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| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
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| Guitar Strings on a Beri Uke? | Rate Topic |
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22nd, 2009 04:05 pm |
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1st Post |
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Dave Alexander Approved 
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I mean Bari -- as in Baritone Uke Does anyone see an issue with using guitar (nylon of course) guitar strings on a baritone uke? Temprarily, since it turns out that NOBODY in my hometown has a set of baritone uke strings. Plus, I snapped a string during my redneck Radio Shack pickup installation.) I'm planning to order a set of these Aquilla Nylgut, since I hate the squeek when I slide up the fretboard. And on that subject, I'm geting kick out of putting a capo on the 5th fret and playing the soprano shaped chords. The baritone has a bigger sound, but it still sounds cool. I think Will mentioned that the Nylgut strings will hold up over time better than the wound strings. Am I right about this? Thanks in advance. Last edited on Sun Feb 22nd, 2009 04:06 pm by Dave Alexander ____________________ "My ukulele playing IS entertaining. Just not always to others." -- Dave Alexander |
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22nd, 2009 05:33 pm |
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2nd Post |
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Will Approved 
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Dave, You can certainly use classical guitar nylon strings in place of hard-to-find baritone strings, but you will need to compensate for the much shorter scale length of the baritone (about 19") vs. guitar (about 25.5"). Generally, you'll want to try to select the thicker gauge strings to counteract the general lack of string tension caused by tuning up to shorter scale length. Try using the guitar A, tuned higher to baritone D; guitar D tuned higher to baritone G; guitar G tuned higher to baritone B; guitar B tuned higher to baritone E. Good luck.
____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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| Posted: Sun Feb 22nd, 2009 06:06 pm |
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3rd Post |
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Dave Alexander Approved
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Will, I gotta admit. I just about got all that. I think what I'm going to do is not simply throw out the upper (thicker, lower) guitar strings, but carefully following your plan and tossing out one or more of the thinner strings. No need to explain it to me again, you already gave me the answer I need. I just need to get the strings and match letters/strings up. But bottom line, I'm not going to end up damaging the baritone by using classical strings. Same for nylon folk guitar strings, right? Thanks. And have you noticed how many people read these forums but don't comment? Dave
____________________ "My ukulele playing IS entertaining. Just not always to others." -- Dave Alexander |
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| Posted: Tue Feb 24th, 2009 09:48 pm |
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4th Post |
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Dave Alexander Approved
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Now that I'm permanently known as the idiot who can't spell Baritone... Thanks Will. Yes, they work. No, they're not perfect. I bough folk guitar strings -- because of price. They seem a bit heavy, but this is just until the Aquila nylgut strings arrive. I think I should order a bunch of sets of regular Baritone strings, just for these situations. Thanks
____________________ "My ukulele playing IS entertaining. Just not always to others." -- Dave Alexander |
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| Posted: Wed Jul 1st, 2009 01:29 am |
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5th Post |
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Malika Approved
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Will wrote: You can certainly use classical guitar nylon strings in place of hard-to-find baritone strings, but you will need to compensate for the much shorter scale length of the baritone (about 19") vs. guitar (about 25.5"). Generally, you'll want to try to select the thicker gauge strings to counteract the general lack of string tension caused by tuning up to shorter scale length. Try using... Will, I'm really intrigued by this. Basically, just set aside the high/low E guitar strings and use the center four on the uke, right? I just got my first tenor uke and it came strung gCEA. I read somewhere that you can string a tenor to DGBE. My background is classical guitar and mandolin. I'd like to restring the tenor uke to DGBE and try some classical fingerpicking on it, since I'm already familiar with that and it would be like playing the top four strings of the guitar. Do you think CG strings would work for this on a tenor? I have a few spare sets of CG strings on hand already, everything from normal to MHT to HT to XHT. What would you recommend? Alternately, what do you think of using CG strings to align the tenor uke to mando tuning of GDAE? I didn't really choose the uke, it chose me, since I won it in a drawing.  I'm really excited about it exploring it, though.
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| Posted: Wed Jul 1st, 2009 04:58 pm |
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6th Post |
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Will Approved
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Malika wrote: Will wrote:You can certainly use classical guitar nylon strings in place of hard-to-find baritone strings, but you will need to compensate for the much shorter scale length of the baritone (about 19") vs. guitar (about 25.5"). Generally, you'll want to try to select the thicker gauge strings to counteract the general lack of string tension caused by tuning up to shorter scale length. Try using... You can try the center four of the classical guitar string set to try to compensate for the much shorter scale length of the tenor (about 17") vs. guitar (about 25.5"). Because the scale length of the tenor is about 2 inches shorter than the baritone, this may or may not sound good. Use the guitar A, tuned higher to uke D; guitar D tuned higher to uke G; guitar G tuned higher to uke B; guitar B tuned higher to uke E. What you need is the Aquila Tenor "guitar-tuned" (DGBE) string set: http://www.juststrings.com/aqu-atgt.html Due to the much shorter scale length, I'm not sure how well mandolin tuning using classical guitar strings will work. I've used octave mandolin tuning (one octave lower than a mandolin) on a long-scale (25.4") tenor guitar that I had, using standard steel guitar strings, but I used the A, D, B, and E guitar strings due to the wider intervals. I'm not sure you could tune up to the high mandolin E without snapping the high E guitar string, however. I've discovered that Aquila makes a GDAE-tuned Nylgut string set, but only for soprano ukes, not tenors: http://elderly.com/accessories/items/ANS5.htm
____________________ Will http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/297/ Loose Change & Friends http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/245/ http://loosechangeandfriends.com The Earth Tones http://ezfolk.com/audio/bands/337/ A Bunch Of Coconuts http://abunchofcoconuts.com |
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| Posted: Thu Jul 2nd, 2009 02:11 am |
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7th Post |
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Malika Approved
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Thanks for the quick reply, Will. Much appreciated. Well, I experimented last night with less than stellar results. The guitar A and D both broke trying to get them up to pitch. I ended up putting on a guitar low E, two Gs and a B and tuned it to ADF#B. It works, but it wasn't really what I was hoping for. Thanks for the link to the Aquila Tenor "guitar-tuned" (DGBE) string set. I hadn't seen them elsewhere. But it does look to be re-entrant, which I was hoping to avoid. But I guess that's what gives the uke its own characteristic sound. It just doesn't seem as "lively" without it. Guess I'll put aside my original idea for now. My thinking was that if I could go DGBE I could record duets with my CG. As far as aligning it to a mando, well, I think I'd be better off just attempting duets with a real mando. (I have a 1917 Gibson A-1 that sounds incredibly sweet.) Maybe I'll put the original Aquilas back on and save the uke for some chunka-chunka. Let's face it, I'm never going to be a threat to Jake Shimabukuro anyway.  Thanks again, you're awesome! Last edited on Thu Jul 2nd, 2009 02:12 am by Malika |
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