Tenor or Baritone?

Hey!

I currently own a Cordoba Concert Uke and love it playing it, but I want something that is a little lower range. Is the concert to tenor a big enough jump that I will be able to get that bassier sound or do I need to get a baritone uke to have that? It seems like tenors are a lot easier to find, but the bari looks pretty cool.

Thanks for any response!

Tenor and concert ukes have the same range. Neither of them is supposed to be a bassy instrument at all and even with a low G are still in the treble range of a guitar. A linear tuned baritone will give you the highest guitar equivalent bass string D. But really that's just a partial guitar then so what would be the point.

A baritone is almost a guitar, same tuning, DGBE.

Yes it will give you a fuller sound, & is quite a nice uke if you want the low notes, but the longer scale isn't for everyone, (I tried, but don't really get on with it), however, you can get DGBE tuning on a tenor, with the right stings, but it's not quite the same as with the bigger body of a bari.

This being your first post we don’t know anything about you so recommendations are hard. Do you have a music background, do you play other instruments, do you play guitar, how long have you played ukulele.

If you were a raw beginner to ukulele with no music background I would say install a wound low G string on your existing concert uke. It will give you a lower tone and that might satisfy you. Going to a baritone will give you a much lower register. The DGBE tuning (which baritone is) is the first 4 strings of a guitar. I love it but it opens up a can of worms if you are just learning and new to music. You can, I did this at first, just grab the baritone and play it the same as your concert. The songs or pieces will sound similar but lower in tone as it is tuned down to the key of G, your concert is in the key of C.

You post doesnt specify how low a range you need, for what purpose.
I mostly play reentrant, except when I need those five extra semitones in the low end for a melody or for one of those rare songs where the chords allow for root notes to be played pretty low on a low G uke, making it sound almost like a bass line played right.

A baritone would add five more semitones.
A guitar ten more again.
Each step up (or down in range) takes away some of the characteristic uke sound. So you might want to consider what sound you are going for.

If you just want a few more notes, but keep the same chord shapes you play, just try a low G or a tenor ukulele with low G. If you want something significantly different, there are the other options.

Personally I dont have a baritone. They sound great, but I have a guitar - and that also gives me two extra strings.

There are tenor ukes available with larger bodies that have a bassier sound. There are also ukes with a baritone body and a tenor neck. An option I might try is a baritone strung GCEA but an octave lower than standard tuning.

I play concerts, tenors with a low G and I have a lovely cedar top baritone as well. The rich deep sound of the baritone is the most satisfying, to me, of all the ukuleles I play. Sometime I think I like it enough to stop playing the others - than i play my tenor and realize I love that too.

There are a lot of players on this site who actively dislike baritones. Ignore them.

UkingViking said:

You post doesnt specify how low a range you need, for what purpose.
I mostly play reentrant, except when I need those five extra semitones in the low end for a melody or for one of those rare songs where the chords allow for root notes to be played pretty low on a low G uke, making it sound almost like a bass line played right.

A baritone would add five more semitones.
A guitar ten more again.
Each step up (or down in range) takes away some of the characteristic uke sound. So you might want to consider what sound you are going for.

If you just want a few more notes, but keep the same chord shapes you play, just try a low G or a tenor ukulele with low G. If you want something significantly different, there are the other options.

Personally I dont have a baritone. They sound great, but I have a guitar - and that also gives me two extra strings.

Click to expand...

I have a guitar too, which is why I was thinking of just going with the low G tenor, but wanted to see what people thought. Thanks for your reply!

BBegall said:

I play concerts, tenors with a low G and I have a lovely cedar top baritone as well. The rich deep sound of the baritone is the most satisfying, to me, of all the ukuleles I play. Sometime I think I like it enough to stop playing the others - than i play my tenor and realize I love that too.

There are a lot of players on this site who actively dislike baritones. Ignore them.

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Awesome, thanks so much for your reply! I'm trying to find a place that I can play one of each to see which one I like the most. Why do you think the baris are disliked so much?

kriskane said:

Awesome, thanks so much for your reply! I'm trying to find a place that I can play one of each to see which one I like the most. Why do you think the baris are disliked so much?

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I wouldn’t say baritones are disliked, they just have a smaller following. Tenor size is the most popular size. Baritones have the smallest following. Currently, I play baritones more often than tenors. I suppose baritones sound more like guitars than traditional ukes.

A few days ago I ordered a set of Fremont bari-tuned tenor strings to put on one of my tenors (plus a wound low-d). I once had a baritone, but my fingers have a hard enough time on a tenor scaled uke so I sold it. I’ve been playing a lot of slack key ukulele tunes and it’ll be nice to play some tunes in a lower key. I’ll probably loose a bit of low end resonance in the bargain, though.

kriskane said:

...Why do you think the baris are disliked so much?

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Some folks seem to feel that baritone sounds too much like guitar, and those players should just get a guitar instead.

