Baritone Ukulele, is it worth it?

For me, no I would not buy a baritone uke. I have access to a couple of guitars if I wanted to play them.

But for you??? Only you can answer that questions. If you are interested try one out. If the baritone works for you great, play and enjoy. If the baritone is not for you sell and move on.

Perhaps if you know some uke players close to your location you could borrow a baritone for a month and see if the baritone fits for your needs/wants.
 
I have a slightly contentious view.

A bad baritone uke is a nice thing. Good for some bluesy stuff. I like that slightly plunky, percussive sound. My preference is reentrant dgbe, like Lyle Ritz. But that is me, and there's no doubt that a baritone is the best scale for trying unusual tunings.

A good baritone at best sounds like an average nylon strung guitar. Fine if you want that, but why not just get something with the sound you want?

As a cost per hour, all instruments are cheap. Buy one and try for yourself.
 
One of the things I've learned during Covid is how much I enjoy baritones. I have two of them (one steel string and one 8 string) and two tenors that I've tuned DGBE using strings designed for this purpose. I prefer their lower register. They are a journey into "mellowness." Pre-covid, I owned one bari and took it only one time to a group setting. I found it was hard to hear myself play. My son has an acoustic guitar which I could borrow and play - but the six strings are much more challenging than I'm willing to tackle. Bari's bring me joy so I am going to keep playing em. My suggestion is you buy a set of strings which allow you to tune your instrument DGBE and see if you like it. This small investment might help you decide.
 
chris667 said:
I have a slightly contentious view.

A bad baritone uke is a nice thing. Good for some bluesy stuff. I like that slightly plunky, percussive sound. My preference is reentrant dgbe, like Lyle Ritz. But that is me, and there's no doubt that a baritone is the best scale for trying unusual tunings.

A good baritone at best sounds like an average nylon strung guitar. Fine if you want that, but why not just get something with the sound you want?

As a cost per hour, all instruments are cheap. Buy one and try for yourself.
Click to expand...

I have tried and failed to progress a few times to play a guitar, nylon & steel string.
But, I can play a baritone uke and get much enjoyment out of that.
I like the size, the feel, and the tone of the baritone uke. I do not find it a lesser instrument to a guitar.
Yes, a guitar would sound louder, probably fuller with 6 strings, but not if I cannot play it.

BTW I prefer a good quality baritone to a 'bad baritone'.
 
For some reason I didn’t get an email notification until just now. Finished reading all the posts.

Looks like there’s a lot of mixed views out there. Some people say yes, other say no, that type of stuff.

I think I’ll give it some more thought, then make a decision. I don’t want to be too hasty in making a decision.

Jared
 
Hey, Doc_J, don't get hung up on my opinions. I don't dislike baritones. I just feel that the good ones are missing the point. I tried to sell one on this very forum the other week because it sounded too good! I like that percussive, plunky sound you can get with a bad one. A great instrument for blues.

I take one issue with your statement though. The baritone ukulele is literally a lesser instrument than a guitar. Baritone ukuleles are small-bodied guitars with two strings missing. Favilla started selling them along with a teaching method to give children an easier way to learn guitar. In fact, the original Favilla adverts introduced the instrument with the title "Baritone ukulele - the guitar any boy can learn!".

So there they are. Not a guitar, but not really a ukulele either.

Some great music has been done on them and some musicians moved on to great things from the start baritone ukulele gave them. Others did things that they weren't designed for and made them their own. Artists are like that.

Still none of that matters so long as you like the music you make with yours. It's all good. :)
 
It always surprises me the the amount of anti baritone sentiment I find on this group, much of it seemingly from people who get their "deep, rich sound" fix from playing small guitars. If you want a fuller sound get a baritone or learn guitar.

I have two. They are my favorite ukuleles though I like tenors as well.
 
Of course, the other baritone origin story is . . . "that (Arthur) Godfrey asked (Eddie) Connors to design a larger-bodied, lower-pitched ukulele." So the baritone isn't a lesser guitar, it is a greater ukulele!
 
ripock said:
I'm going to vote no, they aren't worth it. A baritone is just an inch or so taller than my tenors. My tenor guitar, tuned DGBE, is essentially a much better-built baritone with steel strings. There just isn't a place for the baritone, at least in my collection.

However, do you know what I'm saving my money for? A custom high-end baritone. Why? Not because of necessity. I don't need a baritone. It is more in the spirit of acquisition and it seems to me to be a challenge. I have been very, very unimpressed with the typical Kala/Lanikai/whatever result of a Chinese assembly line. I want to see what one of the master craftsmen can do with a baritone.

So, to recapitulate, I don't think baritones fit a niche. You may have a different opinion based on your current ukuleles. Nevertheless, although baritones aren't worth it, i'm pursuing one just to complete my collection and to see if I can acquire an enviable instrument with a cutaway.
Click to expand...

