Super Tenor? Long Neck Tenor? One I can buy that doesn't cost thousands?

polstein

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Lemme make sure I have this straight (forget about the strings & tuning - talking strictly about size)

Baritone - biggest body, 20" scale

Baby Baritone (?) - slightly smaller body, 19" scale

Super Tenor OR Long Neck Tenor - bigger then Tenor, smaller then Baritone - 18" or 19" scale

Tenor - smaller body, 17" scale

So I (only playing couple months) currently have a Baritone & a Tenor.

Mebbe it's from switching back & forth - but to me the Baritone feels a little too bit big - especially the neck. The body feels slightly large, but not much.

The Tenor neck feels a liitle too squished. The body feels sliiightly too small at times.

This led me to finding out about things like Long Neck / Super Tenors - and a couple references to Baby Baritones. But in almost everything I can find, they are all custom made ones costing thousands.

Is there some happy medium that has a body size between the tenor & baritone and something like a 18.5" scale (without spending thousands)? Is this just me and if I stick to say the Tenor I'd get used to it just fine?

If it matters, I would want to tune it Low-G.
 
I do have a distinct preference for 19" vs 20" scale. If you want a 19" scale at a reasonable price, I'd suggest looking at Bonanza Ukuleles. You'd have to ask for it but it won't be much more expensive, if at all. There are several body styles to choose from so I'm sure you could find one you like.

Or you could look for a vintage baritone, most of which had the shorter 19" scale.

Another idea is to get a capo for the bari. Put it on the first fret and you're then at 19". That'll tell you if it is worth pursuing a uke with that scale "natively"
 
Googling bonanaza

The capo thing is an interesting idea. Would the distance replicate the 19" ones (ie, is fret 2 of a baritone the same as fret 1 of a 19") ?
 
Preference could also be determined by tuning. Probably GCEA would not be feasible/pleasant at longer scales.

It's feasible but I only use lower tunings with my bari scales. I can do GCEA effectively with concert scale so I might as well not "waste" the longer scales with that :p
 
I play super tenors exclusively. Mine are, I'm afraid, expensive...but worth it. I would suggest diverting $20 or so from every paycheck into a super tenor fund that will purchase you an awesome uke in a year. Here is some data for you, if by chance it helps.

I always use concert strings on my super tenors for lessened tension.

I have them tuned to some form of GCEA. I am currently playing EAC#F# because I like the tension and I like a warm, if not muddy, sound rather than a shrill traditional timbre.

I would say that you should insist on a cutaway if you're getting a super tenor. Otherwise you cannot make use of those extra frets.

Those are my thoughts that occur to me right now.
 
I play super tenors exclusively. Mine are, I'm afraid, expensive...but worth it.

Funny, my immediate thought here before I read on, was the comment I made when I bought my last one - I'm hoping to be playing the right uke for at least 30 minutes a day hopefully for 30-50 years - so I'm ok with paying more if I knew I was getting the perfect one for me.

I would suggest diverting $20 or so from every paycheck into a super tenor fund that will purchase you an awesome uke in a year.
That's $240 - what Super Tenors can you get for that price? I thought the "good ones" were more like $1500+ price range..?

I found out about reverb lat night, which did finally lead me to one model: Kala KA-ASZCT-ST ($320-$370 or so)

I always use concert strings on my super tenors for lessened tension.
I've read about that a few times, and I still need to wrap my head around it. Feels counter-intuitive to me - If you take strings that are right for a concert, then put them on a much longer neck you would think they would be *tighter* not looser - but I presume since it's a longer neck you don't have to tighten them as much to get the right note - so overall they are not as tight.. assuming the strings are long enough. When I get (if I get..) one, I figured I'd get strings known 100% to work with the scale length.. (low-g, preferably no wound strings for me).

Which model & strings are you on now? (and thanks for your time!)
 
Another idea is to get a capo for the bari. Put it on the first fret and you're then at 19". That'll tell you if it is worth pursuing a uke with that scale "natively"

Another idea is to get a capo for the bari. Put it on the first fret and you're then at 19". That'll tell you if it is worth pursuing a uke with that scale "natively"

I tried this test last night - then again played even more now. Last night, my initial thought was 1st vs 2nd felt the same. So today I broke out a ruler - I didn't realize that we're talking about 1/16th - 1/8th of an inch type of difference!!

Anyway, in going with your test - I took my tenor & used a D and a Dm chord as my examples. On the tenor, the is barely enough space for me to get my fingers down and you need pretty exact placements to avoid a buzz (and I'm not good enough to wonder what will happen as I move down the neck towards the sound hole where the problem would get worse)..

On the baritone, there is lots of space on the 1st, still space on 2nd - and it's kind of the 3rd down where things start feeling about "ideal" - would that mean an.. 18-18.5" scale in an idea world? But once again we're talking about maybe 1/16th of an inch, so starting to feel like I'm just being too picky here.

