New Soprano Baroq-ulele

Nice playing as usual!
 
Nice........
 
beautiful playing, and a nice sounding instrument. I think I may have found my next Uke! (after i get moved in to my new house though!)
 
Very nice video. Interesting uke, but your playing was really the star. Was it a two camera set up?
–Lori
 
Those things are SO cool! My father-in-law is Lebanese, and the Baroque-ulele reminds me of an Oud (Arabic lute), at least in appearance. My in-laws have a couple of Ouds hanging on the walls, but no one knows how to play them, so I've never messed with them at all. I love listening to Oud music though.
Anyway, I realize this is nothing like an Oud! But it's gorgeous sounding and looking. I want one! Excellent video too.
 
The bridge looks like a mustache. That made me giggle.

Beautiful playing though.
 
How as the set-up on your boroque-lele? The intonation sounds good from your sounds sample. Is the action high, low or medium? String tension high or low? And how are the dynamics from loud to soft?

Real nice playing, that's for sure!
 
Aw, Maaaaatt, why do you keep posting things that make me drool? You owe me a couple keyboards.

My rationale for resisting the Baroq-ulele the first time around was that I didn't see it in a soprano size, but now you've gone and burst that bubble. I so desperately want one. (Although I'm still holding out for that sitar-kulele!)
 
StereoJoker said:
Aw, Maaaaatt, why do you keep posting things that make me drool? You owe me a couple keyboards.

My rationale for resisting the Baroq-ulele the first time around was that I didn't see it in a soprano size, but now you've gone and burst that bubble. I so desperately want one. (Although I'm still holding out for that sitar-kulele!)
Click to expand...

Oooooo.. that'd be SWEET!
 
Well, the lute descended from the Oud, so you're not far off!
 
Woohoo, I am a Lebanesey too...

The lute-kulele, made by the same company, is closer ot the oud. It's got the same shape, nice angled back pegbox, and all that. Also has tied frets rather than metal frets stuck into the neck. The tied frets can be challenging at first (at least on a lute!). YOu have to re-intone the instrument each time you play, and somethimes, bewteen songs you're playing. Presumeably they are nylon frets though rather than the more temperamental gut frets. These lute-kuleles have a 17" tenor scale.

But this is as realistic as you can get int erms of an oud or lute with a ukulele!
http://www.amazon.com/Lute-kulele-T...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1277914487&sr=8-6
http://www.amazon.com/Lute-Kulele-T...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1277914561&sr=8-5
http://www.amazon.com/Lute-kulele-T...8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1277914579&sr=8-1

I just got a soprano baroq-ulele from Amazon.com - very inexpensive, made in Pakistan. Build quality and set up are great, but the strings it came with are way too light a gauge to get a good tone and intonation - at least for me. I imagine jumpingflea can get a fantastic tone out of anything! Anyway, I put Aquila's on my baroq-ulele. Sounds great, but definitely different from my other ukes, which I like. I find myself drawn to it a lot at the moment. The gradually fattening neck takes a bit for me to get used to, but it is very playable once you do get used to it. Inotnation is good too. They didn;t have any with lute pegs, unfortunately, but the uke firction tuners work quite well though I have to keep tightening them in order to hold the tuning. The lightly padded form fitting gigbag it comes with is very snug - I ended up putting my uke in a nicely padded concert uke case. That's it for now...

All this makes me curious about the other ukulele variant offerings form Mid-East Manufacturing.


Chris Tarman said:
Those things are SO cool! My father-in-law is Lebanese, and the Baroque-ulele reminds me of an Oud (Arabic lute), at least in appearance. My in-laws have a couple of Ouds hanging on the walls, but no one knows how to play them, so I've never messed with them at all. I love listening to Oud music though.
Anyway, I realize this is nothing like an Oud! But it's gorgeous sounding and looking. I want one! Excellent video too.
Click to expand...
 
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Looking at those ukes, I was sorely tempted by the lute-style tenor. Anyone else have any comments on them - build quality, intonation and sound?
 
ichadwick said:
Looking at those ukes, I was sorely tempted by the lute-style tenor. Anyone else have any comments on them - build quality, intonation and sound?
Click to expand...

Intonation on the lute type is largely up to the player - the frets are moveable tied nylon (perhaps gut, but probably nylon). You actually have to re-intone the frets every time you play. Since the tolerances are so small on a 17" instrument, this might take a bit of doing at first. My experience is only on a lute, but I do know the frets on the neck on the lute-kulele are tied moveable frets, so you will have to intone. The frets on the body of the lute-kulele though, will off course saty intoned... So you might think twice about whether you want to get that heavy into it with the moveable frets. Still with modern electronic tuners, it's not that big a deal to intone the frets these days in spite of the pegs.

I'd sure like to hear what they sound like though!

I know the intonation on my little soprano baroq-ulele is very good. But I don;t know if the makers of the two styles are by the same. My understanding is that Mid-East uses several different makers for their different instruments.

Tjere was some talk that Mid-east may eventually produce a baritone baroq-ulele with Pegheds. I'd definitely go for that!
 
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LoMa said:
Intonation on the lute type is largely up to the player - the frets are moveable tied nylon (perhaps gut, but probably nylon). You actually have to re-intone the frets every time you play.
Click to expand...
I don't think that's true of this company's products. The pics in this thread clearly show metal frets, and the pics on the company site appear metal, as well (and they don't mention moveable frets in the descriptions, either):
ubtvg.jpg

I can see no evidence of tied frets on any of their ukulele-based instruments. Here's the peg head version:
ubtvp.jpg

Anyone able to comment on the pegs versus tuners? Both are friction types (my nemesis), but the pegs look more authentic. Similar to what my Fluke has, perhaps? Are they a pain to use and do they keep the strings in tune well enough?
 
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