Any Baritone Ukes with Narrow Necks?

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bari_Uke

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Hello!

Does anyone have any clue if there are baritone ukes with narrow necks,similar to those of tenor guitars?

Although a nut width of 1.3/8 or 1.5 is not that bad for me,i would prefer something closer to the narrow necks of tenor guitars.

Unfortunately steel strings don't work for me,so a tenor guitar is not an option.

Thank you!
 
bari_Uke said:
Hello!

Does anyone have any clue if there are baritone ukes with narrow necks,similar to those of tenor guitars?

Although a nut width of 1.3/8 or 1.5 is not that bad for me,i would prefer something closer to the narrow necks of tenor guitars.

Unfortunately steel strings don't work for me,so a tenor guitar is not an option.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

Actually most baritone ukes have 1-3/8” necks. Don’t know of any with narrower necks than this. A custom builder could accommodate you.
 
It is certainly possible though as the string spacing on guileles are less than ukes and they work fine with non-steel strings. To see if that’s really what you want, you could try finding a Córdoba Mini or Coco and see how you like playing the first 4 strings.
 
bari_Uke said:
Hello!

Does anyone have any clue if there are baritone ukes with narrow necks,similar to those of tenor guitars?

Although a nut width of 1.3/8 or 1.5 is not that bad for me,i would prefer something closer to the narrow necks of tenor guitars.

Unfortunately steel strings don't work for me,so a tenor guitar is not an option.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

My Beaver Creek Baritone (old model with solid not plywood fret board) is 1.5 inches or 38 mm. From the outside of the D to the outside of the E strings it is 30 mm. Very comfortable for me as I weigh 115 lbs body weight. It is strung with Aquila 89U which has two wound and two red strings.
D = .028w, G = .031w, B = .031 red, E = .024 red. The 89U strings made all the difference in my ukulele over a year ago. I am happy with the sound.
Happiness is not having to change your strings all the time. (Or your underwear) gigglegiggle. Jim.
 
First of all,thank you everyone.

Although a guitalele is an interesting idea,what i really want is wrap my thumb around the neck like in a tenor guitar. Having playing many guitar and 4 string instruments,i've found that a tenor guitar neck is the most comfortable one for me.
 
I think custom is your only option. You might try Pete Mai at Bonanza Ukuleles. His business is booming lately especially with Bazmaz’s recent glowing review, but Pete is not afraid to experiment and you can’t get a better value in the “custom” space right now. I’d also recommend Jonathan Dale at Jupiter Ukulele but will be a good bit more expensive and you may have to wait a good while to get on his schedule.
 
I owned a Lanikai bari with a narrow neck, but I swapped it for a concert because the issue for me was making stretches between frets to form chords. I’d certainly test drive a bari before committing to it and see if your issue is width at the nut or fret spacing.
 
Every manufacturer of ukulele that I know about uses 1-3/8" nut width as narrowest, this seems to be standard width. They do move up to 1-7/16" and 1-1/2". Anything narrower than 1-3/8" you will need to have it custom built for you as Jim Hanks and DocJ said.
 
Hi Bari-Uke

The Pono Nui BN-1 has nut width 1.4", string width 1.1".

The wrap_around is much smaller than my Kala CTG baritone which has a 1.5" nut and 4.0" wrap-around.

The Nui seems to be modelled on steel string tenor guitars and might have similar neck dimensions.

I read that one of their long time friends had thinned the sound board braces in a steel string tenor guitar, installed nylon strings and played it in a well known Hawaii band.

Perhaps you can get Pono or your preferred vender to measure the wrap-around? (I did not keep mine).
 
Last edited:
Pono's have the narrowest necks of any production uke brand I've tried. Their bari's are 1 3/8", while say Kala's are 1 1/2". You probably won't find a production bari with a neck as narrow as a tenor guitar - nylon strings would probably start hitting one another if they had to be that close.
 
The Pono Nui neck is very much like a tenor guitar neck and the nylon strings came nowhere close to hitting each other.

À player in our uke club did get string rattle with a pair of 1.05mm D strings on his eight string four course uke. Solved by using a pair of 1.15mm strings.
 
casualmusic said:
The Pono Nui neck is very much like a tenor guitar neck and the nylon strings came nowhere close to hitting each other.

À player in our uke club did get string rattle with a pair of 1.05mm D strings on his eight string four course uke. Solved by using a pair of 1.15mm strings.
Click to expand...

A steel string tenor guitar neck is usually 1-1/8", I own a few. The Pono Nui is 1-3/8". I might be mistaken but I am guessing the OP is referring to the narrow steel string neck as he has come from steel string guitar.
 
JonThysell said:
Pono's have the narrowest necks of any production uke brand I've tried. Their bari's are 1 3/8", while say Kala's are 1 1/2". You probably won't find a production bari with a neck as narrow as a tenor guitar - nylon strings would probably start hitting one another if they had to be that close.
Click to expand...
Well, let’s see, the string-to-string spacing on my Mini is 1-2/3” so the spacing for 4 strings would be exactly 1”. Add 1/8” on each side so a 1-1/4” neck is perfectly reasonable. And you could go a smidge closer without physical problems. So 1-1/8” doesn’t sound impossible to me.
 
casualmusic said:
Hi Bari-Uke

The Pono Nui BN-1 has nut width 1.4", string width 1.1".

The wrap_around is much smaller than my Kala CTG baritone which has a 1.5" nut and 4.0" wrap-around.

The Nui seems to be modelled on steel string tenor guitars and might have similar neck dimensions.

I read that one of their long time friends had thinned the sound board braces in a steel string tenor guitar, installed nylon strings and played it in a well known Hawaii band.

Perhaps you can get Pono or your preferred vender to measure the wrap-around? (I did not keep mine).
Click to expand...

Hi Bar-Uke

I went back to the Pono Nui and measured it at 1 3/8" (1.4") at the nut. The wrap-around at the nut is 3 3/4".

BTW the all acacia BN1 is louder than a baritone uke but quiet for a tenor guitar. The other models with spruce top are probably noticeably louder.

Cheers.
 
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