Finally I did a thumb test - I laid my thumb over the 1st fret of my tenor. I can see a sliver of fretboard on either side of it before I see frets. On the baritone, it's the 4th fret where it looks like same as the tenor. So - to compare, on my baritone - 4th fret is "tenor thumb size", 1st fret is "baritone thumb size" - which means fret 2 might be "19 inch scale thumb size" - and fret 3 might be "18 inch scale thumb size"... which matches what I felt in the 1st test.

Either way, dang interesting & fun little experiment, without these tests I don't think I would have realized how close the fret space really is on the different types- I knew there was a difference but always assume the bigger ones just had a higher fret count to make up mot of the size difference. I also assume that the frets are placed with precision to make sure you get the correct notes for the scale (ie, they have to be where they are).
 
I found out about reverb lat night, which did finally lead me to one model: Kala KA-ASZCT-ST ($320-$370 or so)
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/de...ce-ziricote-super-tenor-ukulele-satin-natural
says: Scale Length: 20.187"

Hmm, https://kalabrand.com/products/ka-aszct-st says: Scale Length: 18.875 inches
Interesting.

If you take strings that are right for a concert, then put them on a much longer neck you would think they would be *tighter* not looser
For the same tuning, you are right, but notice that ripock has tuned down 3 half steps. I've used standard tenor strings (Living Water) for linear A tuning on 19" scale. A lot depends on the specific strings, and some personal preference, what ends up being the "sweet spot" for tension and tuning.

BTW, it's common practice to use concert strings which are generally thinner gauge to get lower tension on tenor scale (at the same tuning) which are generally thicker gauge. But putting concert strings on baritone, it makes sense you'd also have to tune down to get an acceptable tension. If you really want GCEA on baritone, it is possible, but you need to find (or design) your string selection for that purpose - hint, they will be much thinner than strings typical DGBE baritone tuning.
 
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Funny, my immediate thought here before I read on, was the comment I made when I bought my last one - I'm hoping to be playing the right uke for at least 30 minutes a day hopefully for 30-50 years - so I'm ok with paying more if I knew I was getting the perfect one for me.

That's $240 - what Super Tenors can you get for that price? I thought the "good ones" were more like $1500+ price range..?

I found out about reverb lat night, which did finally lead me to one model: Kala KA-ASZCT-ST ($320-$370 or so)

I've read about that a few times, and I still need to wrap my head around it. Feels counter-intuitive to me - If you take strings that are right for a concert, then put them on a much longer neck you would think they would be *tighter* not looser - but I presume since it's a longer neck you don't have to tighten them as much to get the right note - so overall they are not as tight.. assuming the strings are long enough. When I get (if I get..) one, I figured I'd get strings known 100% to work with the scale length.. (low-g, preferably no wound strings for me).

Which model & strings are you on now? (and thanks for your time!)

I may have misspoke on the frequency of the savings plan, but you know what I mean. Divert funds every month, week, or paycheck 'til you have enough for the down payment on custom super tenor. Then keep on saving for the balance of the ukulele which will be due on completion of the ukulele in a year or two.

As far as strings are concerned, I believe I have Worth browns (concert size, re-entrant) on my Kamaka super tenor and Fremont Blacklines (concert size, linear, unwound) on my Rob Collins custom. I mainly choose my strings based on their color. I like dark strings atop the dark wood of the fret board. That's the only reason I don't use Ken Middleton's strings: they're ugly. White clear strings don't look so good on my English walnut fret board.
 
I may have misspoke on the frequency of the savings plan, but you know what I mean. Divert funds every month, week, or paycheck 'til you have enough for the down payment on custom super tenor. Then keep on saving for the balance of the ukulele which will be due on completion of the ukulele in a year or two.

As far as strings are concerned, I believe I have Worth browns (concert size, re-entrant) on my Kamaka super tenor and Fremont Blacklines (concert size, linear, unwound) on my Rob Collins custom. I mainly choose my strings based on their color. I like dark strings atop the dark wood of the fret board. That's the only reason I don't use Ken Middleton's strings: they're ugly. White clear strings don't look so good on my English walnut fret board.

If you consider a custom or high end uke you may want to stay away from low tension strings. These are mainly for people with hand problems and work on low end ukes. An expensive uke should sound as good as possible so you want high tension and thick strings to utilize its sonic potential.
 
An expensive uke should sound as good as possible so you want high tension and thick strings to utilize its sonic potential.

Ok waitasec here - on my tenor, I ordered Living Water ones (since I like them on my baritone) - but they will here in around a month (and afaik they are clear, not white).

In the meantime, store gave me the choice of Worth Brown OR Worth Clear - and I took the clear ones since I figured that would be what I was used to. But they are thicker and the tension was high enough to cause me pain on my fingers - and they sounded umm..too.. bright? Loud?

