Banjo-Mandolin to concert Banjo-uke conversion?

Hey everyone,

I saw a sweet looking and fairly cheap ($150 cdn) banjo-mandolin (banjo-lin?) made by Mansfield at the local guitar store. It strikes me that a conversion to an 8 string concert banjo-uke might be possible.
After a quick look, the scale of the banjo-lin seems the same as a concert uke. My biggest concerns about doing this are:

will uke strings fit/work with the banjo-lin nut and bridge? maybe I'd have to use some of the steel (non-wound) hybrid stings Southcoast ukes is coming out with...

will there be an issue with string tension? (i'm guessing no since nylon strings surely can't have a much tension as the usual mandolin strings)

will there be an issue with action being too high because the instrument was designed for thinner strings?


Anyone done a conversion like this before? Any thoughts on the possible pitfalls?

thanks,
j

I've never converted a banjolin to a banjolele but I have converted an Epiphone Mandobird (solidbody electric mandolin) into ukulele tuning. I had to go with steel strings as it had magnetic pickups, not piezo. The scale is the same as the concerts but the neck is much smaller and the string spacing is much smaller than an ukulele. It worked fine but takes a bit of adustment to play due to the smaller string spacing and neck.

Cool.
Thanks for the insight.

Is your Mandobird the 4 string or 8 string model?

JamieFromOntario said:

Cool.
Thanks for the insight.

Is your Mandobird the 4 string or 8 string model?

Click to expand...

I got the 4-string model.