Viola de Cocho style concert ukulele

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Pretty cool. Looks like a fun instrument :music:

If you added a fifth string like the vdc you'd get an additional fourth in range. Also, what about moving the bridge up a bit - with a shorter scale length you'd get more frets on the - albeit short - fretboard. Or just simply ukulize it by lengthening the neck - although you might then lose the association with the vdc at some point so I wouldn't go too far.

Can you describe the sound?

I 2nd that... pretty cool. Concert scale...

Edit... there's over 100 vids of them on youtube, from the sound of it they boom.

nice. How hard was it to build?

video demo!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmGdiNZRIWQ

Dusepo said:

...I thought about shortening the scale, but with a soprano scale, the bridge would be right at the top of the lower bout, and would look a bit odd.

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I was thinking more along the lines of going from 380 to 360-350 or so. It would mean moving the saddle up closer to the neck by 20 or 30 mm, depending on where a good spot for the bridge might be. But....... I just did a quick calculation and found that at 350 scale length you'd just barely be able to fit in one extra fret, so 8 frets instead of 7 - may not be worth the trouble.

Dusepo said:

...As for lengthening the neck, it was mainly carved out of a block of wood, so this was not an option, because I simply didn't have enough wood!

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Believe me, I know exactly what you mean - happens to us all the time.

Dusepo said:

I could add a fifth string... or I could tune it in fifths, which would make sense with the 7 frets and give me more range.

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Yeah, mandolin tuning is a great idea. It would boost you up a fifth, which would be equivalent to going all the way up to the fifteenth fret in your current tuning. Of course you'd have to relearn your chords and your scales, but that's the fun part. :music:

EDIT: Oh sorry, I just noticed you already play the mandolin - go for it!

That's a very interesting ukulele. Even though it's been over a year since you posted the original message, I decided to reply anyway. First, I too am very interested in the Viola de Cocho. Second, it seems we have a few more things in common. I am also a multi-instrumentalist (mostly string instruments). I have also built a few instruments, including a Puerto Rican cuatro and a few Puerto Rican tiples (of the doliente variety). The Viola de Cocho is one of several ethnic lutes from different Latinamerican countries which are very inter-related. It is related to the smaller of the Puerto Rican bordonuas, the Venezuelan bandolas, the Panamanian mejoranera and socavon.

A few weeks ago I came across The stringed instrument database while doing a search. Very interesting and informative site. I have been studying the history, interrelationship, and construction of plucked/strummed/picked string instruments for more than a decade and have assembled a small collection. Some of them can be seen in one of my FaceBook photo albums:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150181023643204.294970.599828203

I Hope we can commuincate further.
Rich Roberge - Puerto Rico