Solid body electric uke

I just got a solid body electric uke, a Teton concert. Am I supposed to treat it like solid wood ukes and keep it in its gig bag with a humidifier or can I treat it like a laminate and can leave it out without humidification worries?

No humidification worries that I know of.

The body isn't at risk, because it's probably covered in a urethane, but the neck isn't, so make sure you keep it oiled.

And by the way, I have had my Teton tenor now for over a year and really love it. The neck is extremely comfortable and fast. In my computer on Garage Band the sound is great. I just bought a Teton concert to have a high g version.

I've been eyeing a Pono TE which is a great uke but not really that much better.

I use them as my travel ukes. Very strong and small. They're great to play when you don't want to bother anyone and you can listen to them through headphones as they have a small internal amp. I really like mine and much more to my taste than the Risa I had in the past but to each his own. I know some great Risa players.

I have a concert scale Risa which I love and use regularly. Makes a great travel uke. You do need a little amp, though. I use a Marshall MS2 micro amp. I also have a little multi effects unit you can plug headphones into.

I have also recently got a Risa Uke'Ellie. Slightly more conventional but still quirky. It's tenor scale and I have it tuned down to A so the two complement each other.

Risa also do a Les Paul styled steel string uke with twin humbucker pickups. It costs quite a bit more, though.

Thanks for the info! I'm having a lot of fun with my Teton concert. I got a Roland Micro Cube amp to play around with some effects.

Kimosabe said:

I've been eyeing a Pono TE which is a great uke but not really that much better.

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Ummm...

Kind of hard to let this comment pass without a bit of reality being mentioned. The Pono (which I own) is a chambered body, the Teton body (which I spent an afternoon playing) is a solid piece of wood. The Pono has a radiused fretboard, the Teton I played did not. The Pono has a MiSi pickup, the Teton has a generic piezo pickup (according to the dealer). Construction quality of the Pono is in a different class altogether than the Teton.

Don't get me wrong, the Teton is a very nice electric uke for the money, but to suggest that the Pono is "not really that much better" is both inaccurate as well as misleading.

I stand corrected and appreciate the correction. My thoughts about the Pono were based on playing it unamplified. I do find the neck of the Teton tenor very quick and ideal for my hand size and and almost as nice as the radiused fretboard of the Pono. Perhaps you can explain the difference. I play jazz, classical and finger picking.

The primary difference between a radiused and flat fretboard is that the former might offer a bit more ergonomic comfort when playing barre chords. Some will say that it is all a matter of personal preference and, in the final analysis, they are right. I have both flat and radiused fretboards and find that the wider the fretboard, the more comfort I get from the radius. In addition, forming a radiused fretboard actually provides a slightly "wider" neck as the curved fret is longer than a corresponding flat fret (shortest distance between two points is a straight line).

If you primarily play flat fretboards, you might find that you get buzzing on the two outer strings when you try out (barre chords) a radiused fretboard because barring a flat fretboard naturally causes us to apply pressure evenly across all strings and the initial change to radius sometimes results in "flat" pressure which allows the outer (raduised) strings to buzz until you resort to the natural curve of your finger.

Part of the theory behind radiused fretboards is grounded in the fact that the vast majority of people's fingers are not naturally flat; they are curved. If you buy into the potential for more natural feeling barre chords, you might prefer a neck that has been radiused. Because there is more work involved in a radiused board than on a flat one, they are often more costly to make and buy.

All that said, I think that the greatest benefit of the Pono comes from the combination of the chambered body and the very high quality MiSi pickup. The amplified tone quality of the Pono is the best I have heard in any production instrument and, to some, will sound as good as custom electrics costing 4X as much as the Pono.

Well-stated and much appreciated.

Whether a radiused fretboard provides much advantage on a uke is debatable as there are only 4 strings

kissing said:

Whether a radiused fretboard provides much advantage on a uke is debatable as there are only 4 strings

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It is not clear whether you are suggesting that a radiused fretboard offers more value with more than four strings (as in string count) or that the more strings you have, the wider the fretboard and hence more advantage.

As it is, I recently sold an Eastman 615 mandolin with 8 strings but a narrower nut than any of my ukuleles. The radiused fretboard was much easier to barre than another Eastman I had that had a flat fretboard (but the same nut width). My sense is that nut width is more important than string count. The wider the flat fretboard, the flatter one has to make the barreing finger which is not natural for some folks.

All that said, the true test for value of radiused fretboards is to play one.

I just received my Godin Multi Uke in the mail today. I have played it for a couple of hours now through my Fender Blues jr. amp. WOW! I used to own a Koolau CE-1 and this Godin just kills it. I will do a complete video review and post it by the end of the week.

bborzell said:

It is not clear whether you are suggesting that a radiused fretboard offers more value with more than four strings (as in string count) or that the more strings you have, the wider the fretboard and hence more advantage.