Hi, can any tenor ukulele also be tuned DGBE? Or must it be specially set up to use that tuning without the strings flopping around? I like playing baritone with that DGBE tuning - a LOT. But I feel there seem to be more choices in the ukulele world if you're looking for a TENOR.

So depending on what I find out I may get a tenor, since there seem to be so many more offerings out there.

thanks in advance! My question is for anyone that wants to comment, btw. :)
thx
 
Lyle Ritz used to play reentrant baritone ukulele tuning on a tenor ukulele.

Sounds nice!



Aquila make a set of strings for that.
 
Ms Stubs said:
Hi, can any tenor ukulele also be tuned DGBE? Or must it be specially set up to use that tuning without the strings flopping around? I like playing baritone with that DGBE tuning - a LOT. But I feel there seem to be more choices in the ukulele world if you're looking for a TENOR.

So depending on what I find out I may get a tenor, since there seem to be so many more offerings out there.

thanks in advance! My question is for anyone that wants to comment, btw. :)
thx
Click to expand...

Yes a tenor can be tuned DGBE without floppy strings. I have just setup my Ohana Tenor this way and will be doing a review on Tuesday on my YouTube channel. I can tell you it plays and sounds great.

More to come including a side by side comparison with my baritone. Should be interesting.
 
Ms Stubs said:
Hi, can any tenor ukulele also be tuned DGBE? Or must it be specially set up to use that tuning without the strings flopping around? I like playing baritone with that DGBE tuning - a LOT. But I feel there seem to be more choices in the ukulele world if you're looking for a TENOR.

So depending on what I find out I may get a tenor, since there seem to be so many more offerings out there.

thanks in advance! My question is for anyone that wants to comment, btw. :)
thx
Click to expand...

I have a couple of older ukulele instruction books and they divide the instructions into: Baritone/Tenor DGBE and Concert/Soprano GCEA. My understanding is that this was the norm for a number of years.
 
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I have a baritone (a Pono, the discontinued model with the rosewood sides/back) and have loved it from the day I got it. I foolishly sold it once, and then bought it back. I never really warmed up to tenors, but the baritone is really enjoyable to me. If I could only have two ukes, it would be the baritone plus one soprano or concert. Guitars surprisingly didn't work for me (and I really tried!), though banjos checked a lot of boxes for me.
 
After further review, I’m going to ask some friends of mine on a ukulele group what they think. I like everyone’s opinions, but I need more before I make a decision.

Jared
 
I have toyed with the idea of a baritone. I'm unenthused by the idea of re-learning the chord shapes. Unless I misunderstand, I am under the impression that all of the chord shapes translate over, but they all have different chord names. Right now, I can pick up any of my ukes and play something, the same thing even, on each one if I want, because they're all sopranos, or concerts, or tenors. I would not be able to do that on a baritone without learning more. This is 100% of my reason to not get one. I simply don't have the time to learn the differences to justify the purchase.
 
donboody said:
I have toyed with the idea of a baritone. I'm unenthused by the idea of re-learning the chord shapes. Unless I misunderstand, I am under the impression that all of the chord shapes translate over, but they all have different chord names. Right now, I can pick up any of my ukes and play something, the same thing even, on each one if I want, because they're all sopranos, or concerts, or tenors. I would not be able to do that on a baritone without learning more. This is 100% of my reason to not get one. I simply don't have the time to learn the differences to justify the purchase.
Click to expand...

You don't really have to learn anything new if you don't want to. If, for example, there's a song you play on your soprano in the key of E, you can play it exactly the same way on a baritone and it will be the same old song except it will be in the key of B.
 
Yep, you can just play songs the way you know them, and they will sound the same - they will just be a different key. Key largely only matters if you play with others.

But it will also not take very long to associate a chord shape with two (or more) different chord names. I also worried a bit about this, but it came easily. It's the same with sopranos in D tuning (I think they sound better in this tuning): same chord shapes, different chord names. Now that I added a banjo to my instrument collection (and have a custom one being built), I find that my brain can even handle that. The shapes are always the same (banjo has an extra string, but it's not fretted, so it's four strings as far as chords are concerned, for the most part), they are just "context specific". I don't have much musicianship or music theory knowledge, so if I can manage it, you can almost certainly get the hang of this, too! :)
 
I love my Baritone! Not as much as my tenor or classical guitar but it does have its place in my small collection of instruments. It doesn't necessarily fit a particular song or type of music better than my other options, but it does fit a mood. When I just want to chill on the couch and play something mellow I'll grab it. It doesn't get nearly as much play as my other instruments but it's perfect when I take it out.
 
ripock said:
You don't really have to learn anything new if you don't want to. If, for example, there's a song you play on your soprano in the key of E, you can play it exactly the same way on a baritone and it will be the same old song except it will be in the key of B.
Click to expand...
Come on now I want one.
 
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