So I tried to replace them with Worth Browns where the tension is lower & they are much skinnier...and the sound is more dim and mellow.. but now I have the problem where I have to strum a lot harder to get any noise out at all.. kind of feels too quiet.

I'm wishing I did some sample records of the clear ones so I could decide which I like better without re-stringing it a dozen more times in a day.

(Or I can just wait the month & have a 3-way comparison ...)
 
If you consider a custom or high end uke you may want to stay away from low tension strings. These are mainly for people with hand problems and work on low end ukes. An expensive uke should sound as good as possible so you want high tension and thick strings to utilize its sonic potential.

I suppose that's true if you equate "sound as good as possible" with that shrill, plunky sound of Tiny Tim. I have a different aesthetic in mind. To me the traditional ukulele sound resembles playing a guitar between the bridge and tail piece and I avoid that sound at all costs. I play mostly Roots music and prefer the warmer, lazy and hazy, desultory sound of loose strings. That's just the sound I'm shooting for.
 
I suppose that's true if you equate "sound as good as possible" with that shrill, plunky sound of Tiny Tim. I have a different aesthetic in mind. To me the traditional ukulele sound resembles playing a guitar between the bridge and tail piece and I avoid that sound at all costs. I play mostly Roots music and prefer the warmer, lazy and hazy, desultory sound of loose strings. That's just the sound I'm shooting for.

This 100% for me. I love the uke's size - and 4 strings > 6 strings for me. But I *don't* like the "Tiny Tim" sound. When I mention I'm learning uke to friends, they all flinch because that's exactly what they all imagine it sounds like. They I play something quick (or direct them to a vid).

This is also why my first direction was to a baritone uke - then a Tenor (low G) - and now I'm just working on the sweet spot of sounds vs exact size which was the point of this thread... (which, btw - if I could start all over is really starting to sound like save up for a good Super Tenor at 18-19" scale & put log-G strings on them).

SO next question for me. Let's say I want to start saving up for the nicer $1500+ models - what are my options? The name I see pop up a lot is Kanileau.

And what are my string options (I'd prefer no wound strings), aiming for deeper mellow sounds, and from I read you use concert strings..?? Ideally I'd like thinner ones where the tension is not super tight.
 
SO next question for me. Let's say I want to start saving up for the nicer $1500+ models - what are my options? The name I see pop up a lot is Kanileau.

And what are my string options (I'd prefer no wound strings), aiming for deeper mellow sounds, and from I read you use concert strings..?? Ideally I'd like thinner ones where the tension is not super tight.

I'm afraid I'm not going to be very helpful here. I don't have wandering eyes; once I acquired my ukuleles of choice, I stopped looking.

I do have a Kamaka super tenor. Kanilea is often spoken of in the same breath as Kamaka in terms of quality. So it would be a safe bet. Probably a good methodology would be to get a list of the elite makers such as koolau, Martin, Mya Moe, etc. and see who has super tenors. I don't know how a person would find all the smaller, less well marketed companies, like Bonanza, who make super tenors.

Another option is the custom uke route. You just go to a luthier and tell him/her what scale length you want (as well as other specifications) and you get your super tenor. I went this route and it was great although it cost a bit more than your price (I paid, I think, two installments of 800 pounds a.k.a. $2000).

Do keep an eye on the used ukulele scene. I recently saw advertised on this forum a long neck soprano. It stands to reason that long necked tenors also occur.

As for strings, I stick with fluorocarbon strings for a warmer sound. I am currently using Worth brown strings and Fremont Black Line strings. But I wouldn't be adverse to trying any other strings as long as they were fluorocarbon and dark in color. I have tried Living Water strings and they were good, but they didn't have the look I was looking for. And I do prefer concert-sized strings because I find them more pliant and that allows for string bends or octave-wide glissandi.
 
Kanile'a tenors seem to me to lean more towards the lower base end of sound. Their angled back gives a lot of sound.

If you really like a booming rich sound, check out Mike Pereira's Cali made of back walnut. It has a very earthy sound that is quite good with Living Waters strings.

Last I knew, Mims was carrying them for around $800. They are well-made and very comfortable to play. They are a standard tenor sized body. But may suit your needs without breaking the bank.

Or, consider a pineapple shaped tenor body instead of a standard double bout. They tend towards a more full-bodied sound as well. Pono makes a base model for around $650. Make sure you see photos of the actual instrument you are buying.
 
Kanile'a tenors seem to me to lean more towards the lower base end of sound. Their angled back gives a lot of sound.

If you really like a booming rich sound, check out Mike Pereira's Cali made of back walnut. It has a very earthy sound that is quite good with Living Waters strings.

Last I knew, Mims was carrying them for around $800. They are well-made and very comfortable to play. They are a standard tenor sized body. But may suit your needs without breaking the bank.
.

Checking these out now, thanks. My Living Water strings for my tenor showed & put them on (keeping the Worth Browns) - and it made a significant difference to me. Much louder without being too.. bright?
 
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