Mandobird as Uke - Caution - UAS alert!

Well, it took me a while to find a decent example, but here it is.

4 string electric mandolin, from Epiphone. Sold as a "Mandobird".

Tunes up real easy into GCEA.

See if you can resist UAS after watching this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76wepUgMh3A&feature=related

Cool, I have one of those and would like to do the same, what strings did you use? I assume from your post, and the sound of the vid you tuned to low G, correct?

I got a Mandobird about a month ago that I immediately turned into a ukulele. I call mine an Ukubird. It's really fun to play around with but, be forewarned, the fretboard is very narrow (as I would expect being a mandolin and not an ukulele). Also, using a high-G, the nut slot is too low so the G ends up resting on the first fret giving it a sitar-like sound when played open. Before I got it, I wrote the guy in the YouTube video to ask for his suggestions on string guage, intonation setup, etc. He told me he originally tried low-G but it ended up being much louder than the rest of the strings so he suggests high-G tuning. He also played with the intonation for awhile before finally taking it to a luthier to set it up for him. I played with the intonation for about 45 minutes...it's close but not perfect. At the 12th fret I'm about 5 cents off. I used D'Addario singles with the following guages (from high-G to A): .010, .024, .015, .010.

That is wicked awesome! I might just get that instead of the eleuke.

Hi Ukestang,

I used the strings that came with it, with theG as low G. Works just fine, and is heaps of fun.

I didn't find the low G was louder than the others, and the thinner neck is not a problem - if anything I find it helps with hand placement once I go back to an acoustic.

I would certainly recommend one.

The Mandobird is pretty cool, but not ideal as a ukulele.
The strings are closer together on a Mandobird than a uke, and you have to adjust the action for it to properly handle strings in GCEA.
I tried one in a store, and found it rather uncomfortable to play.

Personally, I would save myself the trouble by getting a Risa
Top notch steel-string electric ukuleles made to be ukuleles!

They come with either single coils (Standard style) or the new humbuckers (Les Paul style), in Soprano or Tenor.
Hunt for them here:

Standard Electric Tenor
Standard Electric Soprano
8-string electric
Les Paul Sunburst
Les Paul Black
Les Paul Mahogany

http://www.ukulele.de
They're as good as electric ukulele gets.

Ouch!

Thanks for the tip.

Here I was thinking I had been cured of electric UAS with my Mandobird......

Anyone who never played a mandolin should be warned about using a mandolin as a ukulele.
It was said already that the strings are way smaller together than on a ukulele. Before you order a mandolin please check somewhere how narrow they really are!

Just dug out my Mandobird, nut width is 1 inch, 1st and 4th string are 1/8 in from the edge of the fretboard which makes the spacing between strings 1-4 3/4 of an inch. this spacing makes it very difficult to play, even as a mando, plus 4 string mandos don't sound very good, to me. Anyway, I'm gonna tune it gCEA and see what happens, I never play it anyway. On the other hand, it is one of the coolest looking instruments I own, if Epiphone made a UkeBird, I would definetly be interested, would love one with nylon strings and piezo pick-up, tenor neck. Will update after I tune to uke.

Mandobird help

I am really liking my Mandobird but having trouble setting it up. Would you recommend bariton or standard tuning -- maybe a half step down?