Monday, January 28, 2013

Dr Bekken || Getting Real Cheap... with Bari

The Doc is a jazz musician and it appears that any instrument sounds great in his hands. It is interesting to hear the different "voices" in each. It is nice to know how much we can get from some of the inexpensive instruments.

I have gone a bit different route and have spent approximately $350 on each of my Favillas. I also have a modern Kala electric bari that sold for about $190. I like to have different strings on each bari and perhaps that accentuates the difference.

I feel that the money spent on an instrument makes many wonderful returns. How many joyful hours per $ are you getting?



Thank you Dr. Bekken for sharing. There are many brand choices and all of these sounded like keepers.

Jeff

2 comments:

  1. I put the GHS strings on all ukes on purpose, just to make sure they had the same 'starting point' in such a little comparison: same room, same camera/mic, same chords & playing techniques. It might have been better and more thorough, I suppose.
    Still, as an entry baritone, for people who haven't made up their mind about the instrument, that Savannah is hard to beat. Good tone, nice fretboard, solid build, good intonation....or maybe I was just lucky??
    The Rogue is good too, but a little flatter sound-wise, and with some minor intonation issues.
    The Johnson I got was really bad out of the box. I considered to dump it, but it got playable after I filed frets, lowered the action and adjusted not and saddle. Do not buy it if you are not prepared to do plenty of set up work. The tone of the Johnson is really sweet and mellow, and i guess that's why I took the trouble. Still more work to do on it, though.

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    Replies
    1. Hello Doc,

      I guess another advantage of a cheap baritone is that you can afford more baritone ukuleles. I'm glad that you added this thorough explanation of your thoughts and experiences.

      I looked on Amazon dot Com to see the price. It is about $70 and the reviews are plentiful. Unfortunately AdotC is currently out of stock.

      http://www.amazon.com/Savannah-SU-200-Baritone-Ukulele/product-reviews/B000V0IYEI/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?
      ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

      AdotC has the Johnson's listed at $120.

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