Hi Kevin, I've been experimenting with tuning for about a year, putting strings with different tunings on various ukes. I have a couple of sizes of ukes with GCEA or gCEA. My baritone is the DGBE standard for that size. I put a set of re-entrant (high) d-G-B-E on an Anue Nue tenor and love that. Finally, I just put a set of Alex Beds' new Baby bari strings with a low D on my Pono Classic tenor which has been my workhorse uke. I'm loving the deep sound from it. (I got them from Southern Ukulele Store and they shipped within minutes. I got them in the USA just days later.)
I've never played guitar, so the DGBE tuning was new for me and at first it was difficult to go between that and the GCEA tuning on other ukes, but I keep trying and it gets easier. I know that I'm one of Matt's magpies, but I like choosing a uke for a sound that I hear for a certain song and having the different tunings helps me do that.
You can’t really get much lower in tuning on a standard uke. Occasionally I’ve tuned every string down a tone - F Bb D G which gives a nice mellow tone. The C string is already in the same range as a low G string so you can’t really do down another octave on that one.
This question has been posed on the Ukulele Forum. People who have tried a low C say it sounds "lumpy" and have suggested going with a baritone uke if a deeper sound is wanted. Or you could get an 8 string uke and replace the C5 octave string with a C3 octave string and see how it sounds to you.
Hi Kevin, I've been experimenting with tuning for about a year, putting strings with different tunings on various ukes. I have a couple of sizes of ukes with GCEA or gCEA. My baritone is the DGBE standard for that size. I put a set of re-entrant (high) d-G-B-E on an Anue Nue tenor and love that. Finally, I just put a set of Alex Beds' new Baby bari strings with a low D on my Pono Classic tenor which has been my workhorse uke. I'm loving the deep sound from it. (I got them from Southern Ukulele Store and they shipped within minutes. I got them in the USA just days later.)
I've never played guitar, so the DGBE tuning was new for me and at first it was difficult to go between that and the GCEA tuning on other ukes, but I keep trying and it gets easier. I know that I'm one of Matt's magpies, but I like choosing a uke for a sound that I hear for a certain song and having the different tunings helps me do that.
You can’t really get much lower in tuning on a standard uke. Occasionally I’ve tuned every string down a tone - F Bb D G which gives a nice mellow tone. The C string is already in the same range as a low G string so you can’t really do down another octave on that one.
This question has been posed on the Ukulele Forum. People who have tried a low C say it sounds "lumpy" and have suggested going with a baritone uke if a deeper sound is wanted. Or you could get an 8 string uke and replace the C5 octave string with a C3 octave string and see how it sounds to you.