String recommendation a 1980 25" scale bass as tenor ukulele?

electrocio

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Hello all.

I'd like to try picking up the Ukulele. I have listened to a few you tube videos and like the sound of the tenor. I do have a 1980's Quest by Vantage piccolo bass, it is a 25" scale bass. My understanding is that a tenor ukulele is a 26" scale instrument. I am wondering what string I could use to tune by bass as a ukulele (standard tuning). I know Tenor strings should work but are there specific ones I should look for when dealing with an electric instrument.


My plan would be to use by bass to see how much I like the ukulele and judge my learning curve. Then later get a better good/decent ukulele if I find my self liking it. I have used the bass in question as a tenor bass and playing cords. I have lent this bass to a friend who used it for a while tuned and played as a banjo. I will link a a few pictures of the bass I found on-line and a you tube video that I found of some body play the bass tuned as a standard bass.

Pics of the instrument: https://reverb.com/item/1565453-vintage-1980-s-quest-by-vantage-travel-bass-guitar-japan-matsumoku

You tube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5qF8U9xLRE
 
No, tenor uke is 17" scale and nylon or flourocarbon strings. You might be able to find strings to tune your bass to GCEA but it won't be remotely a ukulele-like experience.

You can get a brand new, excellently set up tenor for under $150 shipped
https://mimsukes.com/collections/te...m-laminate-mahogany-with-binding-ukulele-i256

You might be able to get a used one here for less.

Be careful with Amazon, Musicians Friend, etc. With Black Friday coming, there are bound to be some "unbelievable deals" but unless you're comfortable doing your own setup, they might not play as well as they should and leave you with an unfair assessment.
 
AH thanks! I just realized I mixed up the "size" with scale size. I normall think about scale size for string instruments and I read a couple sites listing sizes and I now see they where listing average length not scale size. HAHA there goes that idea. thanks for the clarification.
 
fun and "blasphemous" update. Since my quest bass was setup as a 4 string tenor I basically could just retuned it for to a GCEA. Having a set of strings I removed previously gave me another .045 so I slapped that on, tuned it to gCEA and started to learn a few cords. It does not sound like a uke (since it is octaves below) but it is fun trying to learn the new chords. Since I had a good idea about how it would sound (from playing it as a tenor bass using chords ) It actually like the sound and it's how I expected. I think this will work for me until I can find a deal on a uke I like. The end goal is to learn some chords and songs to eventually teach my daughter when she gets old enough. Thanks for helping me think this through. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for black Friday sales.
 
I haven't played in over 20 years so It's like starting from scratch. I'll try to record some audio of a few chords. I need to dig out some old gear to plug it into something.
 
just for giggles I got some guitar (same gauges as picolo bass) strings and put them on. boy does that make it sounds bright in comparison My Pbass pickups don't can't reproduce the acoustic sound of it. A(.020), E(.026), C(.036), G(.022) for the bass strings. I also got some of Baritone gGCEA string to put on a Puerto Rican Quatro. The cuatro sounds good but the 20" is really camped for my fingers, I have to see how a tenor feels at only 17" scale.
 
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