Violin-uke?
- Thread starter whistleman123
- Start date
Doug W
Well-known member
Alan is playing one here
What he describes here in the video is pretty much the way it works.
Keep in mind that a violin body is designed to resonate more by using a bow to vibrate the sound forward from the friction of the bow on the strings, whereas a uke or guitar body is designed more for plucking or strumming. The physics of this bears out.
Also, like Alan shows in the video in order to preserve the scale length and intonation, the violin bridge in the hybrid instrument has to be put in a suboptimal place on the body, where it is acutally the least wide, and will in fact vibrate the least. The result of this is a poor sounding instrument with shorter sustain than even a cheap $50 uke like the Makala Dolphin.
On a violin body, the bridge is supposed to be placed halfway or in the middle of the length of the F-holes, which would be about 2 inches back towards the tailpiece (from where he has it in order to keep intonation) in order to cause the violin body to properly resonate the sound forward in the most optimal way.
The Bridge placement problem gets worse if you put a concert or tenor neck on a violin body, i.e., NOT in the optimal location for good resonance of the body.
It certainly looks cool, but if sound and playability suffer too much, I personally would tire of trying to play such a hybrid instrument quite quickly.
Nickie
Well-known member
Being a former fiddler, I'd say that's pretty hideous....
whistleman123
Well-known member
What if a soprano neck was put on a 3/4 or 1/2 size violin body. Wouldn't that push the bridge back down to a more optimal position and in so doing sweaten to sound?
BlackBearUkes
Well-known member
No, it would not help the sound much. Booli was right on with info. Violins are made for the bow and string. A plucked violin string has little to no sustain because of the carved body, top and back. A smaller violin body as you suggest, would mean even less sound and it would be on the tinny spectrum.
With a Cigar Box Uke (CBU) build instead, you might be surprised how good it can sound.
I've heard and played quite a few CBU's that were on par with regular figure-eight ukes and have been meaning to try making my own, but time is short lately for such projects.
CB Gitty, Grizzly and StewMac all have kits, and then there's also the Wolfelele kits.
Also lots of places to get a neck, tuners, bridge and nut such as Mainland Ukes, and you might be able to source a suitable cigar box locally.
I have 'J&R Cigar' store, bar, & lounge about 5 miles from home that sells nice wooden cigar boxes for $2.50 each or 5/$10. They also have paper-over-mdf for $1.50 ea or 9/$10.
I currently use the cigar boxes for storage of smaller items since they are much nicer than those tupperware-type pencil boxes that sell for like $3 @ walmart, and the plastic boxes always break on me and have to be thrown away. Never had a cigar box break yet.
CB Gitty sells cigar boxes too, but with shipping + their premium prices, I have better choices locally.
TheCraftedCow
Well-known member
Why not put good geared tuners which look like wooden pegs and have the accuracy of it being in tune with the looks which are what he is after? Not only am I sold on them.... I also sell PEGHEDS. They are the only geared tuner with the look he wants. He seems to care about accuracy also
@ $59-$60 for a set of PEGHEDS, that is almost equal to the cost of all the other parts for a Cigar-Box uke, and IMHO, I really dont see the point spending that much for the tuners.
Grover 9NB geared tuners are very nice, smooth tuners and can be had for ~$15 everywhere if you want a good set of tuners and not worry about friction pegs, nor spend a lot for tuners.
I have PEGHEDS on my tenor Fluke, but much prefer the Gotoh UPT-L tuners I self-installed on my concert Flea.
Also, PEGHEDS are tricky to install and if removed can damage the headstock. You need to use a tapered reamer, and put a bead of superglue on the threads when you countersink the shaft into the headstock so that the tuner does not back itself out during regular use.
The Gotoh UPT's only need a straight 8.2mm hole (for the string post shaft), and a 10mm hex wrench to tighten down the bushing, can be EASILY removed with no evidence of installation other than a small pinhole indent in the headstock where the gear assembly bit into the wood to prevent rotation of the gear assembly when you tighten the nut/bushing down with the 10mm hex wrench.
