Low G on concerts (Kiwaya, Loprinzi, or vintage Martin)?

southcoastukes said:

I've always been curious about why people do this, so I'm hoping people here can give me some insight.

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Fair question. Here are my reasons:

1. As someone who wears a "women's size medium" glove, I prefer soprano and concert scales because everything my left hand does is more difficult on a tenor. Why would I sign up for that? If you told me I could get optimal sound by wrapping my fretboard with barbed wire, I would not do it. Playing uke is supposed to be fun and not painful.

2. As a woman with (as my husband puts it) "significant endowments," I can either hold a uke down at my waist (where I cannot see it) or up high on the shelf. A tenor body is too large to fit up there without blocking my view and looking decidedly silly. Just one example of how everybody (every "body" indeed) is different.

3. Tenors are supposed to have a more resonant sound, but I have not been all that impressed. Partly because I have a Blackbird Clara. And partly because at a certain point, I figure if I want an instrument that sounds like a guitar, I should get a guitar.

4. I mostly play re-entrant but I enjoy having low-G as an option for fingerstyle blues and folk-rock songs that use Travis-style alternating bass. But do I enjoy it enough to spend good money on a tenor uke that I will never love? Nope. Keep your tenor Loprinzi.

(A pal of mine has a very nice tenor Loprinzi. It's a lovely uke for him but I wouldn't take it if he gave it to me because I'd never play it.)

"Optimal sound" is not the highest priority for everybody. "I can play this" is a big one. So is "I can afford to buy this." In my world, throwing a Fremont Soloist on a concert makes perfect sense because I do not own a tenor uke nor do I intend to buy one.

Low-g on a tenor is sometimes claimed not to be optimal, either, but on my tenor (the Barron River) it sounds stunningly good and gives the instrument a very round sound, but only with the right strings. For me, these are the Aquila Reds/Carbonblacks. I have a variety of guitar strings that I have yet to try (did try the Thomastik-Infelds, but they were third on my list of favorites, with the Fremont Soloist bring second), and I'm only 90% happy with the C string, but I stopped experimenting when I got a sound that I felt was delicious.

Low-g, for me, was only enjoyable when I found strings that worked for me. A plain low forth made my uke sound dead. I also noticed that I like low-g more on 12-fretters (frets to body). Tenors with 14-16 frets to the body never sound quite right to me. But I'm also really used to my tenor and stopped hopping between instruments, so as with many things it's probably partly a matter of what one is used to.

As for concerts, mine have a high-g, because I feel they sound best in that tuning. If I only had concerts, one of them would be in low-g so that I can play pieces or arpeggios (I really like arpeggios) that require a low forth. I'd use a wound string for sure, though I think I might find the tension too low, but I haven't tried it in-depth as there's no need.

I always think that sopranos with a low-g must sound horrendous, because on the paper they should, but then I listen to Otha-San Sr. and I'm so very impressed by how good he makes it sound. One of these days I'll try a low-g on a soprano, probably the Black Bear (it has the biggest body of my sopranos). But the idea of a super floppy string is not so appealing....

Anyway, I think people do what they do because they like it (not necessarily as a compromise, but because it's the sound and feel they want), and because they can make it work. And I think it depends on the instrument (and strings) more than the scale length. An example is D tuning and sopranos. It is the only tuning that makes my Lyon&Healy vintage soprano shine, but used on my Black Bear soprano, it sounds narrow and one-dimensional (but C tuning makes it sing).

I feel the OP approaches this from a good angle: asking fir experiences with specific models and makers rather than just the scale length. Personally, I'd defer to J's experience with Kamakas and Kiwayas. (Even though she somehow can stand the fat C string of the M600 set .)

I play low G on 2 concert ukuleles. One is a custom I had built a few years ago specifically for Low G. I use it for performance and serious practice. I play almost entirely classical finger picking (a lot of Bach). The other is an Oscar Schmidt I keep around goofing around, for lighter practice purposes, and for practice when I don't want the custom out of its controlled environs.

southcoastukes said:

Thanks for the input, Lori.

Understood you like the 15" scale. When you say "we" does that mean you're in a group play situation and everyone tunes to C?

That's the other thing I'm trying to get a handle on. Are there groups of mixed size Ukuleles playing melody in C tuning? If it's solo play why tune to C?

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Yes, I play in ensemble groups where we have a part written for low g, and parts for re-entrant and rhythm. We are all in C tuning (and assorted sizes of ukes), but with the low g players, we can let the melody go below middle C, as well as harmony notes. If we had more players, we might have a baritone tuned to standard DGBE tuning as well. A bass part is also helpful.

–Lori

Thanks so much everyone for your feedback and discussion on the topic. It was VERY helpful in my decision. I'll be receiving a customized low-g concert in 4-5 weeks. I'll post a review on it then!