Talk me out of a baritone ukulele

If you are not accepted in a uke group because you brought a baritone--or a u-bass, or a tenor, or an electro-acoustic, or a specific brand, etc.--find a different uke group. That's their problem, not yours. Generally, we're a pretty inclusive bunch.
The only way to answer your other questions is with experience. That's why most of us have multiple 'ukuleles.
Some stores will let you return an instrument if it's not right for you. That can be worth paying extra.
 
So what's the conclusion of the thread? Was the baritone purchased? Until the denouement I will add a few personal experiences.

I know people were putting words in your mouth and you never said you wanted the baritone to be a little guitar, but I will say that if you want a little guitar, the tenor guitar is a steel-stringed baritone that is far superior in terms of guitariness. I love my tenor guitar. It is so loud and so solidly built.

I don't worry about chord shapes on the baritone. I've never touched a guitar, so when I play a baritone with Chicago tuning, I just play it like i would any other ukulele. Of course, that means that when I'm playing the blues in E, I am really playing the blues in B. But as kids nowadays say, "whatever!" You'll be in the opposite situation, you'll be playing just what you think you're playing. In either case, no worries.

The blues do sound better on a baritone because there is a bathos in the deeper tones of the baritone which ring more true in terms of the blues. So don't worry

I also find that baritones mix well with other ukuleles. The difference between a baritone and a regular ukulele is the dominant interval. That's the same interval used by, for example, Simon and Garfunkel or CSNY and other vocal harmonizers.

I will say that I find baritones to be less well made. I have a pretty crappy $400 Kala (or Kaka as it has been called in another thread). Before I die I want to save up for a five to six thousand dollar Jay Lichty or Beau Hannam baritone and see what it feels like to have a master-grade instrument of that size.

Those are my random thoughts on the baritone. My conclustion is to follow your heart (unless your heart bleeds for a banjolele) and get what you want. There will be pros and cons to everything, but the key point is to play. If the baritone inspires you to play then the world is a better place regardless of its limitations.
 
ripock said:
I will say that I find baritones to be less well made. I have a pretty crappy $400 Kala (or Kaka as it has been called in another thread). Before I die I want to save up for a five to six thousand dollar Jay Lichty or Beau Hannam baritone and see what it feels like to have a master-grade instrument of that size.
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I've been fortunate with baritones. My "gateway" baritone was a wonderful Pono mahogony baritone that was well-built and fun to play. From their I graduated to a Kamaka baritone, which I love, and a Mya-Moe baritone, which I like a lot (MMs sound a little more twangy to me, which is great for pop music and less so for all the Hawaiian music I play) and I have since added an Ono baritone, a LfdM baritone, a Kamaka 8-string baritone, and Compass Rose and Mike Perriera steel string baritones. They're all extremely well-built and very playable.
 
mds725 said:
I've been fortunate with baritones. My "gateway" baritone was a wonderful Pono mahogony baritone that was well-built and fun to play. From their I graduated to a Kamaka baritone, which I love, and a Mya-Moe baritone, which I like a lot (MMs sound a little more twangy to me, which is great for pop music and less so for all the Hawaiian music I play) and I have since added an Ono baritone, a LfdM baritone, a Kamaka 8-string baritone, and Compass Rose and Mike Perriera steel string baritones. They're all extremely well-built and very playable.
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Now that's what I'm talking about. I have been projecting and thinking as acceptable as my assembly line baritone is, what if I got an elite one? Would it be transcendental? Only the future will tell for me. It will be a fun journey and I hope the author of this thread starts his/her musical odyssey as well with either a baritone or something else.
 
I started with a Tenor and ended up buying all sizes including a Baritone. I learned that a Bari is a nicer size than a Guitar and lower that a gCEA what ever. But I also found I like a dGBE tuned tenor. Lots of folks say that it doesn't sound like aUku but I have a hard time singing that high. So I play using C forms and let it transpose down in Key. G=C in Bari and Bari is just fine. If I play with other Ukus I just switch to G forms to stay in key.
Playing guitar forms adapted for the lack of bass strings will be easier for you and you won't have to relearn the fret board. Or you can just think of a Tenor as a Guitar with the first five frets chopped off. If you want a smaller instrument a BeriTenor, (tenor tuned dGBE) will get you to easy land and smaller size so you won't stand out in a Strumalong, well till you start playing and people realize you are playing different chord forms.

