Baritone question

As someone relatively new to music who is interested in a Baritone ukulele.

I see Baritone’s usually strung DGBE and I like the sound.
However I have recently seen Baritone Ukes for sale strung GCEA.

My question is are these the same instrument but strung differently?
or are they physically different in there construction.?

Apologies is this sounds dumb but it gets confusing for my old brain.

Same thing with different strings. This is a marketing move to attract people who don't want to change tunings to add a bari to their collection.

In theory the design could be adjusted to resonate better at the different tunings, but that would be more of an artisan luthier thing than a mass-market thing.

For a baritone, the top resonates better with the DGBE tuning than the GCEA tuning. I found the c tuning on a bari sounding thin and not as robust as in the G tuning. If you wanted a C tuned baritone and have G strings on it, a person just has to use a capo at the 5th fret.

Each size of uke used to have its own tuning, but mass marketing changed that to all ukes using gCEA re entrant.
Baritones don't fit that tuning well, so use DGBE linear like a guitar.
Chord shapes are the same, just in different keys.

Ignore the haters.

My Kala spruce top just LOVES "Low G" tuning, much better than it ever did in "Low D". It's mostly a substitute Renaissance guitar now, at which it excels. If you look at the Jazzy Ukulele videos, you'll notice he's also using a "Low G" baritone. Strings can be tricky to find, but I know PhD makes them, and you can repurpose classical guitar strings.

Baritones also sound wonderful in Cuatro tuning, dgbe (first string an octave DOWN), open tunings . . . . Baritones are incredibly versitile. Sonically, "too high" isn't as much of a concern as "too low" and guitarists A and E strings are "too low" for the body and they get on Just Fine. A serious problem that some Tenors have is that they resonate at "Low G" which is Usually what people complain about when they say they don't like "wound G on inexpensive tenors"

I keep my Pono Nui in "Low D" which is GLORIOUS, and my Kala didn't sound "bad" there, just not as good as the Nui, and again it LOVES Low G.

I will preface this saying I don't have a true baritone ukulele. I do have a Puerto Rican Cuatro that I converted into a 5-string baritone (it is the same scale) using gGCEA baritone strings. It sounds AMAZING to me. The High+Low G give such a full and rich sound. There is nothing wrong (for non-purist) with tuning a baritone in gCEA or GCEA. The only time you have a problem (sonically) is tuning an instrument lower than the body is designed for or using the incorrect gauge scale and/or material strings for that scale and note. A larger body will accentuate the lower frequencies in a note, so if you want a brighter sound you want a smaller body (for same wood type/contruction).

p.s: I got a set of baritone gCEA string and bought a separate low G.

Thanks for the replies guys,

But my question is , is a Baritone sold with GCEA strings the same instrument as one sold with GDBE sings?
Would they be physically the same.?

Hailsnail said:

Thanks for the replies guys,

But my question is , is a Baritone sold with GCEA strings the same instrument as one sold with GDBE sings?
Would they be physically the same.?

Click to expand...

Arcy said:

Same thing with different strings. (Snip)

Click to expand...

As Arcy said, it’s the same instrument with different strings. Physically the same.

Hailsnail said:

Thanks for the replies guys,

But my question is , is a Baritone sold with GCEA strings the same instrument as one sold with GDBE sings?
Would they be physically the same.?

Click to expand...

If your question is "can I restring a baritone to DGBE that comes with GCEA strings as stock?" then the answer is yes you can and the DGBE strings will work just fine. The uke is the same structurally, it's just the strings that are different.

Here's a video of UU member Choirguy trying different standard baritone strings on a Flight NUB310 baritone that comes with GCEA strings as stock:

Thanks Dohle thats just what I wanted to know.

If you have a Tenor, try the Fremont Blackline Bari-Tenor strings, dGBE tuning. They give a re entrant baritone sound on a tenor uku and sound lovely. You can also just detune a gcea set to dgbe, but I like the Bari-tenor strings better.
People seem to want to use gCEA tuing so they don't have to learn bari chord shapes, but if you play the same chord shapes you're just five steps lower and playing alone you'd never notice, except for singing.
I'm more comfortable singing baritone anyway.

It's in storage right now, but I have a Mainland Baritone strung GCEA, but an octave lower than normal. Very weird! I strung it that way not knowing what it would sound like. Frankly, it's too low and muddy sounding for chording. But, I think it might be great for playing like a bass, sort of. I just haven't had enough time to figure it out. It will come out of storage with the rest of our stuff when the new house is finished. Hopefully before Thanksgiving.