Yamaha GL1 Guitalele, Natural, Baritone

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 3,068 ratings

Price: 109.99

Last update: 01-11-2025


About this item

A unique mini 6-string nylon guitar that is sized like a baritone ukulele (17" scale) and plays like a guitar
The guitalele's tuning is pitched up to "A" (or up to a 4th) at A/D/G/C/E/A.
Nylon Strings
Comes with a soft case bag

Product information


Top reviews from the United States

jthx
5.0 out of 5 stars so much fun, it should be illegal
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2011
I've had my guitalele (I've named him "Steve") for about three months now, and I gotta tell you, life without Steve would be a sad one indeed. It's incredibly light, and even tinier than I anticipated (roughly the size of my chihuahua mix. yes, we took measurements), but produces a huge, booming, cheerfulness-inducing sound. You cannot keep a straight face while playing this instrument. Smiling like a goof is mandatory. The case it comes with is perfectly nice, and from there I just throw it in my messenger bag with the neck sticking out a bit and go about my business. Especially as someone who lives, works, and plays in NYC, having a travel-friendly instrument is beyond amazing. Everywhere I take it, everyone wants to borrow it

Other reviewers have covered the technical aspects, so I'm just gonna say that I enjoy the living daylights out of playing this thing. It is so much fun. It's not like a travel guitar, where you make sacrifices for the sake of portability and still have to deal with the freakishly long neck and horrible tinfoil sound. It's a 'real' guitar, just tiny. The neck is pretty darn close to standard size, just shorter scale, and the uke/classical-guitar-style tuners means it stays in tune much more reliably even when it's getting jostled around. It sounds huge. When I record with it, I don't even need to mic it separately because it booms loud enough to be heard over my voice (and I have a big mouth).

I've also found it incredibly convenient to play. Because it's bigger than a standard uke, it fits perfectly under my arm, and I can easily stand and sit and play or even walk around and play without needing a strap or anything. (If you have really long arms or something, this may not be the case for you.) This allows me to irritate my roommates, mariachi-style, which I'm sure they appreciate.

Seriously, it's practical, fun, and happiness-inducing. best $100 I ever spent in my musical career. Go Team Steve!

(If you want to hear what it sounds like, here is a video I made. It's via webcam so the audio quality is not good at all but even through that, you can still hear how awesome it sounds.[...]

I'm not sure if youtube links are okay on Amazon, so if it gets deleted, just go to youtube and search for guitalele and you'll get tons and tons of demo videos.)
Olaf the Giant
5.0 out of 5 stars This is soooo much fun to play!!!
Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2023
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 I got this on Amazon about one month ago. It was on sale for under $100. How could I go wrong?!?!?
I had never even heard of the Guitalele instrument until I just happened across it while looking at ukelele’s on Amazon. What a fortuitous find!!!

I seriously love this thing! It’s tuned just like a normal sized guitar…if you then capoed that guitar at the 4th fret. The strings are ADGCEA. (From 6-1). It does not have a lot of bass in it, but that’s to be expected with an instrument of this size. That being said, it freaking plays like a dream and sounds fantastic! There are several makers of Guitalele’s out there, some at least twice as much, or more. I wanted to try the instrument after watching some YouTube videos of them being played but didn’t want to waste a lot of money if it turned out I didn’t like it. That’s why when this Yamaha Guitalele dropped under $100 (well, if I’m being accurate here, I bought it the same day I saw it on here so as far as I knew the “sale” price of under $100 was the actual price. But it does go for about $20-$30 more depending on the fluctuating pricing on Amazon) I jumped on it! It really does sound great! I also (after Christmas last year) bought a Kala Baritone Ukulele on here (LOVE LOVE LOVE THAT INSTRUMENT!!!!) and so I am familiar with KALA’s build quality and sound a bit more than I am with any musical instrument produced by Yamaha, so I toyed with the idea of splurging the $250 for the KALA version of the Guitalele, but in the end, user recommendations and price drove me to this one. I am absolutely happy with this and glad I chose it! You will be too! Here’s a little improv of some blues I did today. Give you a good idea of the sound. But also check out other YouTube videos of this instrument to be sure you like it before you buy it.
Jon
5.0 out of 5 stars A quality instrument from Yamaha
Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2023
69 year old guitar hack here. Played electric, and some acoustic guitar in three bands way back in the 1970's. Played acoustic at a wedding. My neighbor bought a Yamaha GL-1 "guitalele" A few years ago, and told me recently that he loves it! A GL-1 is basically a very compact 6 string classical guitar, but, instead of being tuned Eadgbe, it is tuned 5 frets up on each string, so the low and high e's become a's. This means that all the chord shapes I know on a regular guitar can be played in the same positions, but the name of the chord will be different. Example, an e major chord shape on a guitar, will really be an a major on the Yamaha. If I am just playing by myself for myself, there is no problem. If I was to play along with a regular guitar, we would have to work out what key to play in. Also, if I sing and play, then depending on what key I play in, I would have to sing in higher notes.

This thing came quicky to me in Hawaii, and it is in perfect condition! Since it had nylon/classical type strings, it is going to take much longer for the strings to settle down and stop sretching. Way longer than my steel stringers. So, don't write a review after a few days complaining about this. All classical style nylon string guitars do this! Pick it up,tune it, play it, and keep tuning it. The tuners on mine seem just fine. It is a total blast for me to play. It sounds great, especially for the small body size. It has very good volume and sustain too. A bit stingy on the fret markers, both on the fingerboard and side of the neck. If you have big fingers, some chording might be a bit crowded. It doesn't have a truss rod. But, many classical guitars and many other guitaleles don't have them either. I have yet to read a review, or watch a video review, where the owner had a neck warp. In short, I should have bought one of these long ago.

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