I need some advice regarding strings for a "baritone" ukulele.

Jimbo123

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I'm an experienced musician ----- acoustic guitar, lap slide Weissenborn, mountain dulcimer. I've just bought a baritone ukulele on Ebay and I will receive it in a few days. It is my first ukulele. It will be tuned DGBE. The scale length is just over 20 inches.
I've had no experience with nylon strings. What would be some good quality, yet not too expensive, nylon string sets for a baritone? I will sometimes tune a bit lower than DGBE, so the string tension will need to be strong enough for that, but 95% of the time I will tune DGBE.
I may also be interested in purchasing single strings, rather than sets. What would be some suitable individual string gauges for my tuning? I will not be strumming the ukulele, I will be fingerpicking using a thumbpick and 2 fingerpicks.
Thanks for any help.
 
As a musician of 60 years playing currently as a lead flat pick player in a bluegrass group playing steel stringguitar and a couple uke groups playing a baritone with nylon, this is what I go with. Thomastic-Infeld CF35 for the D CF30 for the G and Oasis Carbon trebles Normal tension(3rd) G string for the B the (2nd) B string for the E. These strings are classical guitar strings that are for the longer scale c guitar. Being the baritone is shorter, we use the lower guitar string for the next higher string on the bari. I also use this combo. for a custom made "contra baritone" I play. It's a tenor guitar sized baritone with nylon strings. I've tried the Savarez Alliance normal tension trebles also but forget the numbers.

I like a wound 3&4.
 
I liked Living Waters string enough to order a second set.
 
For down tuning you might have to do some experimentation to find a tension that would work for that.

I like Living Water all-unwound, but not for down tuning and not for all fingerpicking.

I like Patrick's recommendation for your use-case. The T-I strings are not cheap, but they are very good and can be ordered as singles.
 
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I have 7 baritones now. All of them went through many brands of strings & all ended up with Aquila Sugar Ukulele Strings 156U For Baritone Ukulele.

When a fellow baritone lover borrows 1 of my ukes & plays it, he always switches his barry to the Sugars. No exceptions. Sugars are sweet!
 
Thanks for all the replies folks. I'm now in the process of educating myself about baritone ukulele strings & some of the information has been helpful.

The uke I've ordered is strung with Aquila Nylgut strings. I'll probably end up experimenting to see what I like.

Has anyone tried D'Addario J68 strings for DGBE tuning on a baritone? The gauges are 28 34 30 35. I think they would be relatively high tension (which I suspect will be my preference for my fingerpicking playing style) ..... although at the moment it's all "theory" for me as I've never played a ukulele, but I've been playing steel stringed instruments for 50 years.
 
Jimbo, at the risk of piling on even more information than you can use, I will just add one more reply, in case it's helpful. In the Aquila Nylgut baritone string sets, the D and G strings are wound, like steel guitar strings, so there will be some finger-squeak noise if you have to move your fingers quickly up or down the neck to hit the next chord. Being a long-time steel-string guitar player, you are probably used to that and it may not be an issue for you (and you may have the technique to minimize it when you play). When I took up the baritone uke I wanted to try to get away from that sound so I use Worth strings, in which all four strings are non-wound, so there is no steel-string-like squeaking. They are around $15 (U.S.) per set, online and at my local shop. Whatever you choose, have fun with it!

Oops, I see that Bill already mentioned the wound strings in his reply, above. Sorry for any duplication.
 
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Sorry to hijack the thread a little but as a non-guitar player, when you say the "inside four strings", you mean the ADGB strings, used as the DGBE strings, respectively, correct?

I think this is the solution my friend's dad uses with her baritone, but she doesn't know any of the details.
 
I just took a vintage Favilla as part of trade on a Webber baritone I sold. Since it was a vintage mahogany bari. he put on the Diaddario EJ65B Pro Arte nylon strings. Wow, I was so impressed by them. I'm ordering a set of the J68 strings myself. The double wound strings will be right up your alley Jim. Much cheaper than the custom sets I put together. I like a high tension myself though I am more of a flatpicker.

DiAddario seems to really have upped their game with strings; both steel and "nylon".

The recent search I've been on are picks and trustfully I think I found the right one. Charmed Life Picks. Incredible material he's using. I'm pickin' with his Clt-75 triangle. I
 
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