available everywhere). Found I liked the sound on a banjo-uke and it works well even for picking. Not as pleased with it on the acoustic ukes, but that happens.
 
SteveZ said:
Started using "reentrant C CGDA" a while ago on the banjo-ukes as an experiment, mainly because I can use low-G GCEA uke strings (available everywhere). Found I liked the sound on a banjo-uke and it works well even for picking. Not as pleased with it on the acoustic ukes, but that happens.
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I’m not much of a strummer, though some of my ukes have reentrant tuning. I also don’t seem to use the G-C (#4) string much, but it’s really irritating to try to use when it’s strung high. I mostly fingerpick. I’m a melody person.

I planned to strum and sing when I started, but it just didn’t happen. I got tangled up in all those darned chords. The same thing, more or less, happened with my keyboard. I only learned the basic chords, and then gave up and started “finger picking” it. My musical experience has been with different wind instruments for many years. One note at a time and no chords. Chords are anathema.

I really enjoy 5ths tuning, and I’m making good progress with it. My Bach books don’t have many chords, and I think they are doable. My Irish and Italian music books are completely without chords, so the only chords I play are the few in my American 2 finger banjo music.

I am almost chordless — ahhh . . . :eek:ld:
 
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I was thinking of tuning my eighter with two packs of concert 5th strings and make it a mandolin-uke. But it’s a tenor, and I don’t want to bother putting all those concert strings on a tenor.

So I’m saving my eighter, as is, to play/sing from my book of Hawaiian songs. Someday I’ll put on my grass skirt and my woven palm leaf hat and my hibiscus lei and get down wid my bad hula self!
:eek:ld:
 
I wish I had learned 5ths tuning 60 years ago, before I got my first guitar. It took 40 years of getting nowhere befor I finally ditched guitar. It took another 4 to try 5ths. Like you, trying to tune all those strings on a cheap mandolin just added to the frustration. Enter the Ukulele... you know the rest! ;)

I just strung a Luna Soprano Pineapple Tattoo in 5ths, so I can use mandolin chords and picking. Wow! 5ths makes so much more sense (to me anyway). I love the high E string, it really sings, and it's a long way down to the low G.

I tried the Aquila 30U set, but felt the tension was too high. Here's what I ended up with: G .028w - D .0318 - A .024 - E .016 (All D'Addario's). YMMV.

-Wiggy
 
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I am getting a luthier built concert and this thread inspired me to ask him to put the Aquila 5ths set on. It's supposed to be done in the next few weeks. I have no idea what can be played with it and how it will sound. So would appreciate a few links to resources with tabs or songs with chord charts that sound good. Celtic, classical, or pop I'm pretty open minded.
 
Down Up Dick said:
I was thinking of tuning my eighter with two packs of concert 5th strings and make it a mandolin-uke. But it’s a tenor, and I don’t want to bother putting all those concert strings on a tenor.

So I’m saving my eighter, as is, to play/sing from my book of Hawaiian songs. Someday I’ll put on my grass skirt and my woven palm leaf hat and my hibiscus lei and get down wid my bad hula self!
:eek:ld:
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Have my 8-string at cC-gG-DD-AA. Did have it at CC-GG-DD-AA (mandola tuning), but wanted to vary the sound a bit. Will probably go back to mandola tuning at the next string change.
 
Bill1 said:
The world if fifth tuning is huge. The learning resources are huge. Its a world where you need to at least have an inkling of where you want to go to avoid being frustrated and confused. The first learning resource to track down is some music you like to hear played in fifths. You can pick any mandolin or fiddle or violin player and follow them. When you have no idea, listen to a spread of music from the most famous violin pieces to the most famous bluegrass and folk pieces. Just type "10 most famous ....... pieces" into google and you will get some lists. Once you hear something you like, track down the composer and player. Now you have a starting point for playing music tuned in fifths. From the starting point, you can work through the learning stages and you will find a path way you enjoy. It may not be anything like the starting point.
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I regularly play with fiddlers and some mandolin players and I have a book full of tunes, but I really don't like translating from sheet music notation to fretboard and guess about "best" fingering, so prefer tabs. Maybe I should check out some mandolin sites for songs with chords. I am more chord oriented and most likely will tend toward fingerpicking arrangements to give the thumb some bass line opportunities.
 
Just joined the forum and find this thread right on point. I have a Kala tenor that is tuned CGDA (as I am used to that tuning from tenor banjo and tenor guitar). I am now trying to figure out fifths tuning for my new Kala bari. It came with the usual DGBE tuning. Kala advises me not to tune it up to CGDA as the high A tuning might damage the neck. So I am thinking of either doing CGDA an octave lower (using the Guadalupe custom bari GCEA strings which are an octave lower than tenor uke, meaning that high A won't put too much pressure on the neck) or else trying GDAE. Thanks for a very interesting thread.
 
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John boy said:
Just joined the forum and find this thread right on point. I have a Kala tenor that is tuned CGDA (as I am used to that tuning from tenor banjo and tenor guitar). I am now trying to figure out fifths tuning for my new Kala bari. It came with the usual DGBE tuning. Kala advises me not to tune it up to CGDA as the high A tuning might damage the neck. So I am thinking of either doing CGDA an octave lower (using the Guadalupe custom bari GCEA strings which are an octave lower than tenor uke, meaning that high A won't put too much pressure on the neck) or else trying GDAE. Thanks for a very interesting thread.
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All of this has me thinking of getting a baritone (haven't had one for years) and tune it CGDA. It would match nicely with the steel-string tenor guitars already in the stable.

