NUD: Boho

My IndieGoGo campaign, Boho Uke finally arrived after many delays.


https://goo.gl/photos/eYMGk89zEvugvTY27

Congratulations John, very cool!

Congratulations! I'd like to try slide in open g on a Uke like that.

Looks great!

That is very cool man.

Hey Frugal, I've had a Moonshine on order and it's due to be shipped out this week. Purchased as a novelty but hoping it's playable and sounds decent. Any early feedback??
Thanks a bunch.

bassballz said:

Hey Frugal, I've had a Moonshine on order and it's due to be shipped out this week. Purchased as a novelty but hoping it's playable and sounds decent. Any early feedback??
Thanks a bunch.

Click to expand...

Most important, it's setup and strung to be tuned an octave lower than typical. In other words, still gCEA, but A is 220Hz, not 440Hz. I broke some strings before I figured that out, it isn't widely documented. Playing electric is completely new to me, it only requires a fairly light touch to fret a string. Push down too hard, and the string goes real sharp, real fast. Now that I've got it tuned correctly, it sounds similar to the demo they posted on Vimeo. Hopefully as the strings settle in, it will only get better. I was very frustrated at all the delays, and then by the misunderstanding over tuning. Now I'm comfortable that I'll be able to play it for some time to come. It wasn't at all expensive, so any pleasure I derive from it will come pretty cheap.
The jack is on the bottom, and the cable wants to stick you in the thigh if you're playing seated. Ultimately, I think I'll want to play with a strap as the shape makes it a little awkward to hold. They haven't shipped the extra perks from the IndieGoGo campaign yet, pretty sure I have a strap coming from Bohemian. I may try to post a sound sample in the next day or two, if I can endure other folks hearing my terrible playing.

I finally got my Boho Hot Sauce Uke yesterday, and wanted to give you props Frugal. I went through 2 strings before I finally read your advice about the lower octave, and it saved me a headache. The playing it more gently is spot on, though a little odd to get used to.

I'm definitely looking forward to the strap coming to make it more comfortable, but I'm already falling in love with this thing just from playing it for a day. I can't wait to start playing it with some pedals.

Thanks for the feedback, mine's due to be delivered tomorrow, and I'd rather not start out by popping strings, so will heed your advice. I wonder if there would be string options to avoid the breakage and still get it to 440HZ tuning? Hmmm...
Do these produce any type of resonant sound without being amped? just curious.
Thanks

Congrats! Very interesting. I can't say that's going to be common! Enjoy it's uniqueness!

I'm on the road working, and it'll be another couple weeks before I get back home to play my Boho some more. Bohemian did send me a list of string sizes for tuning up to normal uke pitch. Here's what they said at the time:
In regards to tuning your ukulele, the way we set up the uke it is tuned an octave lower than your average ukulele. You are probably trying to tune it to the normal octave of a uke, which is why the A string keeps snapping on you. If you want to have your uke tuned at this octave, you are going to need to use lower string gauges. The string gauges that came with your uke were 26, 34, 30, 24. Instead, try using 20, 28, 24, 18 as the string gauges, and you should be able to tune appropriately without the A string snapping on you.

I made a little spreadsheet to calculate the string tensions, someday I may experiment with it, but when I get home I think I'll just keep going with it i the lower octave.

Hope everyone else who got one is enjoying it. Hope to hear some samples from people who play better than me too!

Very interesting. Congratulations.