Stringing my concert or teno to bass.

JohnRC

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I am heading to Maui in December and do not want to take my solid body GT ME bass with me. I am taking lessons and do not want to stop practicing.

I have a low G so I have played around a bit with my ukulele and I can change the tuning but of course some strings are loose. Is there a more successful/logical way of doing this maybe with classical guitar strings or something else? Being an octave or two higher is not an issue.
Thanks, John
 
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Possibly - what are the notes of your bass(?).

I've used classical guitar strings on a tenor, DGBE.

(I tried them on concert, but as soon as you leave the home chords, everything went off)
 
Hi Keith
Basses have EADG tuning. E is the low/4th string.
 
One possibility is getting one of these "Bass Ukuleles" like the Kala Ubass.
Many cheap versions exist nowadays when you search online such as ebay.

They are around the size of a baritone ukulele and function a lot like a bass guitar (and are tuned exactly the same).


You could "sort of" tune a concert or tenor to EADG, but it will be one octave higher like a piccolo bass. You would probably have to use some classical guitar strings, like the EADG strings from an actual classical guitar (6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd) and tune it an entire octave higher than it would be on a guitar.

But I'm not sure how beneficial this would be to keeping up with practising an actual bass, since the feel of the strings, neck width, action, sound, sustain and fret space all differ quite drastically.

I actually sold my bass guitar after buying a Kala Ubass. It's not quite the same as a full size bass guitar, but it does the job for me in a much more compact package.

I own one of these solid body models, but acoustic-electric models also exist too.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peT7fByJUU0
 
For just practice I would not recommend Kala, too expensive. Look for Chinese imports like the kind Rondomusic.com imports to the US. Go to eBay and search for bass ukulele, a lot of choices come up.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video
 
Those cheaper imports (Mahalo is another example) are great value etc.
But for me personally, even among them, I would stick to ones that come with an adjustable truss rod.

I very briefly owned an acoustic-electric Mahalo Bass Uke, but sold it after not too long because the neck had too much relief for my liking, which affected the action and playability, with not much options in setup.

I know Kala's tend to be expensive, but I got mine cheap on the used market.
The adjustable truss rod made a huge difference for me for setting it up.
 
The Rondo bass ukes have truss rods, as do many of the others, wdll worth the price.


8 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 7 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video
 
The Rondo bass ukes have truss rods, as do many of the others, wdll worth the price.


Absolutely agree! They're really intriguing instruments.
I actually sold my full sized bass guitar after getting the Ubass. No longer needed such a long, bulky instrument.
 
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