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Subject: Tenor or Soprano Ukelele tuned like a Mandolin


Do you know if it is possible to tune a Soprano or Tenor ukelele to GDAE like a mandolin? Will it put to much strain on the neck?

Rick

Greetings Rick,

Considering these ukes are already light in weight, and are designed for the standard, my suggestion would be to steer clear of adding any extra tension on the neck beyond what they were designed for...

Since the uke would normally be tuned to G C E A, and most of these notes would have to be raised, there will undoubtedly be too much tension on the neck. If you're are going to experiment with this, you might try using extra light gauge strings...I would rather play a uke in mandolin tuning too...the other option would be to consider tuning it lower in pitch, such as the mandola tuning of C G D A...these are the same intervals as the mandolin tuning only one fourth lower. You might encounter some rattle; even so, at least you will not be adding unnecessary tension to the neck...I'm not sure if this would work, since I've never tried this...let me know if it works for you...

Mickey

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