Any fatter concert sized ukes out there?

hucklelele

hucklelele

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And preferably lower end price?

not that I'm interested in buying anything,
but I'm feeling like my concert sized uke would be more true to original sound if it were proprtionately fatter instead of just mostly wider

it's only 1/4 thicker than my best soprano, but more proportionately wider
It seems like the shape is just more guitar like than a larger soprano
I'm wondering why

any thoughts or revelations?
 
hucklelele said:
I'm sorry, by "fatter" I mean thicker

more true to original uke shape
Click to expand...

Do you mean there's more distance between the soundboard and the back? There are probably lots of different ways an ukulele can be "fatter" or "thicker," so it pays to describe what you want with as much precision as you can.
 
A cavaco and a cavaquinho are the same instrument. They look like a concert on steroids. Giannini has a wide range of prices available. A balalaika with an additional peg makes a wonderful large body long neck concert.
 
fatter isnt really a good thing. :) truer sound? as in tenor sound? you can try play a kala travel ukulele, its only 1 inch thick. very thin design but does it play loud.(maybe due to the achback). theres ukuleles 5x fatter then that and cannot yeild the same volume. so being fatter probably will do nothing. i do like the thin but wider ukuleles, (thin body with a wide body for 15" scale). they sound sweet.
 
Mike Pereira MP custom sopranos have a generous bass tone due to a wider and slightly larger body. There's a custom on eBay now at half off the cost of new. They are great ukuleles (a back search for threads about them on UU will reveal the details).
 
I'm actually thinking about more replicating the "bell tone" of a soprano-
I think a thicker body- "deeper" if you will,
will more round the total resonance equally,

whereas a standard concert as it is tends to emphasis the bass a little more
and the sound driven to the sides does not relect back and forth as much

I was crudely timing the length of the resonance between several ukuleles, and I found the mahogany soprano was actually carrying the resonance up to a full second longer than a Cordoba laminate concert. It just seems to me the deeper body lets the overtones vibrate around more like a bell itself,
while the flattish and wide concert shape makes it more guitar-like- the body doesn't vibrate with resonance quite as long

the shape simply doesn't have the same percussive quality
it's like the difference betwwen a bass drum and a snare drum, irrespective of volume otherwise.
 
Last edited:
hucklelele said:
I'm actually thinking about more replicating the "bell tone" of a soprano-
I think a thicker body- "deeper" if you will,
will more round the total resonance equally,

whereas a standard concert as it is tends to emphasis the bass a little more
and the sound driven to the sides does not relect back and forth as much

I was crudely timing the length of the resonance between several ukuleles, and I found the mahogany soprano was actually carrying the resonance up to a full second longer than a Cordoba laminate concert. It just seems to me the deeper body lets the overtones vibrate around more like a bell itself,
while the flattish and wide concert shape makes it more guitar-like- the body doesn't vibrate with resonance quite as long

the shape simply doesn't have the same percussive quality
it's like the difference betwwen a bass drum and a snare drum, irrespective of volume otherwise.
Click to expand...

Interesting theory, but it doesn't work like that. If you make the body cavity too big for the soprano or concert scale, the tone gets muddy, not bassy. This has all been thought out with years of study and experimentation, no need to try and reinvent the wheel.

You might be better off trying different woods and strings, rather than the body depth.
 
Last edited:
tangimango said:
fatter isnt really a good thing. :) truer sound? as in tenor sound? you can try play a kala travel ukulele, its only 1 inch thick. very thin design but does it play loud.(maybe due to the achback). theres ukuleles 5x fatter then that and cannot yeild the same volume. so being fatter probably will do nothing. i do like the thin but wider ukuleles, (thin body with a wide body for 15" scale). they sound sweet.
Click to expand...

Volume isn't everything.

Up to a point, a deeper body gives you more fullness of tone. I found that last weekend when I was able to compare a Bruko travel soprano with their regular No 6 soprano. Both had about the same volume but the deeper body of the No6 had a fuller, richer tone.
 
Well you really haven't heard what I've said- I'm talking more about basically a bigger soprano, without the geo-political status of Hawaii turniing it into a western world guitar- It would look like a soprano - the body would not be proportionately wider, but the depth would be expanded proprtionately to match the larger size-

keeping the more traditional round shape of the soprano-

and yes, it DOES work that way - the liberty bell is round-
if you wanted to make a bigger one, you wouldn't want to proportionately flatten it out and make it wider
the sound waves oscillate better in a round cavity, not a flat one
where they rebound back and forth, not to find a distant corner to defray themselves in shorter waves

"Concert size" is scarcely a wheel to reinvent-
it's some 1920-ish reinventiion from what I understand

all things established for any length of time have an "el- manning" or lemming aspect generally.

