Fluke ad

Ukecaster

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 7, 2009
Messages
5,261
Reaction score
2,935
Location
New England, USA
Saw this verbiage in a tenor Fluke ad on eBay:

"Like the concert, the tenor easily accommodates GCEA tuning but can also handle the lower DGBE tuning (high D)".

I can't imagine tuning to low G, like a bari I guess. I've tried A tuning, and that was real floppy and low sounding.
 
Last edited:
Reentrant G tuning for tenor is absolutely possible with several commercial sets available (Living Water and Fremont, probably others) but whether they fit the nut slots on the Fluke I'm not sure about.

If you want reentrant A tuning for tenor, I highly recommend the World of Ukes Clarity strings
 
I've read that DGBE used to be standard tuning for tenor ukes.

In fact, a book I have on understanding chords, breaks the chords into soprano/concert GCEA and tenor/baritone DGBE.
 
True - DGBE used to be standard tuning for tenors.

I think the problem is that you're trying that tuning with GCEA-tenor strings, which become all floppy and without volume. You need some beefier strings.

I wouldn't call DGBE 'low G-tuning', that is downright confusing. It is a G6 tuning, but the 'low' or 'high' indicates if the 4th string isn't or is an octave higher than expected. Low is linear tuning, high is reentrant tuning.

The late Lyle Ritz played a tenor in linear DGBE tuning on his late 1950s ukulele jazz records.
 
True - DGBE used to be standard tuning for tenors.

I would think that the first tenors were tuned like the sopranos and concerts in the 20s - in ADF#B. It is likely that their larger size was a contributing factor for GCEA becoming the standard. DGBE didn't enter the uke world until 1948 when Arthur Godfrey wanted a guitar-like uke and the baritone was born. Some people then adapted this to tenor uke but of course in a re-entrant format where G is still the lowest string like a regular linear tenor uke. There is an Aquila AQ-11 string set available for this. It basically means that you are losing the high A so the sound will be quite dark.
 
I wouldn't call DGBE 'low G-tuning', that is downright confusing. It is a G6 tuning, but the 'low' or 'high' indicates if the 4th string isn't or is an octave higher than expected. Low is linear tuning, high is reentrant tuning.

The late Lyle Ritz played a tenor in linear DGBE tuning on his late 1950s ukulele jazz records.
Concur on the first - "low G" means GCEA or linear C. That's why I said "reentrant G". There's always going to be an element of confusion around this topic, but there's absolutely no reason to misuse a phrase like "low G" which has a widely accepted meaning.

I had always heard Ritz used reentrant dGBE tuning but you might be right. I do know of some tab books with his arrangements but haven't seen them. Maybe they would clear up that point.
 
I wonder if standard Baritone strings would accomplish this.
 
Top Bottom