I Finally Tried The Low G STRING on My Ukulele (re-entrant tuning vs. linear tuning)

Ciao Giuseppe. Benvenuto! Si, secondo me servono sempre due ukulele. Poi, con quello che costano, e facile procurarsene uno di riserva magari con due cordiere diverse. Fammi sapere come procedi con le lezioni! Rimango a tua disposizione per qualsiasi domanda.

ciao Marco, suono la chitarra fin da ragazzino, non bene intendiamoci, solo per divertimento, e da un anno ho iniziato a strimpellare l'uke. posseggo un tenore K1 Kanilea, e anche se costantemente in dubbio se L or H G, (mi piace il Jazz) ma voglio innanzitutto imparare il finger style. ecco perchè ho iniziato a seguirti. Credo tu abbia ragione: devo comprare un altro tenore! magari piu in la ti chiederò consigli su cosa orientarmi. grazie per le tue belle lezioni: spero di farcela!

You’re correct in tuning the Low G by setting tuner to ‘C’ for chromatic. I tend to leave my tuner in chromatic mode and maintenance tune all the strings in this mode. Tip: Since chromatic mode ignores a note’s octave it won’t prevent you from over or under tuning by an octave. To ensure the correct octave for ukulele Low G set you tuner to ‘G’ guitar mode and it will appear as “G” with a 3 to indicate string #3 on guitar.

Hi Marco... I left you a message in the patreon app. Just letting you know because it's time sensitive. 😊

I love this segment on low G. My first uke is a Fender tenor and has the same issue with the C string. It always sounds off when I play it. I restrung it with Deodora strings and it sounded way better. My Kala Elite tenor has a low G and with the full koa wood body it sounds amazingly bassy. The low G string is steel whereas the C, E and A are nylon. It comes with a Kala Elite string set which specific to the Elite series Ukes. It has a more sophisticated tone with the low G. The Kala Flame Maple tenor is my favorite to play with regular reentrant tuning. The stock Aquila strings sound beautiful on this instrument. It’s the only uke I’ve bought where I didn’t want to change anything about it after buying it.

Aland

I like the video format and content Marco. A favourite quotation of mine is, "You don't make a photograph just with a camera: you bring to it all the pictures, books, music, and people you've loved." - Ansel Adams This could equally be applied to music. As for Low-G tuning, it depends on the music. I think it suits jazz standards well.

I personally enjoy reentrant tuning best . I do have both , but use reentrant most often . I most often play my concert which is tuned reentrant , but also have tenor tuned low G , and a soprano tuned reentrant . Thank you so much for your beautiful lessons , I enjoy them all , and look forward to each as they are released and posted .

I prefer reentrant tuning. Sopranos are my favorite. I do have a tenor tuned reentrant dGBE and I enjoy that lower but still reentrant sound a lot. So many options on ukuleles. I love your videos Marco so I can still look forward to your low G explorations.

Deborah Tolar

PS I love your videos Marco. I get very excited when i get an email saying you have a new posting from Marco! I would be interested to know which of your 2 ukuleles you prefer.

What I meant was I set the tuner to 'C' for Chromatic to tune the Low G. Is this correct?

I have a snail laminated ebony tenor with high g nylon strings, which i absolutely love! Sounds very similar to your Makai. I have an Ohana Super Tenor, ie a baritone body with a tenor scale fretboard which came with high g strings but at one point i changed to low g and it was way too 'boomy' so i now have Worth Brown High G strings. Sounds very guitar like. I also have an Anuenue AMM3 Tenor which I have just restrung with Worth Brown Low G strings, and am still getting used to it. No sure yet whether I like it. I use a clip on Tuner which I set to 'U' for ukulele for the C, E and A strings and then I set it to 'C' for Chromatic, but to be honest I'm not even sure that is correct. Does anyone out there know?? I hardly ever pick up the AMM3 as I am scared of damaging it because it was so expensive. Silly really. Whereas, I constantly have the inexpensive Snail uke next to me on the sofa, which I just pick up and put down throughout the day without any fear of damaging it. (the uke, not the sofa). LOL

Thank you for these videos, Marco. I am learning a lot from what you explain and play. Lately I've been enjoying some classical pieces with low G on my Makai concert ukulele. But so glad for your reminders that standard high G tuning is great too, for a different purpose. For that I use my tenor, also Makai. Thank you for all your videos, encouragement and friendly comments.

I've looked at the video again and can see the Aquilla packet is clearly marked as for Tenor so that can't be the problem. However looking closely at the strings it looks to me like the 3rd string (C) is thinner than the 1st string (A)?! I'm sure you wouldn't have got them the wrong way round but is that possible?! If true the 1st string would be very tight tuned up to A!

Thanks Marco, you've answered our prayers with this video! I'm sure you are right that there is no 'best' between Low and High G. It all depends on the piece, mood, personal preference (for me I do like the added bass of Low, but it just doesn't work for some pieces). Regarding your C string, that does look way too floppy tuned to C4. If it was just buzzing on a few frets it could be due to low 'action' but that doesn't seem likely. Just checking, but was that set of new Aquilla strings definitely for the Tenor scale length (not Concert/Soprano) as that would make a difference. I've had faulty strings (intonation problems up the fretboard) so bad strings do happen (apparently the small size of the uke makes it more likely than on the guitar).

Really enjoyed the this video since I have both a low g and a high g tuned uke. I guess because I was a guitar player before moving to the uke I liked the sound of the low g uke better than the high g. However, since watching your videos (and loving them) I gained a new appreciation for the high g. I have also gotten in to learning more Hawaiian uke music and realized that one of my favorite teachers, Aldrean only uses a high g tuned uke and so any of his songs that involve finger picking or chord melodies are not as effective on the low g. I am looking forward to some of your arrangements using the low g since I do still love to play my low g uke. Love your videos, and look forward to more.

Yes, this video is important and useful. I play several tenors but have a concert with low G. I found that Spanish melodies tend to sound so much better on a low G. When I strung my Concert, I only changed the one string instead of changing the set. Is that a problem. Also,what caused the C string to be bad,manufacturer’s issue? I also use Worth Brown on Tenors.

Hi Marco and thanks for the low G video! I play guitar and got into ukes when I moved to Hawaii last year. I have a tenor and a concert. I strung the tenor with a low G and ultimately went back to the high G. It just fits better with the type of music I like to play. My wife commented on how "guitar like" the low G sounded, and I wanted my uke to sound like a uke! I tried just about all the string brands and fluorocarbon versus nylon and I really like the tone of the Aquilla AG x AQ strings that I recently put on the tenor. Aloha!

Thanks for your new video on low G. I think it depends on the style of music you play as to whether the low G works well. I play a great variety of Hawaiian music, and I believe it is the low G that opens up more possibilities, especially if a base note can be added to lend more depth to a song. Sure there are some songs that just need the high g for sweetness, brightness. My favorite will always be the low G. We all will have our own preferences. Thanks again Marco.

Susan Wilmes

I love this video. Really nice comparison. I play Tenor most of the time and I have both Low and High G for my Tenors. I also have Low and High G on a couple of concerts. I have started using the Worth Browns for the rich mellow tone and have been using La Bella wound Low G. Recently I bought the Worth Brown Low G and I really like the deep but mellow feel. I use both Low and High G for some of your tutorials depending on how I feel. I have never had a problem with the worth browns but occasionally have had issues with other brands. Thank you for your variety of videos. Little snippets of your son are fun. But I definitely prefer lessons, opinions or reviews. With appreciation Ken (UKEn) Freestone. Michigan, USA

Ken (UKEn) Freestone