Mainland Cutaway Slothead Mahogany Tenor with MiSi Pickup and Case

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OldePhart

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Okay...now that I have pickups in most of my other ukes I really don't expect my tenors to get played much anymore. I just seem to prefer soprano and baritone.

I am not really interested in trades...although if someone managed to get one of those Pono ABD seconds a while back and has decided that they don't like it I'd be willing to talk...

The first uke I'm selling is this mahogany tenor...

back_headstock.jpgback.jpgfront.jpgfront_headstock.jpg

It is in very good condition with one exception, there is a stable crack in the back (it's been there without changing for a year). I purchased this used from a person in Mass. and I don't think that they humidified it in winter as they should have...it cracked right after I bought it as I was polishing it. After I put a humidifier in the case the crack closed back up and I put a dab of clear fingernail polish along the seam - I didn't want to do anything too permanent in case I decided to cleat it later and I didn't want to use glue that could fog the gloss finish. The crack is "stopped" at one end by a back brace and at the other end by the kerfing that joins the sides and back. I expect that with reasonable care the crack will probably not change and doesn't need to be cleated. The crack is not obvious in person but is visible, I used a direct flash and unbuffed polish to try to make it as obvious as possible in the closup of the crack (see closeup below). This crack doesn't affect playability or sound of the uke.

Otherwise, the uke is in very good but not quite new condition. There are a couple of fine scratches on the back that appear to be from a shirt button or the like, and a few very tiny marks elsewhere. Basically just the kind of stuff that an instrument that actually gets played seems to accumulate.

It is fitted with Aquila low-G tenor strings. These are the kind of strings that were on it when I got it and it's the first uke I've really liked when strung low G so I ordered more of the same strings as replacements. The strings on it are fairly new but I'll throw in a set of Aquila regular tenor strings and an Aquila low-G single string that I have on hand since I'll not likely need them on anything else.

I'll also throw in one of my homemade "glitter tube" humidifiers.

The MiSi works great. When I bought the uke the charger was missing so I made one from a 9V wall wart and a 1/4 TRS plug (this is basically all that the factory charger is; in fact, the one I made might be better quality).

This uke currently sells with the pickup for $398.50 at the Mainland site, plus another $44.50 for the uke crazy case for a total of $443.00 plus shipping - and that's without the fabuluous custom crack on the back! ;) I'll sell it for $300 firm, payment by PayPal only, and that includes insured shipping in the CONUS. Shipping anywhere else will be additional. I'd rather not deal with the hassle of shipping to other countries but will if you pay the full amount for insured shipping, deal with any customs hassles, and agree that if customs holds it up or it goes astray or what have you that that is not my problem (though obviously I'll provide you the shipping insurance info you need to file a claim if that becomes necessary).
 

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Well...you learn something new every day...even at my age. ;) I woke up this morning with part of the answer to the compression dilemma - I had recorded the clip as a stereo track using just one channel, then used audacity to convert it to a mono track. When audacity converts a stereo track to mono it halves the amplitude of each channel (so adding the channels doesn't cause clipping). I had always assumed that it did this linearly, but I think maybe it applies a compression profile so as not to lose the faintest signals in each track.

Anyway, I re-recorded the clip but this time I used the left channel for the MiSi and I recorded the right channel using a Shure 58 microphone (about 6" away from the body, pointed at the lower bout just ahead of the bridge). This isn't the best choice for recording an acoustic instrument (compared to a good condensor mic the Shure 58 compresses quite a bit itself). Anyway, if you compare the channels you can still see that the MiSi compresses some but nothing like that previous clip.

The right channel (Shure 58) is a pretty good, but not perfect, representation of how the uke sounds in person.

https://soundcloud.com/#oldephart/misi-and-shure-58

John


OldePhart said:
Somebody asked me for a sound clip and I discovered that I've apparently never used this uke in any of my youtube videos. I don't play tenor much and when I do I guess I tend to grab the reentrant mango and use that.

Anyway, I recorded this quick clip and dumped it to soundcloud.com https://soundcloud.com/#oldephart/mainland-cutaway-slothead

12th fret harmonics
soft chords followed by loud chords (barely brushing the strings to actually trying to make it buzz) - very disappointed with the pickup here, see below
arpeggiated chords
my rather primitive melody picking

I'm kind of disappointed with this clip because (aside from my sloppy playing) it really doesn't do the uke justice. I recorded it right off the MiSi direct to the laptop through a Presonus USB interface and the clip is completely dry. I knew I wasn't crazy about undersaddle pickups and this clip really illustrates why; one of the things I wanted to demonstrate with this clip was the good dynamic range of the uke by playing very soft chords followed immediately by really loud chords - but I ended up with only about 18db difference in volume coming out of the MiSi while the acoustic difference was much, much greater. The MiSi is great any time you're looking for modern compressed sound - not so great for quiet fingerpicking pieces that rely on dynamic range for expression.

I've always known that USTs tend to compress the dynamic range a lot and that's why I've switched to soundboard pickups but this is the first time I've noticed just how drastic that compression is.


John
 
Sounds nice. Brilliant that you started the recording with my song "1564" ;)
 
Kinda glad this didn't sell... I started fooling around a bit with my mango tenor as I was swapping out case humidifiers and realized that I like the tenor scale, after all. The larger body is still not my first choice in sound but I realized that I've already got 'em and they do offer options I wouldn't otherwise have.

Restrung this one reentrant with heavy gage fluorocarbon strings and tuned it down to Bb and it kinda tickles my fancy there. Intonates really nicely and sounds good, too. Now I have sopranos in C and D, tenors in C and Bb, and baris in linear and reentrant G. Need another bari for reentrant A and maybe another for reentrant F and I'm all set. Hey! I have harmonicas in most all of the keys, why not ukes, too. ;)

John
 
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