using a guitar like a uke?

[Davoravo]

Been thinking about this myself, having sanded and shaped a new saddle i was wondering if i could take the nut off my guitar (43mm but would fit a 45mm) and put a bass nut on. Realised that the slots would be cut too wide and i was too callow to buy a blank and make my own slots (worried about the angles). Also realised the nut was glued in.

[merlin666]

Been thinking about this myself, having sanded and shaped a new saddle i was wondering if i could take the nut off my guitar (43mm but would fit a 45mm) and put a bass nut on. Realised that the slots would be cut too wide and i was too callow to buy a blank and make my own slots (worried about the angles). Also realised the nut was glued in.

I am not sure about how a new nut with only four slots would work as you would still have six saddle pieces to match, so some of the string spacing might get uneven higher up the neck. I think the OP will find a good solution and hopefully show us some pictures of end result.

[Jarmo_S]

I myself suggest leaving the E and A strings out, and so using guitar/baritone ukulele tuning for 4 ..1 strings.

I think because guitar scale is larger, even acoustic one, it is best to string them as they normally are stringed, so leaving 6th and 5th "empty". To have the desired finger reach. We can of course play guitar well supported, so it helps with much larger scale too.

I use that stringing myself too on my classical guitar, because I don't have acquired a baritone (no UAS ). Some things we maybe do with ukulele, like left thumb muting, is not possible this way though.

On steel string guitar, the bridge is slanted and that demands also right size strings, to not have intonation problems.

[old and slow]

I made my 6-string Washburn Rover with 43mm nut and 23.75" scale into a four string with wide spacing.

Kept the steel strings. So I think of it more as a tenor guitar than a ukulele. Currently it's set up with the middle four strings, but I intend to use the top four(tonally) eventually.

I used the outer two slots,
and cut two new slots for the middle strings. But will someday fashion a new nut for it, keeping the wide spacing.

Initially, I spaced the strings wide at the saddle. With the outside strings in the ouside pin holes, and the inner strings wrapped around the opposite pins to spread them slightly and give near even string spacing between the four. Which would've been fine for plucking if I was building a bass. But I then placed them in the center four pins which makes string spacing very slightly narrower than at the nut. I plan to put in a slotted saddle to space them a skosh wider.

It works for me, as I have a problem fretting strings cleanly that are narrowly spaced.

[tonyturley]

Another option is to just leave all the strings in place and capo on 5. I do it all the time. It also mixes in well when playing with other instruments.

[GloopyJon]

Take off the lowest strings (E and A). Put nylon strings on it. Put a capo at the 5th fret. That’s about it, but you can take it a step further by putting the same size string on the lowest string as you would the highest string and tune that to high G.
That’s how I learned before getting an actual ukulele.