New Strad Uke arrived!

brimmer

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Here's a new uke, fresh from the workshop of Joel Eckhaus in Portland, Maine. Its a concert sized Stradelele from Earnest Instruments. The top wood is spruce and the back and sides are curly mahogany. A really nice fingerstyle uke, great tone all the way up the fretboard. Strums well too. I am happy to recommend Joel. Its took about 4 mos for him to make the uke, which is exactly what he promised.

I am working on a celtic uke youtube channel, and I'll put some sound samples on there. I'll post when I get that going. Should have a free celtic uke ebook ready in a month or two also.

The Strad is a great uke for fingerstyle celtic. I chose the Strad because I like the retro look, and also because John King and Rob MacKillop played them on their youtube vids. I can verify, however, that the beauty of their music was in their fingers, not the uke. I have a long way to go...

Enjoy the eye candy!

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:iwant:

Congrats! Looks awesome. I am very happy for you. Can't wait to hear it too.:)

Also, thank you so much in advance for making the youtube channel and celtic book. I am very much looking forward to both as you can expect from my interest as per the other thread.
 
Right you are, its Joel Eckhaus. Should have known, his signature is on the label in the soundhole! I fixed the orig post.

He's just been Joel to me throughout our emails. Nice fellow to deal with.
 
Very cool body shape! Me likey!
 
Does her make a tenor size? And is there a web link to his work? Very beautiful ukulele….. looking forward to sound samples.
Thanks for sharing.
 
Joel does indeed make tenor Strads. Shoot him an email… at least, he did email me that he had a couple in the works, anyway- I noticed that he doesn't list them on the site after investigating… Still, like I said, he said he was making some over email.
 
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Tim, the uke has pegheds, but he also offers old style violin wood friction tuners. I was tempted to go for the violin tuners but my pragmatic side prevailed. Joel does satin and gloss finishes, and also offers tru-oil finish but discouraged that option for some reason. Having seen your youtube performances, I think you would find this uke suits your style of playing. The tone is very even and clear, all the way up the neck. And of course there's that sublime youtube performance of John King playing Ka Ipo Lei Manu on a Strad. Thanks for tabbing that one, I play it often.

Joel also does tenors Strads, and in fact he offered me a maple tenor Strad that he had in stock as of last Oct. I doubt he has it now, but one could ask. About $1450 if I recall correctly, but don't hold me to that. My Strad priced at about $1100. I sold a nice Collings to fund this purchase and ended up with a little money in my pocket. I won't say the Strad is better than the Collings, or vice versa. Both are great ukes. But the Strad is cheaper. (And I prefer it.)

Here's a pic of the maple Strad Joel offered me. I kept the pic because it was such a pretty uke. I wish I could find the pic of the back, the maple looked nice.
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Found the back pic of the tenor:
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Wow, congrats on the awesome uke! It looks fantastic. I'm thinking about ordering one of these myself. Can't wait to hear your sound samples because I was wondering about your very combination - spruce/mahogany. May I ask, how does it feel to hold, with its different shape? How's the neck profile? Is it lightly built? Thanks for sharing it with us.
 
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Bone, its light. Not Kiwaya light, but about as light as a Martin concert. It is as easy to hold as any of my other ukes. The shape doesn't make a difference. I noticed that Rob MacKillop uses a strap on his Strad, but John King did not use a strap. I don't feel the need for one either.

The action is low, and feel of the neck is excellent. I have to say, my Kiwaya concert plays easier than any uke I've ever played. But the Strad is very easy to play, too.

I hope to get some sound samples within a few weeks. Don't get your hopes too high. I have some lingering neuropathy due to medical treatment last year, and it is still slowly going away.
 
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Thanks brimmer. From what you say - light, easy to play, good neck - it sounds like I should get on his list. I was wondering about his Palomino model too. There are zero sound samples online of that. Maybe I should start a thread asking if anyone has one..

Don't worry about the sound samples - just when you can and if you're feeling up to it. Enjoy that Strad!

EDIT: All I had to do was venture off youtube to find a sound sample from our own Doc_J here.
 
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Bone, he also had a walnut Palomino in stock last fall. Seems like he keeps some ukes on hand to take to festivals. Probably he could record a sample for you...
 
Wow, very cool. It looks like somebody grabbed the ends of the body and stretched it! It must sound very different. Love the way the fretboard continues all the way up to the soundhole!
 
I love my tenor Strad so much I'm wearing holes in it!
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Hi Jim, what is the scale length of your tenor Strad?
 
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