New tenor by Liuteria d'Insieme. Our first uke, looking for comments and opinions

liuteriadinsieme

liuteriadinsieme

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Hello everyone,
as luthiers in Milan (Italy) we generally build classical and acoustic guitars together with instruments for early music, such as lutes and mandolins. Recently a costomer of ours asked us for a tenor uke and after collecting informations around we projected and built our first one and I would like to have some comments or opinions on it from you guys.

As koa is kinda hard to find here we decided to use some local wood and went with Italian flamed walnut for back, sides and neck. Soundboard is mahogany, Malaysian Blackwood for bridge and fingerboard and I inlayed a MOP decoration in the headstock on customer's design, vibrating lenth is 430mm.

Feel free to be honest in your comments, need to know everything you think about it, thanks.

Marco
 

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I messed up everything and I can't have thumbnails anymore...can someone please tell me how to correctly create thumbnails?
Marco
 
Your Walnut probably has a very similar density and Janka hardness to Koa. I suspect the properties of the two woods crossover at some point, including stiffness. In other words there's no doubt that you can find examples of Koa that are denser than certain examples of Walnut and vice versa.
In that sense it should be a perfect shoe in, although you will probably find many think Koa has magical properties.
 
Looks great - I really like the shape.
Given the topic of another thread running close to this one, its fairly certain someone will point out that the fret markers for a ukulele are traditionally placed at the 10th, rather than 9th fret - it may as well be me! I have some previous on this issue - I built my first ukulele on a Pete Howlett course, and against Pete's advice decided that since I was a guitar player, I would rather have the 9th fret marker. It was a mistake, as every commercially built ukulele I have subsequently acquired has the marker at the 10th. I find it really confusing now when I switch instruments!
Purely personal taste, but to me the fret marker dots look a little too big for the size of the neck.
 
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Wildestcat said:
Looks great - I really like the shape.
Given the topic of another thread running close to this one, its fairly certain someone will point out that the fret markers for a ukulele are traditionally placed at the 10th, rather than 9th fret - it may as well be me! I have some previous on this issue - I built my first ukulele on a Pete Howlett course, and against Pete's advice decided that since I was a guitar player, I would rather have the 9th fret marker. It was a mistake, as every commercially built ukulele I have subsequently acquired has the marker at the 10th. I find it really confusing now when I switch instruments!
Purely personal taste, but to me the fret marker dots look a little too big for the size of the neck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your comment, as guitar maker it was natural to us to place it on th 9th fret, and I prefer the simmetry it creates but yours is a good point, I'll keep it in mind. However we are building another tenor with same woods and details that will have marker on 10th fret.
 
It looks very nice! Although I think the headstock looks a bit short and stubby compared to the lines of the body. A little longer headstock might balance better with the body. Also much smaller fret markers might be more complimentary as well. Here is a modified image with the headstock stretched out a bit…

stretched.jpg
 
Michael Smith said:
The workmanship looks good. Why no label identifiable through the sound hole ?
Click to expand...

I was redrawing our label so it wasn't in place when I shot those pictures. I placed it today and I'll shot some new pictures soon.

=It looks very nice! Although I think the headstock looks a bit short and stubby compared to the lines of the body. A little longer headstock might balance better with the body. Also much smaller fret markers might be more complimentary as well. Here is a modified image with the headstock stretched out a bit…
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thougts, we generally prefer small headstock (on our guitars too) but the picture you attached looks good...I'll think about it. As for the dots I agree and prefer smaller dots, my collegue Stefano doesn't so sometimes we have to look for a middle way :)
 
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mainger said:
Second question... do you take orders? How much? Sound sample? Looks lovely!
Click to expand...

Of course we take orders and we love to build custom instruments projecting them all the way with the cutomer. I will try to post some sound sample as soon as the actual owner will record something, I hope it won't take much.

Talking about prices I don't know if there is any forum rule about that, kinda new here...let's say it's around 1000€ taxes and case included. If you want me to be more specific please write me a private message.
 
I've looked at your website and can see you make many very fine instruments. Its no wonder that your first uke looks great.

It seems to me that your uke design is influenced by your parlor guitar (box shape, head, and bridge). I would prefer a uke with a design based on your classical guitar but others will disagree. The only feature of your uke with which I am really not content is the head. I agree with RPA that it looks too stubby and his version looks much better.

I'm also wondering why you didn't bind the back: I think instruments look much better with binding but again others will disagree.
 
A handsome, sturdy looking instrument. I even like the shape of the upper bout. Gives it a stylish, European look. However, I am in agreement that the MOP fret markers are too big. I use 5mm which might look better. The large markers give it a bit of a clunky look which doesn't go with stylish design in my opinion. Stefano might not agree.
 
With the end graft, I think, from an aesthetic point of view, you need to tie this in by binding the back. Given it's elegant guitar-like shape I would have used spruce for the front... Looks great. How does it sound?
 
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