Outdoor guitalele

[mountainmaster]

Outdoor used to sell their guitars with two different tuning options. Standard EADGBE or ADGCEA. Now they offer only the standard option for the guitar and there is a "new" guitalele.

The guitalele appears to be the same old guitar with the ADGCEA setup. I guess they wanted to make a clear distinction.

I am still confused though, because both the guitar and the guitalele have the exact same specifications (and price) on the website. The only difference seems to be the string set. Does anyone know in what way these instruments are different?

[Fixedgear60]

Just looked.... I think the "a rose..." Just looks like an easy way to order the tuning you want...

They are cool... reminds me of the old stage coach or cowboy guitars of the 1900s....

[parlorplayer]

Yes .. they are the same. You just need different strings for the guitalele . I like the A to A tuning a lot on this instrument ..great for singing . The sound clip/ videos on their site demonstrate both tunings. It’s an instrument to pick up all the time with surprisingly good sound.

[mountainmaster]

I finally bit the bullet and ordered an Outdoor Guitalele. The one with the A tuning that is. It arrived today. What a wonderful little instrument!

I believe it was a smart move to change the name to guitalele. Someone expecting an instrument as small as this to sound like a guitar is surely going to be disappointed.
If I am not mistaken I actually saw the Outdoor Guitar being described as a toy in this forum.

But look at this unique instrument as a baritone uke with two additional low strings and you will love it for what it is: A great sounding guitalele.

IMO they should also call the E tuned version a guitalele for the sake of expectation management because let's face it, that lower tuning is not going to make a small body sound any bigger.

[parlorplayer]

Congratulations! I love the sound of A to A on this instrument. It’s surprisingly well set up for an instrument in this price range .It’s great for practice within easy in reaching distance . I like the company and people who run it as well.

[mountainmaster]

I am still in the honeymoon phase but already starting to think about replacement strings. The pinless bridge requires ball end strings which are rare in the nylon variety.

Outdoor sells custom D'Addario strings for this guitalele which cannot be found elsewhere. While the strings for A tuning appear to have the regular EJ43 gauge, these do not normally come with ball ends.

I prefer not to order strings from Outdoor because shipping to Europe, VAT and handling would make this an expensive option.
For the guitalele itself I had to pay $235 on top of the list price . For strings it would not be that bad obviously, but still...

What I need are nylon ball end strings of roughly the same gauge (28-42) that are designated as light tension. The stock strings are 79.81 lbs combined but unfortunately not every manufacturer shows a tension chart.

I am looking at these strings at the moment:
Ernie Ball 2069 Earthwood Folk Nylon
Ernie Ball Ernesto Palla (only the black & gold come with ball ends)

Does anyone have experience with Ernie Ball nylons? Are they light or medium tension?

I am also considering the Thomastik-Infeld KR116 rope cores. I am using these with great success on my Emerald X20 nylon but their tension may be too high (88 lbs).

Any other suggestions?

[mountainmaster]

Even with the low tension D'Addario EJ43 strings the A tuning feels a bit tight, particularly on the higher strings. So I started experimenting with lower tunings.

First I tuned down a whole step to G. That felt much better. It was easier to do the legatos I am used to do. The instrument did not seem to lose any volume but there was some string buzzing when I plucked harder.

Then I tried tuning down a half step to G#. Tension wise this hit the sweet spot. The odd tuning makes it hard to play along with other instruments though.

So I am thinking that if I use the higher tension Thomastik-Infeld KR116 rope cores and tune down to G all will be good. That will be the next experiment.

I also have a non string related issue with this guitalele... those black frets are hardly visible in dimly lit places. And it turns out I need more than a few markers to visually guide me on an instrument with an unfamiliar scale length.

[mountainmaster]

Yesterday when I picked up my Outdoor guitalele I found the high E string broken. So... time for the first string change.

While removing the strings I discovered that my assumption about ball end strings, based on the shape of the holes in the pinless bridge, was wrong. The strings are simply held in place by a knot.
In fact, the bass string balls of the Ernie Ball Earthwoods, which I had picked for replacement, did not even fit into the holes. So I had to cut them off and tie a knot anyway. The beads on the treble strings did fit though.

Another discovery was that the bridge string slots are precisely tailored for the stock D'Addario EJ43 strings. The slightly higher gauge of the Earthwoods meant that more force was required to pull them into the narrow area. Hopefully they won't break at those pressure points.

Since the Earthwoods are normal tension, as opposed to the light tension stock strings, I tuned the guitalele in G instead of A.

The Earthwoods have a warmer sound than the stock strings which to my ears were too bright. They also have more punch which works well for this instrument.

By the way, Outdoor does not offer the A tuned guitalele option anymore. I asked Scott about it and he replied that 99% of the orders are for the regular guitar option in E tuning.

[DownUpDave]

Originally Posted by mountainmaster

Yesterday when I picked up my Outdoor guitalele I found the high E string broken. So... time for the first string change.

While removing the strings I discovered that my assumption about ball end strings, based on the shape of the holes in the pinless bridge, was wrong. The strings are simply held in place by a knot.
In fact, the bass string balls of the Ernie Ball Earthwoods, which I had picked for replacement, did not even fit into the holes. So I had to cut them off and tie a knot anyway. The beads on the treble strings did fit though.

Another discovery was that the bridge string slots are precisely tailored for the stock D'Addario EJ43 strings. The slightly higher gauge of the Earthwoods meant that more force was required to pull them into the narrow area. Hopefully they won't break at those pressure points.

Since the Earthwoods are normal tension, as opposed to the light tension stock strings, I tuned the guitalele in G instead of A.

The Earthwoods have a warmer sound than the stock strings which to my ears were too bright. They also have more punch which works well for this instrument.

By the way, Outdoor does not offer the A tuned guitalele option anymore. I asked Scott about it and he replied that 99% of the orders are for the regular guitar option in E tuning.

Very informative. I come from a ukulele background and have experience with guileles, guitaleles, guitarleles, Yea they are called all those names

The ones tuned A-A are always on a 17" scale tenor sized instrument. The E-E tuning works better on a 21" scale baritone size. That scale length is still too short for adequate tension on the 6th and 5th strings.

Tuning a 21" scale instrument up to A-A creates a lot of string tension especially on strings #1 & #2. I am glad to hear you are enjoying yours as I have been very curious about these instruments

[Barb1]

Hi DownUpDave,
I have a Kanilea GL6 guitarlele, which has a super tenor body that its tuned A-A, and has a scale of 20" not 17".
Barb

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by Barb1

Hi DownUpDave,
I have a Kanilea GL6 guitarlele, which has a super tenor body that its tuned A-A, and has a scale of 20" not 17".
Barb

Which strings are you using?

20" is the same scale length as the Outdoor guitalele. It comes with D'Addario EJ43 light tension for its A tuning but that did not feel very comfortable to me.

[mountainmaster]

One day later and the Ernie Ball Earthwood bass strings have already lost their high end.

I did not like the extreme brightness of the D'Addario EJ43s but these Earthwoods are a little too dull to my taste.

[Barb1]

Hi Mountainmaster,
I am using a Kanilea GL6 string set on the Kanilea GL6.
Barb

[Aspiring]

I have a Koaloha guitalele and I like running guitar classical strings tuned to terz G-g on it and then playing a lot of my guitar pieces effectively capo'd up 3 frets.

I use Aquila Rubinos, Savarez Crystal and alliance in medium or low tensions.

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by Barb1

Hi Mountainmaster,
I am using a Kanilea GL6 string set on the Kanilea GL6.
Barb

That makes sense I guess. Thanks!