What Ukulele for a big guy?

ldlaughlin

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Hello All...

I have just started learning Ukulele and I have been using my daughter's soprano ukulele and it feels a bit small for me. I am 6'1" and have pretty big hands, so I am curious to what others experience has been.

The tenor is nice and has some good size to it and feels pretty good.

Also, the baritone is really nice and feels good, but kind of gets away from the ukulele sound in my opinion.

What do you guys think? I value your opinions!

Thanks!!!

Dean.
 
Tenor with a wide nut sounds like the ticket.

I'm similar in size and enjoy concerts with wide nuts too, like my concert Magic Fluke.

To be honest, after 2 years I don't notice much difference. When I was beginning it was an issue.

https://ukenut.com/comparison-of-ukulele-nut-widths/
 
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For a beginner, I always recommend a concert, unless they have played a stringed instrument before, but if you've already tried a tenor & like it for size, go ahead & get one.

Sopranino to baritone are all used by people on here, but it's best to start out with one of the regular sizes.
 
Welcome Dean. Here's my story; I started playing ukulele 6 years ago after playing guitar for almost 50 years. I'm 5-10, 195 lbs with medium hands. A few weeks before, I bought a cheap uke because it looked like my Fender Telecaster electric guitar that was just going to hang on the wall next to it. A couple weeks later I received a yearly post card that there will be a summer play along that I did for guitar, but for ukulele instead. I decided to join since I have a uke, but when I went online to learn the basic chords required, I had a hard time using that uke.

I found out about the different sizes and realized mine was a soprano, so I went to my local guitar store and tested the concert and tenor. Without a doiubt the tenor with slightly wider nut was for me. In that first year I accumulated 16 tenor cutaway ukes, a year later cut them down to 4, and now have 9 tenor cutaways. By the way, all re-entrant/high G tuning, I think linear/low G sounds too much like a guitar.


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
I am a big guy witrh big hands and i play all from Soprano Ukulele up to big Guitars

But if i would have to decide wich Ukulele size ist the most comfortable for me, i may say Concert or Tenor
Bigger feels good too, like Guitars, but as Ukulele its Concert/Tenor

I would say get many Ukuleles in all Shapes and sizes like most people do ;-)
 
Dean, I think if the tenor feels good, go for it. As a long-time guitar player who took up the uke recently, baritone is the only model that I am able to play accurately. For me, the frets on tenors are a little too close together, especially from about the tenth fret and up. So I've bought a couple of baritones, which I keep in two different tunings. But from time to time I still get out the tenor and see if I can adapt my fingers to the narrower fret spacing. There sure seem to be a lot more nice ukes available in tenor size than in baritone, so it would be advantageous to be able to play a tenor.
 
I'm a big boy. I have a size 11 ring finger. I can play soprano just fine. I usually play concert, but I have no reason for it. I don't play a wide neck ukulele, just standard neck sizes. I don't notice the difference between the concert and the soprano when I switch between the two. Some people do though. I don't think that you will go wrong with a tenor. It certainly won't be too small.
 
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This sounds like a variation of the old joke: what do you give a 500 lb. gorilla? Whatever he wants.

Similarly, what ukulele do you give a big guy? Whatever he wants.

For what it is worth, I play tenors exclusively and I've done that since day one. However, it is more for psychological reasons. In my mind's eye, I thought I would look silly holding a small instrument and I thought a small ukulele would sound too much like a toy. I freely admit that I held those prejudices out of pure ignorance and I no longer foster such thoughts, but it is now too late to change as the tenors feel natural to me.
 
Welcome.

Arthritic hands make a Soprano impossible for me, Concert is better but still tight. So for me, a Tenor fits the bill.

So do try both again, learn a few simple chords prior like C Am F and G and strum a bar (4 strums) of each chord in turn in the music shop

Then buy which size you are most comfortable with.

It does not really matter if you choose one but end up wanting a different size for that will happen anyway, you will have no choice in the matter, one Uke is just not enough.
 
riprock: you beat me to the joke. :D

Another option if you're concerned with straying too far from the ukulele sound is to get a long neck model. Concert neck on a soprano body or tenor neck on a concert body, or if you don't mind the proportions, there are tenor necks on soprano bodies. But keep the nut width in mind as a narrow nut negates some of the advantage of a longer neck.
 
Have to try different sizes. There are some big guys that play sopranino's and there was a video bouncing around a while back of a 5 year old Korean girl playing a 12 string jumbo guitar. Never know!
 
Obviously, choose whatever feels comfortable for you; I am a big chap myself,and having tried (and owned!) all the sizes/scales on offer, I settled on soprano as my 'weapon of choice' a good few years ago! But whatever suits YOU is what makes it all the more enjoyable!
 
Take a look at what size Uke that was played by IZ ( Israel Kaʻanoʻi Kamakawiwoʻole )
 
I'm about your size and I started with a concert and now mainly play tenor although I have sopranos. So Whatever you feel like.

About 20 years ago, I met Jaime Guardia, a master charango player from Peru. The charango has ten strings in pairs and a slightly wider neck than a uke to fit the ten strings. Don Jaime was about 300lb with fingers like hot dogs but he played like an angel. So anyone can play anything if they work at it. Maybe not this good. I have a charango now and I'm trying.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt9NTvlEpOM
 
I think Iz played a tenor Martin, hence the commemorative Iz edition of the Martin Tenor.
 
Big hands here, too, but I find I can noodle around on the sopranino we have just fine. The trouble for me comes from playing for too long on the smaller sizes, say more than 30 minutes at a time.

For my go-to, everyday uke, I'll echo what some others have said: wider nut (~36-38mm does it for me) and a concert size body would be my first ukulele specs if I was to do it all over again.

Concert is a nice size, as it still retains some of that jangle that a soprano has, but affords a slightly larger range and can be, if desired, strung with a low G for linear tuning.
 
I appreciate everyones input.

My wife and daughter are all working on learning as well. It looks like we are going to be a minimum of a 3 Ukulele family! We have a soprano, which fits my wife very well (4'11" with small hands), my daughter is taller and is looking at a concert size, and I am going to pick up a tenor! So no matter what, we will have a good variety of Uke's on hand to learn and play with!
 
My husband is big, about 6’6’’ with some age related stiff fingers. He played a baritone tuned to standard uke tuning. He recently found a Grand Tenor by Romero Creations to be more comfortable. Me, I’m small and play anything. Sooo we own an assortment.
 
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