I had no idea whether to post this topic here or in the uke forum because this instrument is a hybrid.
I've had my Yamaha GL-1 Guitalele for nine days now and it's loads of fun! It's not sold in the US so I had to buy it from Canada. The cost was US$118 (S&H included) to the San Francisco Bay Area.
It's a 17-inch scale nylon-string guitar built similarly to a classical guitar. Tuning is ADGCEA with regular classical guitar strings (equal to a capo on the 5th fret - same as ukulele). The top is laminated spruce. I'm planning on writing a full review on my blog when I get the time but I can tell you that I just like the thing.
Technically, you could tune it to an "equivalent" taro patch tuning of GCGCEG. I played Ozzie Kotani's Kani Ki Ho'alu (to the best of my abilities) and it was amusingly fun. Using high-tension nylons or carbons is probably best.
I tried using some childrens' guitar strings to retune it to EADGBE but the trebles weren't quite right and the tension would be too low if tuned for slack-key. I'm sure that there's an a solution out there if I really wanted EADGBE, but I haven't had the time to do more experiments yet.
I don't know whether this would make a great gigging instrument. I can imagine some talented folks could use it as such. After all, even KoAloha makes a similar instrument. For myself, it makes a great lounge guitar or travel guitar and its "cute" factor draws a lot of attention. Other folks seem to also be adopting it into a pseudo-vihuela and an ultra-portable requinto.
I had gotten a bunch of email "thank-you's" from people who learned about this thing from me (on a couple of ukulele and classical guitar forums) so it seems to be filling a niche interest out there. I figured I should share the info with you folks as well.
That looks pretty cool, and a lot cheaper than a Koaloha D-VI!
At US$97 each (excluding shipping of C$20), I'm tempted to buy one or two more and just leave them around the house at different tunings; but my wife would probably raise an eyebrow.
I'm leaving it at my tuned-up-slack-key (oxymoron?) tuning of GCGCEG. Harmonics are more difficult but there's a natural ring to this Guitalele that seems to simulate 7th fret and 12th fret harmonics.
I had considered the Papoose but the GL-1 is even more portable. It's the size of a tenor ukulele.
Topic Locked
Posted - 06/20/2007 : 06:10:57 AM
