Ukulele with flush fingerboard

So, am I getting this right?
Builders got away from this to add higher frets to the uke?
Was it Martin or Kamaka that started raised fretboards?
Does the floating fretboard make the uke sound better?
 
So, am I getting this right?
Builders got away from this to add higher frets to the uke?
Was it Martin or Kamaka that started raised fretboards?
Does the floating fretboard make the uke sound better?

Hard to say, but I imagine it was a number of things. Maybe for more frets, maybe to keep up with aesthetic trends or look more like acoustic guitars etc. Maybe there is some sonic benefit one way or the other, but I would guess that whoever was building it one way could argue that it is the better way. In the end, I find it to be a matter of comfort, because overall sound depends on a lot more than just the way the neck meets the body. I'm a little suspicious of the floating neck ukes - I could see those having problems down the road, just my 2 cents.
 
I'll try to add my two cents here.

A flush fingerboard doesn't necessarily mean that you need high frets; the bridge (and less so, the nut) raise the strings high enough.

I think the reason behind the flush fingerboards (which sometimes are seperate slices of wood, glued onto the neck, but flush with the soundboard) is in a more traditional, artisanal building technique using a Spanish heel: they are built face-down so fretboard and soundboard are perfectly level, allowing for an easy, rigid and light neck-attachment. Mainland builders (and many after them) preferred the building technique used in non-classical guitars, closing up the soundbox first and then fitting, angling and leveling the neck and fretboard (with flat joints, dovetail joints, screws...), which allows more adjustments.

Anuenue built their Vision 1879 with a flush fingerboard as well, but I can't think of any other contemporary builds, apart from your Ohana... The building technique used is a bit at odds with mass production.
 
I'll try to add my two cents here.

A flush fingerboard doesn't necessarily mean that you need high frets; the bridge (and less so, the nut) raise the strings high enough.

I think the reason behind the flush fingerboards (which sometimes are seperate slices of wood, glued onto the neck, but flush with the soundboard) is in a more traditional, artisanal building technique using a Spanish heel: they are built face-down so fretboard and soundboard are perfectly level, allowing for an easy, rigid and light neck-attachment. Mainland builders (and many after them) preferred the building technique used in non-classical guitars, closing up the soundbox first and then fitting, angling and leveling the neck and fretboard (with flat joints, dovetail joints, screws...), which allows more adjustments.

Anuenue built their Vision 1879 with a flush fingerboard as well, but I can't think of any other contemporary builds, apart from your Ohana... The building technique used is a bit at odds with mass production.

Thanks for the info, that Anuenue Vision 1879 looks light something right up my alley - I currently only have mahogany ukes and have been wanting to try a koa, so that might be a good fit if I can find one for sale. I see what you mean about the build techniques, maybe that's why we don't see so many of these anymore. Guess I may have to rescue a few and fix them up, I've seen a few pop up on Reverb that might be worth purchasing.
 
So, am I getting this right?
Builders got away from this to add higher frets to the uke?
Was it Martin or Kamaka that started raised fretboards?
Does the floating fretboard make the uke sound better?

I just visited a vintage uke store on the Big Island that has quite a few old Kumulae and Kamaka ukes with the flush necks and some vintage Martins. According to the owner/luthier this was the initial way of building ukes, and they did not have a fretboard at all but the frets were directly inserted into the neck wich was flush with the top. Then Martin started to dominate the market with ukes that had the added fretboard that extended over the body, and the Hawaiian builders adopted this method. I checked out and played more than 10 of these 100+ year old ukes, and the Martins had consistently better action and intonation than the old Hawaiian ukes, which may be due to the added fretboard providing more stability. And yeah, these old Martins sounded phenomenal and I was very tempted to buy one for sure.
 
Awesome, thanks. Do you own this? I wonder how does it play? Any thoughts on tone, the feel of the neck, action, frets, etc.?

Yes, I own that one. Unfortunately, it has a few issues: needs a new saddle, nut seems high, and the last fret seems to have been replaced, and seems too high. I'm assuming that a replaced last fret means the neck was taken off and reset at some point, yes? When I first got it, it did indeed have a sweet tone. Deciding whether to sink any dough into this, or just sell it off as-is. I suppose I could just yank the last fret, as I never play up there, and I have seen a bunch of ukes like this with no 12th fret, whatever that means.
 
The Firefly banjo Ukes from The Magic Fluke Company have flush fingerboards.


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Scooter
 
@StevieD009 - How adventurous are you? Mandolin players often pull the last few frets from the fretboard extension and then file or use a router to thin the extension so it does not interfere with their picking. Seems it would work on a uke just as well.
 
Hi all,
I own an Ohana SK-28, and I love the fact that its fingerboard is flush with the body (neck is joined at the body without raising up). This seems to be a bygone technique that was used on ukes in the 50s/60s. But I love the way strumming feels on it, I don't run into the neck with my finger. So, my question is: Do you know of any other modern ukulele models with flush fingerboards? Or if you know of any vintage that are worth looking at please feel free to list those, but I prefer to buy new if possible (vintage=problems lol). Thanks!

Interesting. I've never seen a uke like that. My fingers sometimes hit the fingerboard (I guess that's why they call it a fingerboard :)), depending on the uke I'm playing. Wouldn't your fingers hit the body of the uke instead?
 
Here's some pics of my flush neck 20's Favilla. Looking closer, it seems the last 2 frets were replaced.

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