If you are worried about $$$, buy a Caramel CB103 for about $90 off Amazon. They now have a tuss rod and built in tuner and pickup. I played a lot of higher priced Bari's at my local shop and my Caramel sounded as good or better than all of them up to a $1000 King custom. I'm cheap due to being baroque!:D
 
If you want a baritone, buy it.

I'm only in my fourth year of playing, but I can tell you that the ukulele world has shifted as it comes to baritone. I actually attended ukulele events where baritone ukuleles were put down in my first couple of years of playing.

Since that time, manufacturers like Kala have continued to expand their offerings with baritone. That said, internet resources for baritone are definitely more rare. I'm an odd creator in that every GCEA resource I make is also made for DGBE. No...I don't make and AD F#B resources. (D6 tuning, used in some places like Canada and some places in the UK).

And you know what, baritone has a wonderful, rich tone. I'm very thankful for Ken Middleton and Living Water strings because I have no love for metal wound strings.

I only have one baritone (of the many instruments in my collection), but it allows me to enjoy what the baritone has to offer. I have a Mainland baritone (cedar & rosewood) and LOVE it. I hear that owners of the Kala Cedar Baritone feel the same way.

Don't get me wrong...I love my GCEA ukuleles. But the Baritone has its own sound, which is quite wonderful.
 
phydaux said:
Talk me out of a baritone ukulele
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This is not going according to your plan.

Instead of talking you out of a baritone.
I am starting to think I should buy a Kala Cedar top Baritone to match my Kala Cedar top Tenor. ;)
 
I like certain instruments because they fit the song and sound good to me. But most of all it’s all about what sounds good to the listeners. How do they respond and react. I’ve found that they like the sounds of a baritone. They just do. My Kala with a pickup and solid spruce top is a wonderful baritone. Purchased it around 5 yrs ago.

For some reason seniors respond well to low octave deep sounds. Probably like me, most wear hearing aids or either need them. A & B & G tremolo harmonicas, played in the low & middle octave, always earns a great response from the listeners.

So, imho, I believe the deep dark sounds of a baritone is a generational deal. Maybe? Perhaps.
 
As I said above I like Baritones but BariTenors are handier and depending on their bass resonance can be very good. I have a solid rosewood and ceder topped Ohana Tenor that drives me crazy with a booming Third string. I've got it tuned dGBE right now but just ordered some Worth Brown Fat strings to allow shifting to DGBE in order to see if it is the string number or the tonal depth that makes it boom.

OT:
I ran across a face book ad yesterday about a guitar shop going out of business and they listed Martin, Taylor and Gibsons for $90-$97. My neighbour was looking for a new Taylor so I passed him the info and he bought a Taylor for $92! He said it normally sold for ~$1,200? Heck I almost bought a Gibson Les Paul for $90 just for fun, but I can't handle the size of a Dreadnought!
 
Choirguy said:
If you want a baritone, buy it.

I'm only in my fourth year of playing, but I can tell you that the ukulele world has shifted as it comes to baritone. I actually attended ukulele events where baritone ukuleles were put down in my first couple of years of playing.

To see people putting down baritones you just have to read this thread.

Baritones are not guitars and shouldn't be compared unless you want to compare the "richness" of your gCEA soprano to a guitar. Baritones, for me, are the ukulele with the most interesting tones but I also like low G tenors and concerts. To my ear gCEA ukuleles produce the least interesting sound unless you're playing "Ukulele Lady" at children's birthday parties. I own one and it's rarely played.
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JackLuis said:
OT:
I ran across a face book ad yesterday about a guitar shop going out of business and they listed Martin, Taylor and Gibsons for $90-$97. My neighbour was looking for a new Taylor so I passed him the info and he bought a Taylor for $92! He said it normally sold for ~$1,200? Heck I almost bought a Gibson Les Paul for $90 just for fun, but I can't handle the size of a Dreadnought!
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I do believe this is a scam.
 
phydaux said:
I’m kicking around the idea of buying a ukulele. I’ve more or less settled on a baritone ukulele. My idea is that, with a baritone ukulele, all of my experience playing guitar with chord shapes and scales and everything will transfer over. Plus my state has a ukulele group that does biweekly stromalongs. I figure if I show up to those with a baritone ukulele then I’ll be able to do the baseline of the songs and actually add something to the group that it probably doesn’t already have.

