Custom Taropatch

PhilUSAFRet

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I am considering a custom taropatch. My hands are not tiny, but not large for a guy either. I am wondering if 1 3/8" at the nut is wide enough for 8 strings and if a 1.5" would be better. The maker recommended 40mm. Additionally, I am considering a tenor neck but wonder how much it would add or detract, tone wise. I could have a radiused fretboard of I wish....good idea? Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
I use 38mm on my 8 string instruments. That's 1.5"

I like radius on a fret board.

As for the difference between a concert or tenor scale length, this isn't something that anyone other than the builder should be advising on.

If you go a tenor neck, then you are going to have to change the neck to body join most likely, depending on the builders body shape. This is also going to affect the way it's braced........ASK THE BUIDER.
 
1 3/8" is close enough to 35mm and 1 1/2" is close enough to 38mm.

I've just put some vernier callipers on my ukulele's and my Mele 8 string tenor is 37mm across the nut and my Wise Tenor is 36mm across the nut. I have an Alulu 8 string tenor that feels very wide and I measured it at 39mm at the nut.
40mm seems like overkill. 35mm might be a bit narrow for 8 strings.

Anthony
 
Ditto what Allen said. 1.5" is common on taropach ukes (that's what Martin did anyway)
No idea about the tenor neck idea. It all depends on what he has to change to do that. There's no reason that a taropach HAS to be a concert size, so how about a tenor body to go with that tenor neck?
 
It's my understanding that taropatch ukes are concert size, period. The rest are just 8 strings. I guess that's just "tradition". Seems to be other opinions out there. I have been waiting for the Ohana taropatch ukes to come out ever since I started lobbying for them a few years ago, but they are slow in coming. I have a Pono tenor 6 string I'll probably sell to help pay for the 8 string.
 
It's my understanding that taropatch ukes are concert size, period. The rest are just 8 strings.

Reading King's "The Ukulele - A History", I got the (incorrect?) impression that the original Taropatch (Fiddle) was a five-string instrument of roughly the size of a concert and apparently tuned DGCEA like a rajao. The cover photo of the book shows one. I wondered when it turned into what people call Taropatch now.
 
I believe it may have been Nunes that made the first modern taropatch ukulele that Martin and others based their model on....all concert size. Odd that I've seen two of them on ebay recently.
 
It's my understanding that taropatch ukes are concert size, period. The rest are just 8 strings. I guess that's just "tradition". Seems to be other opinions out there. I have been waiting for the Ohana taropatch ukes to come out ever since I started lobbying for them a few years ago, but they are slow in coming. I have a Pono tenor 6 string I'll probably sell to help pay for the 8 string.

re: waiting for the Ohana classic taropatch- you and me both brother :)

I plan to string it with 2 identical sets of the Aquila 31U strings tuned in unison fifths as CGDA, like a poor man's nylon-string mandola...

almost bought a neck from CB Gitty or Mainland in order to build one myself, but dont want a square cigar-box body, and lack the tools, time, space and patience to get into traditional building methods right now, and will be moving in a few months so setting up a shop is counter to getting rid of lots of stuff when I have to downsize everything to move to a smaller place...

so I gotta wait for the Ohana model to appear...hopeful...and patient I am. :)
 
They are what we generally call 'coursed instruments', the doubling of the strings commonly found on renaissance guitars and lutes. Interesting that on the taro they used a doubled string for the highest course, whilst on the early instruments that was virtually always just a single string.
The taro can have a slightly jarring? or out of phase sound, which I like. Adds another or perhaps a different quality. Sounds nice on fingerpicking.
Another to add to the 'to make' list. That list never seems to diminish, if anything it grows.
 
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It's my understanding that taropatch ukes are concert size, period. The rest are just 8 strings. I guess that's just "tradition". Seems to be other opinions out there. I have been waiting for the Ohana taropatch ukes to come out ever since I started lobbying for them a few years ago, but they are slow in coming. I have a Pono tenor 6 string I'll probably sell to help pay for the 8 string.

Hmm, interesting. I've never heard that it was so specific. (not that I've heard much at all about taropatch ukes)
What if I were to build an 8 string uke with a concert size body....but pineapple shaped?? :confused:
 
You get tenor size as well. No reason why you can't do baritone or soprano either, if that's what floats your boat.
 
I found this which may add something to the thread:

http://database.ukulelecorner.co.uk/uke-glossary/taropatch

I'm not sure it's complete. The Wikipedia article on the rajao (link) mentions that it was nicknamed "taropatch fiddle" in Hawaii, which is also stated here. It's in line with the information and (many) citations from contemporary sources in King/Tranquada's "The Ukulele - A History" book. The cover of the book depicts them also:

the-ukulele-a-history.jpg


Perhaps the Nunes family then, later on (30 years later?), recycled the name for the 4-course instrument that we now call a taropatch? The 1910s and 1920s saw a lot of new ukulele innovations and variations during the first boom. Kind of like we have seen them during the current boom also (hybrid sizes, the short-scale parlor guitar re-branded as guitarlele, etc.). Business life and marketing weren't that different a hundred years ago.
 
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