baritone sound

i have been listening to a bunch of clips on youtube and a lot of baritones have a more or less guitar sound. a few however have the crispness in notes, the clarity and the pop. they sound like an ukulele playing at lower pitch rather than sounding like a guitar.
which baritone ukuleles, or ukulele/string combinations, have this clarity?

savagehenry's Koloa

To be honest, my current dilemma is finding an instrument that is 4-stringed and tuned in DGBE and uses nylon strings - like a baritone uke - but is sized/shaped the same as a Classical Guitar, so I can sound more like a Classical guitar.

The Baritone uke is certainly different from a classical guitar.
Owning both instruments, I have many opportunities to compare them side by side.

You're right, the baritone uke has more crispness, punchiness and clarity in the treble notes. The Classical guitar has more sustain, softness and more "air" to the bass notes.

To be honest, for a lot of my playing, I prefer the latter.
However, NO WHERE can I find a 4-stringed Classical guitar.

Southcoast ukuleles has a model called a "plectrum guitar" which is apparently the closest thing to what I'm looking for - but it looks like they'll be unavailable for a very long time. I find myself at the music store.. I pick up a classical guitar and can sit there for ages playing it like a 4-string... wishing there was a 4-stringed version.

What annoys me is that there are millions of classical guitars out there in all price ranges, but zero classical guitars with 4 strings.

Steel stringed tenor guitars are relatively widely available (I own two, an Ozark acoustic-electric 4-string guitar, and an Eastwood solid-body electric 4-string guitar). But my ideal instrument by far would be a 4-stringer that is sized and voiced just like a lovely classical guitar.

Still awaiting to hear back from Loprinzi if they would do a 4-stringed version of their Cremona acoustic/cutaway/electric classical guitar for me..

kissing
it all depends on style of playing and sound, doesn't it. you have an interesting and difficult quest there. worst come to worst you always have the classical guitar.
there will always be barbarians who seek the more funky sound, not mentioning any names.

kissing said:

To be honest, my current dilemma is finding an instrument that is 4-stringed and tuned in DGBE and uses nylon strings - like a baritone uke - but is sized/shaped the same as a Classical Guitar, so I can sound more like a Classical guitar.

Click to expand...

Did you see this vid from Gerry Carthy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEtpxFLK2_M

Also if you have the cash than earnest instruments can convert a guitar to a nylon strung tenor guitar.

can't you get a tenor guitar and put nylon/floro on it. It may be braced heavier and the neck will be narrower, but it's worth a try. i'm sure a uuer had tried it.

chuck in ny said:

i have been listening to a bunch of clips on youtube and a lot of baritones have a more or less guitar sound. a few however have the crispness in notes, the clarity and the pop. they sound like an ukulele playing at lower pitch rather than sounding like a guitar.
which baritone ukuleles, or ukulele/string combinations, have this clarity?

Click to expand...

I have 3 baris, the Gibson has Southcoast linear, the Pono Aquila reg bari , and the Lanilai sprucetop has SC flatwound. I'd say the SC flats have the sound it seems you are after. It's my cheapest bari, and the one I play the most. I play it in my latest vid on season 53 correction, I just looked, it has the SC flatwound basses, and Aquilla trebles.

ukuhippo said:

Did you see this vid from Gerry Carthy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEtpxFLK2_M

Also if you have the cash than earnest instruments can convert a guitar to a nylon strung tenor guitar.

Click to expand...

That's really cool!

ukuhippo said:

Did you see this vid from Gerry Carthy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEtpxFLK2_M

Also if you have the cash than earnest instruments can convert a guitar to a nylon strung tenor guitar.

Click to expand...

I have looked at Earnest instruments.
I have even sent them an email with my needs. I am waiting for a response.. it's been a few days..


I have seen that video of Gerry Carthy.
That's still a 6-stringer strung with only 4 strings. Not what I'm after.


I'm not looking for compromise. I want the real deal - something made to have 4 strings but with a larger body and scale length than a bari uke.
However, I am not all that wealthy - I hope Earnest doesn't quote me something in the multiple thousands..

strumsilly said:

can't you get a tenor guitar and put nylon/floro on it. It may be braced heavier and the neck will be narrower, but it's worth a try. i'm sure a uuer had tried it.

Click to expand...

I have tenor guitars.
However, I would prefer keeping steel strings on them.

The instruments are designed to have steel strings. Nylon would not generate enough tension for a good sound, and getting the truss rod adjusted for such low tension would be not worth the effort.

Reading this thread you have just reminded me that Bruceweiart was selling what he called, Bass ukuleles. 21" scale length and a big body. Not a U-Bass style instrument. It had regular ukulele strings tuned DGBE I think. I haven't seen one on eBay for a while but apparently he will do custom builds for people. Might be worth a shot.

Anthony

strumsilly said:

I have 3 baris, the Gibson has Southcoast linear, the Pono Aquila reg bari , and the Lanilai sprucetop has SC flatwound. I'd say the SC flats have the sound it seems you are after. It's my cheapest bari, and the one I play the most. I play it in my latest vid on season 53 correction, I just looked, it has the SC flatwound basses, and Aquilla trebles.

Click to expand...

the little i can tell from online clips, pono baritones play clearly with good sustain as do mainland baritones. they sound wonderful played in finger picking style. others have more of a guitar soft ringing quality lack of a better description, muddy if you want to call it that.
anyhow it's a great sound and still very much an ukulele. i am thinking to get better advised by wiser heads than mine. so far i haven't succeeded in even getting a bari into my hands.