Strings are always an issue. I use mainly Aquila NylGut. I like the "juststrings.com" website because it gives the string diameters and applied tension in each package's "description" section. That allows me to mix-and-match easier by computing the needs with string diameter and tension.

The goal for CGDA is C3-G3-D4-A4. It looks like one can get the C3-G3 with the two wound strings (D3-G3) from juststrings.com with the Aquila ABGT package and the other two (D4-A4) from the E4-A4 strings in the Aquila ABUK package. The tensions should be good, with each string in the 3.6-4.6 kg range.
 
Thanks Steve. Great info about the Aquila ABUK package. I will definitely grab a set and go from there. Since my tenor banjo and tenor guitar are in CGDA, it will make things easier on my poor little brain to have the bari uke tuned the same way.
 
John boy said:
Thanks Steve. Great info about the Aquila ABUK package. I will definitely grab a set and go from there. Since my tenor banjo and tenor guitar are in CGDA, it will make things easier on my poor little brain to have the bari uke tuned the same way.
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i'm the same. Everything 4-string-based is in 5ths. What kind of TG and TB do you have? Have to admit loving the TG for its versatility.
 
I've switched my uke back to GCEA tuning. I still have 3 tenor guitars and two mandolins in fifths but some TG's may change soon.
 
I played viola for many years growing up, so when I discovered fifths tuning for ukulele was possible about a year ago, I quicky bought a second uke so I could keep one standard, and try out CGDA on another.

So I have a concert in fifths, and I don't play it very often, but when I do it's mostly just to play through some of my old viola music for fun. It's also much easier for me to figure out melodies by ear on it, because my brain is still wired to think in fifths. I'd like to eventually do more fingerstyle stuff on it, but I've been lazy about actually searching out new music to try.
 
SteveZ said:
i'm the same. Everything 4-string-based is in 5ths. What kind of TG and TB do you have? Have to admit loving the TG for its versatility.
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My tenor guitar is the Kala acoustic, KA-GTR. It really sings, a very sweet sound to my ear. I've got two tenor banjos -- one is a GoldTone archtop 19-fret, I believe the model is AT-250 if I recall correctly, and the other is an old Washburn Style C (circa 1927) that was given to me by my great-uncle about 50 years ago. All of them are in CGDA, so that tuning is drilled into me.

And to follow up on your earlier post, I've ordered a set of those Aquila ABUK strings so I can use the high E and A from that set, and put them on my baritone uke as the high D and A strings just as you suggested, to get the CGDA tuning. After I receive them and install them, I'll report back on how it goes. Thanks for the advice.
 
John boy said:
My tenor guitar is the Kala acoustic, KA-GTR. It really sings, a very sweet sound to my ear. I've got two tenor banjos -- one is a GoldTone archtop 19-fret, I believe the model is AT-250 if I recall correctly, and the other is an old Washburn Style C (circa 1927) that was given to me by my great-uncle about 50 years ago. All of them are in CGDA, so that tuning is drilled into me.

And to follow up on your earlier post, I've ordered a set of those Aquila ABUK strings so I can use the high E and A from that set, and put them on my baritone uke as the high D and A strings just as you suggested, to get the CGDA tuning. After I receive them and install them, I'll report back on how it goes. Thanks for the advice.
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Hope it works well. I've done a lot of string-experimentation thanks to the info available at Juststrings.com. Without it I'd be lost.
 
To close the loop on this, I had CGDA tuning on my baritone for a few days. Thanks to SteveZ for pointing me towards some strings (the Aquila ABUK) that I could use for the high D and A strings. They worked as suggested. However, as it turned out, I wasn't crazy about the sound. The A seemed too thin, especially higher up the fretboard -- it lost the baritone-ness of the sound; it seemed like a baritone on the low end and a concert on the high end. So after a few days I returned it to DGBE tuning. Perhaps in the future I'll try the GDAE tuning for fifths. Experimenting with tunings is one of the most interesting things about stringed instruments, eh?
 
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I finally received my luthier built concert with the Aquila 31U set installed. The uke is vintage Martin inspired, so the body is narrower than on many other concert sized ukes. My impressions so far are mixed. I like the challenge of learning an almost "new" instrument and exploring its potential. But I don't care much for wound strings and I feel that they are too slack to sound good. Strumming is quite unbalanced and I don't think that the C and G strings can get enough volume with the small body. I have found some tabs but they are mainly melodic solos and not the fingerstyle with bass line type tabs I prefer. So it seems I will focus on learning chords for the left hand and let the right hand do it's own thing and I will see where this gets me for accompanying my singing. I think I will give it a few months until the wound strings are worn out and then decide if I re-string re-entrant or if keep on going with the fifth intervals.

If anyone has some suitable tabs please share. Also, I wonder if a capo might help?
 
I don't have any tabs to share, but there are a few tenor banjo books out there, which would use the same tuning and same fingering patterns. Also, I don't know whether you're into classical music on ukes, but there is a fantastic musician, Rob McKillop, who has published a book of the Bach cello suites for tenor banjo (CGDA tuning). You could use any of those, but not sure it's the type of music you're looking for.
 
John boy said:
I don't have any tabs to share, but there are a few tenor banjo books out there, which would use the same tuning and same fingering patterns. Also, I don't know whether you're into classical music on ukes, but there is a fantastic musician, Rob McKillop, who has published a book of the Bach cello suites for tenor banjo (CGDA tuning). You could use any of those, but not sure it's the type of music you're looking for.
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I’m working on the first suite with my Cello Banjo. It’s comin’ along — slowly. My memory’s so bad that it takes a while for me to digest it. I’m havin’ a good with it though.

Incidentally, I have the Kala KA-GTR too, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s a lot of fun to play. :eek:ld:
 
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