The baritone sounds very much like a guitar when tuned DGBE. That is not a surprise. What was a surprise was when I strung my tenor for dGBE (re-entrant D). I really like the way it sounds , especially since I don't have to relearn the notes (no transposing) when switching between the two.

-W

<edit> I would add that baritones tend to have wider string spacing at the nut, which you may or may not like. As an example, the Mitchell MUB70S has a very wide nut. You will need to look at the specs.

Wiggy said:

The baritone sounds very much like a guitar when tuned DGBE. That is not a surprise. What was a surprise was when I strung my tenor for dGBE (re-entrant D). I really like the way it sounds , especially since I don't have to relearn the notes (no transposing) when switching between the two.

-W

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I just watched a YouTube video of someone playing with this tuning and it sounded awesome.

Wiggy said:

The baritone sounds very much like a guitar when tuned DGBE. That is not a surprise. What was a surprise was when I strung my tenor for dGBE (re-entrant D). I really like the way it sounds , especially since I don't have to relearn the notes (no transposing) when switching between the two.

-W

<edit> I would add that baritones tend to have wider string spacing at the nut, which you may or may not like. As an example, the Mitchell MUB70S has a very wide nut. You will need to look at the specs.

Click to expand...

If you have access to personally play a bari before you make your purchase, I definitely suggest doing so. Up until 3 months ago, I was a straight re-entrant GCEA player. One day I met a neighbor with a baritone uke and played around with it for a bit and wow, so much more body (physically and aurally) and definitely more bass. As you are starting out, I'd advise to start with standard tunings as most online tutorials and references for both GCEA and DGBE tunings will be with standard tuning in mind.

And please, more experienced uke players correct me if I'm wrong, but not needing to transpose chords with high DGBE tuning is incorrect as you are now playing in the key of G as opposed to key of C. You will need to relearn chords, but it shouldn't be that difficult. For example, a C chord played on GCEA is a G on DGBE. G on GCEA is D on DGBE. A minor is E minor and F is B. Chord shapes are the same but they represent different notes on DGBE.

My experience with bari uke has opened me up to other tunings. I didn't much like low GCEA but now I have a couple ukes in low G and one in high DGBE.

If a bari uke is too big for your hands, you can get a tenor size and string it with baritone strings. More body and bass to sound than GCEA tenor but not as much as a bari uke. However, if you can't get the ease of play on the neck with a bari uke due to size difference, then there's really no point. I restrung my Kala mahogany laminate with Aquila bari strings and it sounds awesome to me. If you are thinking all solid wood, I suggest trying a Martin Fluorocarbon bari string set for a tenor. Tenor is by far the most versatile of the sizes IMHO.

I found a store in my area that has a decent sized uke selection and got to play a bari and a gCEA tenor and a low GCEA tenor, but because of Covid restrictions I wasn't able to really linger and get a good feel of any of them, so I didn't end up with anything yet, but I want to go back when I'm able to play around with more of them and get a better feel. It is looking like I'm going to probably going to end up getting a tenor and restringing it. Although, that in its self is pretty anxiety-inducing. I hate putting strings on.

Ooh! I also got to play with a guitalele which was pretty cool.

kriskane said:

I found a store in my area that has a decent sized uke selection and got to play a bari and a gCEA tenor and a low GCEA tenor, but because of Covid restrictions I wasn't able to really linger and get a good feel of any of them, so I didn't end up with anything yet, but I want to go back when I'm able to play around with more of them and get a better feel. It is looking like I'm going to probably going to end up getting a tenor and restringing it. Although, that in its self is pretty anxiety-inducing. I hate putting strings on.

Ooh! I also got to play with a guitalele which was pretty cool.

Click to expand...

Here's a tutorial on restringing your uke. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmrISmF6O3I

Can find more on YT. It becomes very straight forward once you get the hang of it, which you will. Happy New Year!

It is not difficult to re-learn, as the shapes remain the same. The baritone tuning is very convenient, if you want to make music with a guitar player. There are almost no uke players in my area. And yes there is a fundamentalist / traditional group who prefer the original way. I wud like a tenor Godin uke tuned in DGBE (low D). But that's just me. You should do what you like.

Just get one of each.

When I think of it, the baritones range would probably suit me better than the tenors, when I play the way I play an ukulele.

Often I will play some jazz standard and sing the melody, then have intrumental breaks/intros where I play the same melody in some kind of chord melody arrangement.
And I prefer to have the melody in the lower frets of the two first strings.
Given my vocal range, this would fit better on a baritone.
When I play chords/arperggios, my habits from the little guitar i played at home says I like to alternate between bass notes and chords, or play arpeggios with the root note as the lowest note. This is just so much easier on a guitar, since there are the extra bass strings.

Anyway, depending on what OP want to play, vocal range might indicate what would be smartest to play.