Best Guitalele for Beginners | What is a Guitalele?

Music has its own beauty. It has its own magic and charms. Within minutes it can bring a huge smile on all your pretty faces or make you burst into tears making you feel light and relaxed. It can help you study and perform better by improving your focus, or it can make you snore and sleep like a baby. And not just vocals, instruments also have that enticing power that can change your mood in an instant giving you an ecstatic experience. The instruments also have such a huge diversity amongst them, isn’t it? There are thousands of musical gizmos which in their own bewitching ways can steal your heart away. So that’s why we will be talking about a very unusual and unique instrument- the guitalele.

What is a Guitalele?

A guitarlele is the instrument born out of the mixture of a guitar and an ukulele. It is a small portable instrument known by many names like: guitalele, guilele and kiku. It is one-fourth the size of a classical guitar.

Best Guitalele for Beginners

Here are some really excellent and pocket-friendly guitaleles that you can now buy online-

Best Guitalele for Beginners (United States)

• Caramel 6 String CB103G
• Kmise Guitalele
• Yamaha GL1 Guitalele

Best Guitalele for Beginners in India

Note: Currently only Vault UG-100 Guitalele available on Amazon India. Get it Here.

• Yamaha GL1 guitalele– This is priced under six thousand rupees in the Indian currency. The scale length is 17 inches and it has a warranty of a lifetime. Also, due to the meranti and spruce top build, the instrument is extremely light-weight and easy to carry.
• Oscar Schimdt OGU6E- This guitalele has a mahagony body and has a scale length of about 17.5 inches. It has an electric facility that makes the sound range quite diverse. The appearance is mesmerizing and this guitalele is ideal for stage performances.
• Gretsch G9126 guitalele- This is priced around thirteen thousand rupees. It has a mahagony build and also has a scale length of 17 inches. A die-cast tuner is available with this instrument.
• Enya EGL-07- It is quite small and very beginner friendly. With a scale length of 15 inches, this instrument is built of tiger-stripe koa and has a glossy finish. The kids can play this guitarlele quite easily.

By now you must have already been smitten by this amazing and intriguing guitar-ukulele hybrid. The guitalele is simply class apart showing its own uniqueness and style. Guitaleles have a very relaxing sound and that is why we cannot get enough of this instrument. The songs that you can play on kiku will sound quite same as the guitar and the ukulele, but they will have their own twist and charms. So, no more pondering. Order your guitarlele right now and

Features:

A guitalele has the following features-

• It has six nylon or nyglut strings only.
• It has a body akin to the tenor or the baritone ukulele.
• The tuning has to be done for a fourth higher than that of the guitar.
• The pitch of the notes is quite high and they sound like an ukulele mostly.
• Tuning of guitalele is very simple and it sounds like the 5th fret of the guitar when it is capoed.
• The tuning pattern is ADGCEA.

The pros:

This wonderful guitarlele has the following advantages:

• It is portable: Smaller than a guitar, this instrument can be carried anywhere and everywhere. It is light-weight and that makes them easier to be taken to the different places.
• It has narrow frets: Due to smaller frets, these instruments can be played easily by children and kids. Also, people with smaller hands will not encounter any hassle as they won’t have to stretch their fingers to play the higher notes.
• It has a soothing sound: Since the guitalele is a hybrid of both the guitar and the ukulele, you will get a sound that is both a mixture of these two instruments. That is what makes the sound unusual and highly refreshing.
• It has nylon strings: The nylon strings make it resistant from rusting and that is what makes it durable and long-lasting.
• It is pocket friendly: The guitaleles have a quite reasonable price and therefore anyone can buy it without facing any cost constraints.

The cons:

Everything has an upside and a downside. While we have highlighted the benefits, now we will also state the snags:

• Mellow sound: Since it is one-fourth of the size of the guitar, the sound is not very strong and bold as the larger guitars produce.
• Lower notes can’t be covered: Due to the small size, the lower notes are a bit tough to play as compared to the classical guitar.
• Tad bit difficult to find: Since this instrument is quite offbeat and is gaining popularity in the recent times, so it is not very easily available but then you can find it online without any problem.

Guitalele vs. Guitars

A guitarlele is smaller than a guitar. However, they have their own resemblances and divergences.

Similarities between a Guitar and a Guitalele

• Both have six strings.
• Both have the same fingering pattern for the chords.
• Both have the same chords and scales tuned.
• Both can produce acoustic or electrical sound.

What’s the difference between a guitar and guitarlele?

• The guitar can have metallic strings too but the guitalele’s strings are usually made of nylon only.
• The guitar’s strings are tuned from the low E to the high E but for the guitarlele the tuning must done a fourth higher than the guitar.
• The guitar is much larger in size than the guitarlele.

Guitalele vs. Ukulele

A guitalele is larger than the ukulele. But their similarities lie in the sounding pattern.

Similarities between a Ukulele and Guitalele

• Due to the high pitch chords of the guitalele, the sound of the chords of this instrument sounds akin to the sounds of the ukulele.
• The tuning pattern is similar for both with some minor differences.

Difference between a Uke and Guitalele

• The tuning is different for the two. The ukulele has only 4 strings.
• The ukulele is smaller than the guitalele.
• The kikus are cheaper than ukuleles.