Uke Sizing

[jjh]

Guys,
I'm making a uke, and I've made it to the concert dimensions David Hurds site. A friend is a uke player and I intend to give this to him, I showed him the work so far, and he commented that, the body felt the same as his tenor. His tenor is 1/4" larger both width and length wise, he felt that the concert body I'd made didn't go with the concert neck I've started. He says it feels like a tenor uke with a soprano neck, I measured the length the he said he felt comfortable with, and it ended up around 450mm-475mm (17.75"-18.75").

I haven't got any uke experience and wanted to run it by some who have, as this uke is destined for him I intend to stretch the neck to say a 17" long one, but was more concerned how radically it might change the sound or balance feel playability of the instrument, I was intending to do a 14 neck joint to increase the scale length more to give the top more energy. These are all ideas at the moment.

I understand increasing the scale length increased the stress on the top and may need to adjust the bracing, but my take on that is that the tension on the top from nylon strings on a uke won't make hardly any difference in the long run if I increase the scale length and I may in return provide the top with more energy to create its sound. Also talking to someone else they were saying the original ukes were Portuguese with steel strings and sailors dropped them off in Hawaii and they evolved to what we have today don't know if there's any truth but it's a pretty story.

Cheers

John

[Kim]

Here ya go John.

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/martin.html#ukes

Cheers

Kim

[jjh]

Kim I know the correct sizes ala martin, but a frien whose a uke player felt that the concert scale length felt too short when put against the concert body, I was making a uke for myself, but have since been given one and I have too many instruments as it is so was going to give this one I'm making to my friend and didn't know how people felt changing the scale length aesthetically as well as acoustically etc

[John Maddison]

... they were saying the original ukes were Portuguese with steel strings and sailors dropped them off in Hawaii and they evolved to what we have today ...

Yes John, the Portuguese instrument was called a Cavaquinho, they are a beautiful and intricate-looking instrument (if anyone reaching this post has acess to plans please do a reply). Wikipedia has a fairly good description ... click here.

[John Maddison]

John

Your post has got me going; here's a 6-page step-by-step pictorial on the process of Constructing a Cavaquinho by Diego de Assis. Search for plans continues.

Cheers

[Allen]

I was in one of the local music shops that sells a lot of ukes. They were telling me that many experienced players are looking for "super sized ukes" At least this is what they called them when referring to a longer scale neck than was traditional on that sized body.

Ie. a concert neck on soprano body, tenor neck on concert body.

They were also saying that by and far the most popular instruments to sell held very close to the Martin standard body size. Others, while perhaps looking good, just didn't sell. If this is a consideration, then worth taking on board.

[Localele]

Hello John , Increasing the scale length from Concert to Tenor is no real problem.In the case of my ukes that means a difference of 2 inches from 15" to 17".Depending on the strings you use this may/may not mean a change in string gauges from concert to tenor sets.The difference isn't huge and as most uke plans are way "overbuilt" you shouldn't have a problem in tuning it up.
Balance is another issue and a long neck on a small body may be awkward .The weight of the tuners makes a big difference as well ,I have put Grover Mini Rotomatics on baritone size ukes but they would be too heavy on a concert or soprano.
There are a lot of similar instruments to ukes in other cultures but the sound , tunings and how they are played is quite different.I played a Cuartro a couple of weeks back and it has a totally different sound and is played quite fast and as a percussive instrument .Tuned ADF#B.The steel string Cavaquinho is also picked quite fast and is tuned DGBD.
Hope this is some help.Cheers.