As it is, I recently sold an Eastman 615 mandolin with 8 strings but a narrower nut than any of my ukuleles. The radiused fretboard was much easier to barre than another Eastman I had that had a flat fretboard (but the same nut width). My sense is that nut width is more important than string count. The wider the flat fretboard, the flatter one has to make the barreing finger which is not natural for some folks.

All that said, the true test for value of radiused fretboards is to play one.

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It's debatable because its purpose is to solely make bar-chords a bit easier to press down - especially on steel-string acoustic guitar and electric guitars.
Playing 6 string bar-chords is quite challenging due to the number of strings and difficulty of pushing down steel strings compared to nylon.

On a 4-stringed nylon-strung ukulele instrument, bar-chording (or lack thereof) has not really raised a universal demand for such a design feature (likewise on the classical guitar). It is introduced on some ukes as a design feature, but it is far from being an industry standard :\

Hence I find it debatable whether it is really all that advantageous. Many of the finest uke players have gone without..

bborzell said:

Because there is more work involved in a radiused board than on a flat one, they are often more costly to make and buy.

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This is probably true for custom rather than production ukes. I have an Eleuke solid body mp3 uke from 2009 and it has radiused fretboard despite the humble price tag USD200 that I paid for.

Uncle Leroy said:

I just received my Godin Multi Uke in the mail today. I have played it for a couple of hours now through my Fender Blues jr. amp. WOW! I used to own a Koolau CE-1 and this Godin just kills it. I will do a complete video review and post it by the end of the week.

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Looking forward to it!

kissing said:

It's debatable because its purpose is to solely make bar-chords a bit easier to press down - especially on steel-string acoustic guitar and electric guitars.
Playing 6 string bar-chords is quite challenging due to the number of strings and difficulty of pushing down steel strings compared to nylon.

On a 4-stringed nylon-strung ukulele instrument, bar-chording (or lack thereof) has not really raised a universal demand for such a design feature (likewise on the classical guitar). It is introduced on some ukes as a design feature, but it is far from being an industry standard :\

Hence I find it debatable whether it is really all that advantageous. Many of the finest uke players have gone without..

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Width of the fretboard is the issue that affects ease of barreing across it. The number of strings involved comes along for the ride. If your point is that you don't personally appreciate any value from radiused fretboards on a uke, then the value of radiused fretboards is not really debatable; it's simply personal choice. The fact that you don't prefer them does not render radiused fretboards useless nor does it challange the fact that others like the feel. Not liking something doesn't really establish a debate, it just states a personal opinion.

So, Mr. Borzell,

I enjoy your thoughtfulness, clarity and insight. Any thoughts, clarity and insight into which is a nicer uke, the Pono TE or the Godin? I can't afford the Koolau and am not that good yet. I am quite a fan of Corey Fujimoto's playing and that of Benny Chong, Ohta-San, Lyle Ritz, the jazzier less showy players.

I will emphasize again that the Teton is a darn good electric uke for the money. I wonder why Mim is ceasing selling them.

I also have a Kala arch top and enjoy its neck and unamplified sound but for feeding a uke into a computer or amplifier I find the sound not as good as my Teton.

Kimosabe said:

So, Mr. Borzell,

I enjoy your thoughtfulness, clarity and insight. Any thoughts, clarity and insight into which is a nicer uke, the Pono TE or the Godin? I can't afford the Koolau and am not that good yet. I am quite a fan of Corey Fujimoto's playing and that of Benny Chong, Ohta-San, Lyle Ritz, the jazzier less showy players.

I will emphasize again that the Teton is a darn good electric uke for the money. I wonder why Mim is ceasing selling them.

I also have a Kala arch top and enjoy its neck and unamplified sound but for feeding a uke into a computer or amplifier I find the sound not as good as my Teton.

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Yours is a tougher question than you might think. I have the mandolin version of the Godin uke and believe it to be one of the best electric mandolins available, and not just for the price. It, like both the Pono and Godin uke, has a chambered body that serves it well to produce a great tone through amplification.

While it wasn't quite a flip of the coin for me to choose the Pono over the Godin, it was close enough that I let esthetics carry the decision. I simply prefer the Pono look, but not by much over the Godin. Both the Pono and the Godin will produce outstanding tone by virtue of their chambered bodies and very well designed amplification. As for neck profile, I long ago decided to get used to what I am playing at the time. So, unless the neck feels really clunky, I don't rate subtle differences in neck profile very high anymore. Fret wire size can kinda get to me if the frets are of the really thin variety. While I have not held a Godin uke, I know that the frets on my Godin mando feel fine.



In my view, you would not go wrong by taping a picture of each ukulele on a wall and blindly throwing a dart.

I taped the pictures to our bedroom wall, threw darts, but accidentally hit my wife. Now that she's out of the way, I think there's no reason for me not to get both the Pono and the Godin, high and low g.

Actually, Corey Fujimoto calls it a close call also but goes for the Pono in the end. Aesthetics and a Misi. Thanks.