Out in the North – Fourth String too high

[daniela]

Hi all
I‘m a very, very beginner – so give me some credit please and don‘t blame me on asking such a noob question… 😉

Out in the North: I just found out that I can,t play the lower notes because my fourth String seems to be tuned one octave too high…

Any help would be appreciated.

Thx!

• This topic was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by daniela.

[robinboyd]

Hi Daniela

So ukuleles are usually tuned one of two ways. The traditional way is for the lowest 2 strings to be in the middle (the C and the E strings). This is called re-entrant tuning. You can also tune your uke so that the lowest string is the G string and the tones get progressively higher until you get to the A string. This is called linear tuning, and it is like a guitar. When you have linear tuning, you use a “low G” string and when you have re-entrant tuning, you use a “high G” string. Out in the north is for low G or linear tuning. I’m guessing you have a high G on your uke.

In terms of solutions, unfortunately, you can’t just tune your G string down an octave. You will need to replace it with a string that is designed to be used as a low G. If you want to do that, talk to Mike and Uke Republic and he’ll sort you out with a low G string. There are also threads on this forum dedicated to the relative merits of various brands of low G strings. However, it is not easy to replace strings and you may also want to play arrangements for re-entrant ukes. That’s why many of us have more than one uke, so if you want a bit of extra flexibility, you may want to buy a second uke to keep strung with a low G. Otherwise, you could win one of the challenges and then you’d have a second uke.

Here is a video that demonstrates the difference.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by robinboyd.

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