The first thing to talk about with the Snail baritone is the tuning. It is supplied with re-entrant tuning - high G, like a big tenor ukulele. It does mean you can play interchangably with any sopranos, concerts and tenors in your collection. But it is a bit strange to have a baritone with gCEA tuning (and yes, that means high G, despite the lower case g - who knows why…) Anyway, that’s fine, but you can also add a low G which I’ll fit, to get more depth from the bigger body. OR you can have regular baritone tuning with DGBE strings. (If you want that, just order it, and reply to the automatic email confirmation you get and I’ll put them on free.

Annoying really… all of that was very boring. I wish they’d just put regular baritone strings on and I could avoided writing that, and you would now be less bored, having just read it!

These instruments are neatly made, gloss finish ukes, with the SUB-M1 EQ having a preamp with tone and volume controls, and inbuilt tuner, and undersaddle pickup. These Snail ukuleles have a 35mm nut width too, which is not quite as common with baritones - so suitable for people (like me) who favour that width, or who don’t need or desire the extra room from a wider neck.

Soundwise, it is difficult to describe as again, those string options really influence it. In high G format as supplied, it’s fine, but nothing special. It’s a laminate mahogany instrument and in high G in sounds like a laminate ukulele, albeit with a little added depth as a result of the baritone size body. In low G, it retains some nice crispness in the treble register but the bottom end is boosted in a way that suits it much better. And in DGBE, there’s plenty of depth and deep low notes, but with a nice balance that’s not too warm, but articulate as well.

If you need a gig bag, case, strap buttons or a low G fitting to your Snail SUB-M1 EQ baritone electro ukulele, scroll to the bottom of the page for common add-ons to include with the uke.