17" Scale Guitalele Strings

OregonJim · May 21, 2020

It's time to change the strings on my guitalele, so I thought I'd experiment with EADGBE tuning. It's a 17" scale, so I know I'm pushing the limits. I'm not too picky about string tension - anything better than cooked spaghetti noodles would be worth trying. Do you have a recommendation for a set to try? I'd appreciate any good/bad experience reports. Thank you!

CeeJay · May 21, 2020

OregonJim said:
It's time to change the strings on my guitalele, so I thought I'd experiment with EADGBE tuning. It's a 17" scale, so I know I'm pushing the limits. I'm not too picky about string tension - anything better than cooked spaghetti noodles would be worth trying. Do you have a recommendation for a set to try? I'd appreciate any good/bad experience reports. Thank you!

I think that there are string sets that do that but they do something with the octave ,not a straight linear tuning. I just found this https://aquilacorde.com/en/shop/mod...ele-en/red-series-guilele-guitalele-e-tuning/

Good Luck.

Badger uke · May 23, 2020

I just got a guitarlele sounds cool but I’m not used to the wound low g string has anyone changed there’s to a non wound, only got it last night so it might grow on me .

SailingUke · May 23, 2020

La Bella makes a classical guitar set for 1/2 size guitars. E to E tuning.

Jim Hanks · May 23, 2020

OregonJim said:
I thought I'd experiment with EADGBE tuning.

I haven't tried. I had a 19" scale that came with E strings but even there, I didn't like it as good as G-to-G. If I was going to try E-to-e for 17" scale, I'd probably try this octave higher set:
https://aquilacorde.com/en/shop/mod...e-guilele-en/high-e-tuning-guilele-guitalele/

CeeJay said:
https://aquilacorde.com/en/shop/modern-instrument-string-sets/guitalele-guilele-en/red-series-guilele-guitalele-e-tuning.

But if you want standard tuning, this is probably your best bet.

Badger uke said:
I just got a guitarlele sounds cool but I’m not used to the wound low g string has anyone changed there’s to a non wound .

I think the only way you're going to get an all unwound tuning for guitalele is a reentrant variant. I've done it G-to-g and most recently B-to-b.

SailingUke said:
La Bella makes a classical guitar set for 1/2 size guitars. E to E tuning.

1/2 scale is something like 21 or 22" isn't it? I can't see that working for 17"

SailingUke · May 23, 2020

Maybe it is a quarter size set, I’ve used them before and they work fine.

merlin666 · May 25, 2020

It is close enough to half of a regular guitar scale so probably best to also tune an octave higher with very thin strings. The gauge of those la Bella strings should provide clues if it's suitable.

Jim Hanks · May 26, 2020

merlin666 said:
It is close enough to half of a regular guitar scale so probably best to also tune an octave higher with very thin strings. The gauge of those la Bella strings should provide clues if it's suitable.

Mmmm, it doesn't really work that way. Standard tension classical guitar strings that yield E2-to-E4 tuning on guitar yield A2-to-A4 tuning on 17" guitalele. Trying to wind that up to E3-to-E5 tuning sounds like a good to snap strings at best or rip off bridges at worst.

I mentioned my reentrant B-to-b tuning. The high B4 string is really thin already, and I'm sure even that would snap long before it got to E5. I have not seen that Aquila octave set, but I gotta believe it has to be using strings that would never work for standard guitar applications.

stanat20 · May 30, 2020

I used a set of savarez prodige 38 540 CXS.Sounds o.k. to my ears.If you look at any of my guitalele videos you can hear what they sound like.

Jim Hanks · May 31, 2020

Bill1 - I'm not sure what you're saying. If you want octave up tuning, there are string sets for that as mentioned earlier in this thread. You won't get there with standard sets as that E5 is super thin. You could get E3 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4, with just the bottom string reentrant, by using an extra 4th string tuned up a step.

17" Scale Guitalele Strings

OregonJim

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CeeJay

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Badger uke

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SailingUke

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Jim Hanks

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SailingUke

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Jim Hanks

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stanat20

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