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Greg Stec
Feb-12-2010, 4:03pm
Today I learned of a stringed beast called bass ukulele.
And found a few videos of them on youtube.

Has anyone tried to restring one for tenor guitar?
One issue I can think right off is the width of the gap for the bass strings
vs. for tenor guitar strings.
But is it really an issue?
IMO, using a bass uke for a tenor guitar seems better than baritone uke.
Still, opinions and observations please.
Thanks in advance.
Greg in thawing Baltimore.

delsbrother
Feb-12-2010, 9:52pm
If you mean bass uke like the ones with the thick silicone or poly strings, I can't imagine how or why you could turn into a tenor guitar. Now if you're talking about tuning one of those in fifths and playing bass parts, then that's something else.

Greg Stec
Feb-12-2010, 11:15pm
If you mean bass uke like the ones with the thick silicone or poly strings, I can't imagine how or why you could turn into a tenor guitar. Now if you're talking about tuning one of those in fifths and playing bass parts, then that's something else.

Some folks are turning baritone ukes into tenor guitars.
Other than string size -and psychological, maybe- what other problems might there be?

The bass uke appears longer than the baritone uke.
Perhaps closer in length to the tenor guitar than the baritone uke.
Just testing the waters on this.

delsbrother
Feb-12-2010, 11:40pm
Are you talking about changing the strings to steel, or just retuning them?

SincereCorgi
Feb-13-2010, 4:36am
There are some very good entry-level priced tenor guitars out right now- are you wanting to do this because you want a shorter scale length?

I think Dels is getting at the fact that ukes aren't built to take the tension of steel strings and, yeah, you'd probably need a new nut and perhaps even a major modification to the bridge. I guess you could try to get the right gauges of nylon strings but the intonation might get really wonky.

Bernie Daniel
Feb-13-2010, 6:23am
I agree, I think that the steel strings would some cause neck and other problems on a baritone uke designed for nylon.

Out of curiosity have you tried retuning the nylon strings to tenor guitar fifths (CGDA or GDAE) yet just to see what it sounds like?

Any set of fifths would do I'd think.

Greg Stec
Feb-13-2010, 8:45pm
Are you talking about changing the strings to steel, or just retuning them?

Retuning

mandroid
Feb-16-2010, 11:25pm
range of tuning may have a few gage substitutions, I use Martin Bari strings on a 14"ish scale substitute a thinner string for the high one ..

Maybe break up some of a classical guitar string set