Inexpensive Slothead Tenor Somewhere??

Hello to all. I have been checking out this forum for a couple of weeks now and like it a lot. Haven't found anything even close to it. My question is: Does anyone make an inexpensive slothead tenor for under $250 or so? I see slothead baritones but haven't ran across any tenors..... Thanks for any help

Well it really depends what your kind of after.
What wood? what size? etc...
I know that there are slotted 6 and 8 strings. But there are no brands out there that build a 4 string slotted headstock and mass product it. So its going to be impossible to actually find one on the internet or elsewhere unless you get it Custom built.

What i know is that our friendly moderator "Nuke" has a funny obsession about slotted headstocks. He actually bought a simple uke that cost him 50 bucks,did a DIY attempt and looked superb!
He posted a thread about it, if you want to read it and see some pictures and even a video click here

I've been looking for a tenor ukulele that suited my needs..i i wanted the different headstock idea aswell. I was lucky to meet someone that builds ukuleles. I had a chat with him about the design, what wood to use, fretboard, strings, headstock, size, electric etc...
He was more than happy to build it for me.
It will probably be finished in say a month or so, but he will be emailing me pictures for the progress and im more than happy to show u the end result when i receive it!

hope that helped.

Thanks grappler... Appreciate your info. I did happen to read Nuke's modification. Nice job too. I'm really suprised that there aren't some 4 string slot-heads out there. Has to be players that want them.

molinee, i feel your pain. hahaha. ive done some crazy things to some of my ukes because of this insatiable lust for slotted headstocks. ive bought two 6string ukes with slotted heads and went as far as converting them into fourstringers. to the point that i removed two of the tuning machines and filled in the excess slot space with wood putty. a lot of work. but its a labor of love. then as you know, recently i got a wild hair up my rear end and looked at the head on some of these ukes. basically the tuning machines for the slotted stocks are of the same construction as regular geared tuners, just mounted through the side of the head. so i figured, why not cut my own slots and reposition the tuning machines. voila. it didnt come out as clean as i would have liked, but it was purely experimental on an uke that only cost me $55. just so happens that when i restrung her with some worth BT's it actually sounded (and looked) like a uke that cost 3X as much as i paid. its now one of my favorite ukes to play. sounds pretty damn nice, didnt cost me much at all, not afraid to ding it on anything, and i can take it with me wherever i go. i take it to work with me and play her during the slower time of the day (last 2 hrs usually) and my patients love it.

on a side note: i dont know if mike (the owner of kala ukuleles) remembers an email i sent him a while back, but i kinda planted the seed in his brain to make some cutaway tenors with slotted heads. and he responded that he would seriously consider adding something like that to the lineup. what i would LOVE to see is one of his solid spruce top cutaway 4 stringers with slotted heads. ive since moved on from the lanikai/kala ukes and started looking at more finely constructed instruments, but if mike comes out with one... I WILL BUY IT.

Not very well educated on any kind of string instrument but what makes the slot head better than a regular one. Is it just for looks or does it server a more legit purpose?

ukusaurus said:

Not very well educated on any kind of string instrument but what makes the slot head better than a regular one. Is it just for looks or does it server a more legit purpose?

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its purely for aesthetics. on an uke, at least. on a classical guitar, because the nylon is so thick and needs more adjustment than steel strings, the slotted head style usually has very thick (large diameter) tuning pegs. but since the uke's scale is so relatively short, even though it uses nylon strings too, its not as important to have such thick posts. but the look is what gets us. ive even sat at the local guitar center for over an hour drooling over a Taylor steel string guitar built with a slotted headstock and narrow tuning posts. it wasnt the best sounding taylor in the store, but that head was what drew me to it. fortunately, i got my head outa my butt and got a yamaha instead for a third the price. haha.

Awesome thanks that was bothering me.

NukeDOC... Thanks for your comments. When I first became interested in Ukes not too long ago after playing guitar for some years, I came across some of your vids on Youtube and they really gave me the Uke bug. Seems like you're costing me big time in my pocket book now as I am acquiring a collection of these mini bad boys ...

molinee said:

NukeDOC... Thanks for your comments. When I first became interested in Ukes not too long ago after playing guitar for some years, I came across some of your vids on Youtube and they really gave me the Uke bug. Seems like you're costing me big time in my pocket book now as I am acquiring a collection of these mini bad boys ...

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haha nice to know people actually watch that stuff hahaha. and dont worry, youre preachin to the choir. if you were to count my "toy" ukes, im up to 9 now. hahaha.