Ibanez Piccolo Guitar

kypfer

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Interesting find, thank you. Basically, this would be a Steel String Tenor sized Guilele / Guitalele...? I hope there's gonna be more of these around. Next to the Ovangkol, they also have a Spruce / Mahogany model.
 
So this is basically the same concept as a guitalele, but with steel strings and a slightly smaller nut width. Interesting. I wonder what it sounds like. I'm guessing somewhat tiple-ish.

- FiL
 
I think I want one - but I don't see any sellers in the US.
 
Hey, I like this. Thanks for sharing. One of my favorite ukes is an Ibenez Quilted Maple cut away shaped like this.....was my fav..until I ran over it with my car ]:

How did you run over it with a car?
Just curious...
 
Ah, I was late getting ready for a local uke festival that my club was playing at so I asked my daughter to put my ukes in the car. There were 2 of 'em in my rolly pack the Ibenez and a concert eleuke. She put them behind the car instead. I walk around the front of the car when I get in usually so I didn't see 'em and idk why my daughter didn't remember/notice the pack. As I backed up I heard a weird sound and was like "What the...", then my daughter said......"The UKES!". Good thing I'm pretty good at keeping my calm cuz this was a big test!

The Ibenez was done for, headstock split in half and body very crushed. I was going to use it for parts and maybe even take the intact portion of the soundboard and use it for a home made uke. A friend of mine's hubby likes to tinker and so I gave him the uke to mess with and amazingly he put it back together and while it will never sound the same as it did (it was a special uke that just had "it") it makes a nice beginner uke now and is actually on loan to a neighbor. The Eleuke's neck got broken but the fretboard was fine. I leaned it against the corner of the doorframe slowly and carefully pushing it back into place and I'll be darned, it still plays good. Though it does have bandaids on either side of the fretboard so you don't impale yourself with the splinters! LOL!

How did you run over it with a car?
Just curious...
 
As a steel string guitar player, I've been interested in Guilele's, & in 2014 decided to build a steel string version. My goal was to have it fit in a tenor uke case, making it easy to travel with. The body is tenor uke sized, scale length is 17.5", fret board radius of 16", "X" bracing for the top, & total length is 27". String spacing at the nut is 1 & 5/8" , and 2 3/16 at the bridge. This is about the same as the string spacing on a steel string guitar at the 5th fret & bridge, making it more familiar to my fingers.

I'm tempted to grab one of the Ibanez Piccolo guitars to compare the build...

aIMG_0830.jpgaIMG_0834.jpg So the attached photos are the results of this whim.
 
The Ibanez is not the first such instrument. The Tacoma Papoose was introduced in the early 2000s.

The Papoose was actually a pretty blatant ripoff of the TommyHawk, created by NJ luthier Tom Barth. Tacoma stole not only the instrument design, but also Tom's advertising tag lines calling it "A little axe" that "satisfies the urge". With business practices like that, it's not surprising that Tacoma Guitars was a short-lived endeavor.


Scooter
 
thx for the vid links. Hopefully it makes it to the local shops so I can try it. It seems thinner sounding than I would have expected, compared to a Cordoba mini.. which i know is a larger scale and body, but I figured it would be more.. something with the steel strings. Wonder what it would sound like with the aquila guilele strings.
 
Wonder what it would sound like with the aquila guilele strings.

I don't think that they would work very well. As the Ibanez Piccolo is built and braced for steel strings, I would suspect that nylon strings don't have enough power to drive the soundboard. But there are other nice options for a tenor sized guitalele, like the Kala KA-GL or the KoAloha D-VI.
 
Ok, I got so curious about these Piccolo Guitars that I just ordered one (the "Limited Edition" Mahogany/Spruce model that seems to be available only in Europe and Asia). No high expectations at this price point, even the stock pictures show some rough edges. It will probably take a while to get here, but I'm planning to write up a short review.

Looks like the Ovangkol model (EWP14) has alredy hit the stores as well...
 
Ok, I got so curious about these Piccolo Guitars that I just ordered one (the "Limited Edition" Mahogany/Spruce model that seems to be available only in Europe and Asia). No high expectations at this price point, even the stock pictures show some rough edges. It will probably take a while to get here, but I'm planning to write up a short review.

Looks like the Ovangkol model (EWP14) has alredy hit the stores as well...

I love your adventurous spirit. It really is an attractive looking instrusment, I enjoyed the videos thanks for the posting those. The sound of it is very pleasant and reflects the piccolo name well.

I will look forward to your review. Now if they made one with 4 steel strings I could actually play one and might buy it. I did put South Coast classic metals on one of my tenors and I do enjoy the difference in sound.
 
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My Ovangkol model arrived yesterday... I haven't had a lot of time to muck around with it as yet, but I was surprised by its weight, it's slightly heavier than I expected (not sure what I _did_ expect). I hope to have some time with it today. If nothing else, I'm hoping it can be a travel guitar for those rare work trips where I want to keep my hands loose.
 
I don't think that they would work very well. As the Ibanez Piccolo is built and braced for steel strings, I would suspect that nylon strings don't have enough power to drive the soundboard.

This isn't always the case. I've a Yamaha FG-Junior (JR1) guitar, which is (about) 3/4 size, 21" scale-length. It's sold with steel strings fitted and is designed for such, complete with truss rod (accessible through the sound hole). I fitted it with a set of appropriate (for the scale length) gauge nylon strings and it plays perfectly.

Just a note of interest ... obviously YMMV ;)
 
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