I'm sure all my questions have been discussed before, but I'm going to ask myself, and hope that y'all will indulge me. I've been playing Ukulele for about a year now, and I really do enjoy the instrument. I use a tenor size uke because my fingers are kind of chubby and it's had for me to make some chords work on the smaller instruments.
I thought about my childhood, and my father used to play guitar - but it was a 4 string tenor guitar, not a standard 6 string. I wish I still had that instrument. But my sister sold it after my mother died. So I decided that as a way to feel closer to my father, I'd look into getting one myself. I have a couple of 6 strings, but I have always struggled with chords that stretch my fingers too far - which is why I moved to the Uke. The thing is, it's kind of a three bears thing for me - 'this instrument is too big; this instrument is too small; ah, this instrument is (or should be) just right. So I asked Santa (wife) to bring me a Blue Ridge acoustic/electric tenor guitar for Christmas (I don't tend to do things half way - I figured that if I got a cheap Ibanez, I'd only want another better one in short order).
So here's where the questions come in. I've seen references to the standard tuning vs the "chicago" tuning (like the top 4 strings of a 6 string) or even tuning it like a Ukulele, with the thoughts being to make learning easier by using chords you already know from the other instrument. My first major question is this - which tuning actually gives the best sound from the instrument. I know the chords are different with the standard tuning, but it the instrument just plain sounds best tuned that way, I would rather take the time to learn the chords than to be lazy, tune it like a Uke and degrade the sound. So, that's the major question - not what people favor in tuning because it's easier for them to play, but rather which tuning produces the ideal sound from the instrument.
As I type, I realize that the other questions I've got really extend from the first one, so for now, I'd like to focus on that one.
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