But then part of me thinks that I should just get a regular ukulele, like a tenor ukulele, and actually play ukulele rather than play a guitar that shrunk in the dryer.

What do you guys think? Is there a good reason to go with the regular ukulele rather than a baritone?
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you know, from your post, it sounds like your only requirement is easy to play for the baritone. In which case, I don't think you should get one.

I play the piano for years and years and love it; should I get an organ just because I can transfer my skill easier?

Yet, here I am playing the ukulele. Why? I like the sound, the feel (like its vibration traveling throughout my body, you've got to hold it tight, next to your chest, IMHO, it is the only way to play this instrument), its spontaneity, and portability. So I bought a concert (and a soprano, really, I should have just bought the soprano, but concert was purchased first). A baritone just wouldn't do for my uke needs.
 
My first ukulele was a baritone because of modest experience with guitars as a kid. I am now 70+ and have some dexterity issues, and thought that I needed the longer and wider fret board; that was five years ago. Since then I have owned over 30 instruments looking for the Holy Grail (because of course it is the instrument - not practice, study and effort that makes the difference) and I have found over time that I can comfortably negotiate a tenor fret board. You may choose to go Low G as it is most like guitar tuning and in recent years there are some choices that give you even more flexability if you are planning to buy just one instrument. There are quite a few "super tenors" on the market now with a slightly larger body - creating a bit deeper tone - and some of these even have a slightly longer and wider fret board. (Tenors are usually 17 inches in scale and baritones are normally 20 inches.) The new batch of "super tenors" normally come in a 17 inch and/or 19 inch scale and some uke builders claim you can use these (with a 19 inch scale) as either a tenor or baritone depending on strings and tuning. I have a 23 year old White Label Kamaka baritone with a 19 inch scale and smaller body set up with tenor tuning and it sounds really good - being bit deeper in tone than my Kamaka tenor but not as deep as my Kamaka baritone. To be clear, if you go with a 19 inch "super tenor" your string choice is quite important and I am still experimenting. Hilo Strings recently started offering an "extended tenor" set and other suitable strings are obviously available and come with "super tenors" made by companies such as Romero Creations, Kanile'a, Mele and Kala to name just a few. As you may have guessed I do favor larger instuments, including tenor and baritone ukuleles tuned to Low G (and even tenor guitars on occasion) and this is strickly my personal preference - please don't beat me up smaller uke folks. I love them all and spend more time than ever playing and learning during these difficult times. Stay Safe - Don
 
Bought a cheap $90 baritone uke off of Amazon. Should arrive in a week or so.

Also saw several kits on-line for cigar box baritone ukes. Seriously thinking about snagging one of those for a weekend project.
 
phydaux said:
Bought a cheap $90 baritone uke off of Amazon. Should arrive in a week or so.

Also saw several kits on-line for cigar box baritone ukes. Seriously thinking about snagging one of those for a weekend project.
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According to Amazon it is out for delivery. I’ve got to remember not to get my hopes up. A $90 ukulele has got to be really low quality. But then, I am at a low quality player so it’s a wash
 
Personally, if I play a baritone, I like a cheap one. A good one sounds too much like a guitar with missing strings.

Regarding fretboard choices - I am a big man with big hands, and I almost exclusively play sopranos. The idea that you need "more room for your fingers" is accepted wisdom, but I think it's just preference.
 
phydaux said:
According to Amazon it is out for delivery. I’ve got to remember not to get my hopes up. A $90 ukulele has got to be really low quality. But then, I am at a low quality player so it’s a wash
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Are we there yet? :D

And don't forget to leave it in the box for three days before opening to let it acclimatize to its new home. Just kidding :D
 
Yes, it was outside the house when I got home from work.

It's a Makala MK-B. All mahogany. The action seems decent. But man, I forgot how quickly new nylon strings go out of tune.
 
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