Guitar to Uke conversion

revdrjim

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Hi,

My daughter has a 1/2 size solid electric guitar that she learned on. Can I convert it to an electric ukulele? I'm guessing it's not as simple as swapping strings out.

Thanks!
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You can make it into a Baritone/Tenor guitar
 
Keith Richards took off the sixth string to get root based chords with open tuning, so I guess you can take off the fifth and sixth to get ukulele tuning. ;)
 
Can you be more specific about what you want when you say "convert it to an electric ukulele"? For instance, are you thinking 4-strings, standard C6 uke tuning, nylon strings, etc.? What is the scale length (distance from the nut to the saddle) of the 1/2 size electric guitar?
 
Can you be more specific about what you want when you say "convert it to an electric ukulele"? For instance, are you thinking 4-strings, standard C6 uke tuning, nylon strings, etc.? What is the scale length (distance from the nut to the saddle) of the 1/2 size electric guitar?

Hi myamoe - I'm not sure what I want :) I guess something that sounds decent. I was thinking 4-string standard uke tuning. The nut to saddle length is 21 inches. As strings go I'm not sure.
 
The biggest issue (I think) is the bridge (where the strings terminate). It might be difficult or nearly impossible to get equal string spacing (for 4 strings) at the bridge. And, depending upon the current bridge, it might limit you to the type of strings you can use (in terms of the way they terminate into the bridge). In order to get equal string spacing at the nut, you'd need to get a new nut made. The easiest part would be to get strings which would tune to standard uke tuning at an appropriate tension. Your scale length (21") is close to a baritone (20"), which is tuned to d-g-b-e (versus g-c-e-a for a "standard" uke).

All-in-all, I think it would be a lot of time & money and likely would not result in what you're looking for.
 
Well, there are still a few things you still need to clear up.

One is the tuning in proportion to the string length. 21 inches would be somewhat longer than a baritone uke, so normally you're talking baritone tuning (dgbE, like the first four strings on a guitar).

The second is what kind of pickup you have: If you say it's an electric guitar then normally it's going to have steel strings and a magnetic pickup. In that case you can't use nylon or FC strings. So what you want to do is just remove the 5th and 6th string, tune 'er up, and hit it...

I really don't think there's much point in respacing the strings unless you are having real difficulties with the string spacing - if so you could replace the nut and use a spacing that works better for you.
 
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