ukulele string guage

[Capricorn]

picked up a ukulelele from a garage sale last weekend and i just want to know what make of strings and what guage you would put on it... Also what is standard tuning for a ukulele?

[georgebob]

Thats just plain weird - i was just having a go on the uke I got for my kid - to stop her perstering me for a shot of my acoustic.

No ideal on string guage but standard tuning is
GCEA (g being the string nearest you when your holding it in playing position) - do a google search there are a couple of sites with tuning tips (including how to tune against a guitar) and chord charts - it's what I was just doing!

[Capricorn]

thanks george i checked the chords out
it's gonna be pretty tricky to not mix up guitar and uke chords since they are pretty different

[happy-man]

... No ideal on string guage but standard tuning is GCEA...

 

 

but the G is tuned one octave up so that it is not the lowest note on the instrument (it is only one step lower than the high A). This is for a soprano uke.

 

Except for the G being an octave up, it has the same pattern as the high 4 strings on a guitar, so you can use the same fingering as you do for guitar chords, they will just be in a different key. For instance, a G on a guitar is 320003. Since you only have the top 4 strings, you can play 0003. This is a C on a soprano ukulele. It's not hard for a guitarist (or a kid) to pick one up and start doing something with it. My son plays mine much more that I do.

 

Just get a set of uke strings for whatever size uke you have. It WILL take 2 full weeks for the strings to settle. I didn't believe it when I was told that. I thought, "They just don't know how to stretch the strings." HA! My IMT-500 tuner works great on my uke.

 

Scott O