Banjo Ukulele

Liam Ryan · Jun 8, 2012

Here's a tenor scale banjo uke I've just completed. It's inspired by mid-nineteenth century minstel banjos

Built from Western Red Cedar and Indian Rosewood.

I can't put the damn thinbg down

hbfdjn · Jun 8, 2012

wow thats awsome, the neck is gorgeous. What kind of hide did you use?

ukulian · Jun 9, 2012

Nice looking instrument. Sound good?

Liam Ryan · Jun 9, 2012

hbfdjn said:
What kind of hide did you use?

Goat skin from Elderly.

sim4lin · Jun 9, 2012

Fantastic work!, absolutely gorgeous!

DPO · Jun 9, 2012

Nice!

liam_fnq said:
Here's a tenor scale banjo uke I've just completed. It's inspired by mid-nineteenth century minstel banjos

Built from Western Red Cedar and Indian Rosewood.

View attachment 38784 View attachment 38785 View attachment 38786 View attachment 38787 View attachment 38788

I can't put the damn thinbg down

Just a thought, how are you going to tension the skin in winter?

Liam Ryan · Jun 9, 2012

It is winter? What happens in winter?

BR Ukuleles · Jun 9, 2012

DPO said:
Just a thought, how are you going to tension the skin in winter?

We're upside down here and winter doesn't get much better than this in Cairns. 25 C and 50% RH. It's why we live here.

sim4lin · Jun 9, 2012

DPO said:
Just a thought, how are you going to tension the skin in winter?

You don't tension those heads, you change the bridge

DPO · Jun 9, 2012

liam_fnq said:
It is winter? What happens in winter?

Well fluctuations in the temperature will affect the tension of the skin. that's why they normally have tensioners.
Just plain old humidity will affect the tension, in dry conditions it will contract and in wet conditions it will expand, but you appear to have no way of dealing with this. Just a thought.

DPO · Jun 9, 2012

sim4lin said:
You don't tension those heads, you change the bridge

Which will alter the action somewhat.

DPO · Jun 9, 2012

Allen said:
We're upside down here and winter doesn't get much better than this in Cairns. 25 C and 50% RH. It's why we live here.

I can see the benifits, that still does not alter the phyisics of a calf skin and how it reacts to cahnges in temperature/humidity. The builders of the 1920's new this.

Liam Ryan · Jun 9, 2012

The sound is pretty mellow (for a banjo). Probably a combination of the nylon strings, hide head and low(er) tension of the tack head. It doesn't have that Earl Scruggs bluegrass super-banjo sound and nor do I want it to.

Being a prototype, I've already got more underway that will have some of the identified problems redesigned. And the tackhead won't go, we'll call that a feature rather than a flaw

Liam Ryan · Jun 9, 2012

sim4lin said:
You don't tension those heads, you change the bridge

Slim4lin gets 100 million bonus points.

As the humidity rises causing the head to stretch you pop in a higher bridge. This corrects the action. The builders of the 1860's knew this

sim4lin · Jun 9, 2012

liam_fnq said:
Slim4lin gets 100 million bonus points.

As the humidity rises causing the head to stretch you pop in a higher bridge. This corrects the action. The builders of the 1860's knew this

I'll give you 100 million bonus points for that ukulele... I'll even pay half of the shipping

Banjo Ukulele

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