I'd be willing to bet that with the same body material and strings otherwise,
a thicker bodied uke would hold resonance longer when plucked with the same force
 
Then you should check out what's coming out of Vietnam on ebay-
many look very similar to that-
most are under bid, but have a $60 shipping fee off the top
 
hucklelele said:
Well you really haven't heard what I've said- I'm talking more about basically a bigger soprano, without the geo-political status of Hawaii turniing it into a western world guitar- It would look like a soprano - the body would not be proportionately wider, but the depth would be expanded proprtionately to match the larger size-

keeping the more traditional round shape of the soprano-

and yes, it DOES work that way - the liberty bell is round-
if you wanted to make a bigger one, you wouldn't want to proportionately flatten it out and make it wider
the sound waves oscillate better in a round cavity, not a flat one
where they rebound back and forth, not to find a distant corner to defray themselves in shorter waves

"Concert size" is scarcely a wheel to reinvent-
it's some 1920-ish reinventiion from what I understand

all things established for any length of time have an "el- manning" or lemming aspect generally.

I'd be willing to bet that with the same body material and strings otherwise,
a thicker bodied uke would hold resonance longer when plucked with the same force
Click to expand...

I find this misinformation to be nonsense. He you think it works that way, build it and share it with this community.
 
Spud1$ said:
I can't stop looking at theses!! They are so beautiful!
Click to expand...

this was custom made for me in australia.......tasmanian blackwood for back and sides and china fir for the top and its a 15 fret joined to the neck......if you search maurice guitars on facebook theres mor pics
 
hucklelele said:
Well you really haven't heard what I've said- I'm talking more about basically a bigger soprano, without the geo-political status of Hawaii turniing it into a western world guitar- It would look like a soprano - the body would not be proportionately wider, but the depth would be expanded proprtionately to match the larger size-

keeping the more traditional round shape of the soprano-

and yes, it DOES work that way - the liberty bell is round-
if you wanted to make a bigger one, you wouldn't want to proportionately flatten it out and make it wider
the sound waves oscillate better in a round cavity, not a flat one
where they rebound back and forth, not to find a distant corner to defray themselves in shorter waves

"Concert size" is scarcely a wheel to reinvent-
it's some 1920-ish reinventiion from what I understand

all things established for any length of time have an "el- manning" or lemming aspect generally.

I'd be willing to bet that with the same body material and strings otherwise,
a thicker bodied uke would hold resonance longer when plucked with the same force
Click to expand...

This video and review covers one example of body depth and it's effect- two-koaloha-tenor-bodies-compared/
Listen with some good headphones or monitors because it was recorded with much effort for true comparison, true play back is also required for judgement. See what you think.
 
perfect example, Koaloha are relatively thin design compared to most ukulele makers, but still loud, full, rich in sound. so a fatter ukulele is going to do nothing big, its all in the builder to make it sound great. if not all ukuleles will be box shaped.

AndrewKuker said:
This video and review covers one example of body depth and it's effect- two-koaloha-tenor-bodies-compared/
Listen with some good headphones or monitors because it was recorded with much effort for true comparison, true play back is also required for judgement. See what you think.
Click to expand...
 
yes I understand what your trying to say from your first post. a soprano body size but with a larger volume body by making the space between the sound board and back wider spaced(fatter depth). but its does not work that way like a bell you mentioned. but if that's what you want I say go for it. i think it would be a cool build.

hucklelele said:
Well you really haven't heard what I've said- I'm talking more about basically a bigger soprano, without the geo-political status of Hawaii turniing it into a western world guitar- It would look like a soprano - the body would not be proportionately wider, but the depth would be expanded proprtionately to match the larger size-

keeping the more traditional round shape of the soprano-

and yes, it DOES work that way - the liberty bell is round-
if you wanted to make a bigger one, you wouldn't want to proportionately flatten it out and make it wider
the sound waves oscillate better in a round cavity, not a flat one
where they rebound back and forth, not to find a distant corner to defray themselves in shorter waves

"Concert size" is scarcely a wheel to reinvent-
it's some 1920-ish reinventiion from what I understand

all things established for any length of time have an "el- manning" or lemming aspect generally.

I'd be willing to bet that with the same body material and strings otherwise,
a thicker bodied uke would hold resonance longer when plucked with the same force
Click to expand...
 
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