Jim Hanks
Well-known member
Technically, this is a "short scale parlor guitar" but the specs are squarely in baritone guilele territory. I'll get to those shortly. But first, a little history...
I have admired guilele (guitalele? guitarlele? couldn't we have picked a single term?) from afar for several years now, particularly the playing of folks here like Dr. Bekken and camsuke. But I never gave it much thought for myself as I completely gave up guitar in my mid-twenties due to RSI issues. I just couldn't work my computer job and play guitar too. Even now, my uke playing is severely limited. But a UU thread back in January got me surfing for 6-strings, and the realization struck me that if I can play tenor and baritone ukes, there really shouldn't be any reason I couldn't play a similarly scaled 6-string without undue stress. At that point, the hunt was on, and since you're here, you know where this is headed.
I had stumbled across the Jupiter Ukulele (http://jupiteruke.com/) site several times before, probably most recently during the hunt for super tenors that led to the Bonanza build. This time I noticed the parlor guitars built off a baritone uke body and thought, hmm, he does 19" scale and 6-strings, why not both?
I thought one reason "why not" might be the scale length, figuring the scale length of the parlor guitars must surely be something insane ( ) like 23", but when Jonathan informed me the usual scale of those is the modern baritone 20", I knew we might have a shot. After a few email exchanges, he agreed it sounded like a neat challenge. The game was afoot. Well, not quite yet. Turns out, Jonathan was at his winter home in Florida, and his workshop was hibernating back in Pennsylvania. So it would be several months before work could commence, and if all went well, several months of build time after that. That timeframe actually sounded great to me as it would give me time to save up and would give me time to figure out what I really wanted. (I've posted in other threads that I acquired a used Cordoba Mini and Cordoba C1m 1/4 size to help dial that in.)
Fast forward to the present, Jonathan is back north, I've done my experiments, and we exchanged some more emails to arrive at the following spec sheet:
I got clearance from Jonathan to start this thread, so he'll probably be checking in from time-to-time. And I'll post update pictures as they become available.
I have admired guilele (guitalele? guitarlele? couldn't we have picked a single term?) from afar for several years now, particularly the playing of folks here like Dr. Bekken and camsuke. But I never gave it much thought for myself as I completely gave up guitar in my mid-twenties due to RSI issues. I just couldn't work my computer job and play guitar too. Even now, my uke playing is severely limited. But a UU thread back in January got me surfing for 6-strings, and the realization struck me that if I can play tenor and baritone ukes, there really shouldn't be any reason I couldn't play a similarly scaled 6-string without undue stress. At that point, the hunt was on, and since you're here, you know where this is headed.
I had stumbled across the Jupiter Ukulele (http://jupiteruke.com/) site several times before, probably most recently during the hunt for super tenors that led to the Bonanza build. This time I noticed the parlor guitars built off a baritone uke body and thought, hmm, he does 19" scale and 6-strings, why not both?
I thought one reason "why not" might be the scale length, figuring the scale length of the parlor guitars must surely be something insane ( ) like 23", but when Jonathan informed me the usual scale of those is the modern baritone 20", I knew we might have a shot. After a few email exchanges, he agreed it sounded like a neat challenge. The game was afoot. Well, not quite yet. Turns out, Jonathan was at his winter home in Florida, and his workshop was hibernating back in Pennsylvania. So it would be several months before work could commence, and if all went well, several months of build time after that. That timeframe actually sounded great to me as it would give me time to save up and would give me time to figure out what I really wanted. (I've posted in other threads that I acquired a used Cordoba Mini and Cordoba C1m 1/4 size to help dial that in.)
Fast forward to the present, Jonathan is back north, I've done my experiments, and we exchanged some more emails to arrive at the following spec sheet:
- Baritone ukulele body - standard for parlor guitar and I wouldn't want any bigger anyway
- 6 string 'guitar' neck, 19 inch scale - my preferred bari scale, confirmed once again by the Mini vs C1m comparison
- Sycamore Back & Sides - other choices included black walnut and big leaf maple, but I like the finished look of this better and an extra bonus is "this wood started with me and a chain saw." How cool is that?
- Pennsylvania Red Cedar top - other choices included redwood and Port Orford cedar but again I like this better visually and the local aspect is appealing. Tonally this should be between the other two which should fit the wider guitar range well.
- Side sound port - I have to say my experience with these so far has been somewhat inconclusive but it can't hurt
- Radiused fingerboard - again, can't hurt and may help those RSI issues
- Piccaso headplate - so far pretty normal, but if you've read many of my posts over the past few years, you'll know that doesn't describe me, so here goes. I'll post a pic below of an example but suffice it to say this is a Jonathan Dale original design and ain't nobody gonna have another like mine
- spiral rosette - another innovation from Jon so why not?
- MiSi pickup - I haven't been getting pickups in ukes for quite some time as I don't play out and recording with a microphone has proven better/easier lately. But what the heck, go big *and* go home?
- Nut width - not on the official spec sheet, but should be in the neighborhood of 1-3/4" maybe 1-13/16"
I got clearance from Jonathan to start this thread, so he'll probably be checking in from time-to-time. And I'll post update pictures as they become available.