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Gifted it away to my son, so that's only a 'no longer in possession' in legal terms, but it's still under the roof. Because it's a really nice one, otherwise I would have sold it off (or gifted it away). For real.

I started on soprano, because at the time that was the standard size (Europe, early 2000s). I bought more sopranos, then a concert, then a tenor, and sold most of then off again. Currently I'm on to two La Foleys, which technically could be called sub-standard sopranos. Why? The sound, the easy...

If playability is about what I would call 'feel' (rather than 'sound'), then the neck profile (wideness, thickness, taper) and the headstock angle come to mind as the biggest factors. Fret size and fretboard material would be right behind them on the list.

Making a nut isn't rocket science, and for a one-off you can manage with any small file. Plastic nuts are quite inexpensive (buy a few, so you can make mistakes) and doesn't smell like bone does, but bone nuts can be made out of any old piece of bone from left-overs. If MacGyver can do all that...

Players of Polynesian ukuleles stull use nylon strings, as does George Hinchliffe of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. It's more out of necessity than anything else really, because of the really high tensions and notes: Hinchliffe uses a mandolin tuning with a high E on top, the polynesian...

I think the very scholarly book by John King and Jim Tranquada addressed that issue, of the origins of the baritone. Tenor guitars were tuned in 'chicago tuning' in the 1930s, but I still wouldn't count them as baritones for several reasons (metal strings, much longer scale length, thus higher...

It could have been a wound C- or G-string - tenors were often tuned DGBE in those days.

It wasn't Martin, but Lyon & Healy who had the bright idea to call a slightly larger ukulele a 'tenor' as in 'sings like a male lead singer' (I think in 1926). Soprano and concert weren't taken then. Martin added a 'concert' to the range, tuning in with their guitar tradition of referring to the...

No, they don't.

François Charles' shop in the Galerie Vero-Dodat (one of the oldest shopping malls) had been taken over by a young luthier, Casanova. It has unique and high end instruments - old martins and kamakas and ukaferris by Dominique Chevalier. It's not far from the Louvre and Les Halles, but you have...

The sensible thing to do would be to use a strap that isn't permanently attached - moebius strap, clarinet strap to the soundhole, a shoelace around the ukulele's waist. Any drilling of holes in a 1 mm thick multiply side will eventually tear out, even if there are three screws holding it, or if...

I doubt that it's a Weissenborn, or a Knutsen for that matter, and presume it's a luthier one-off. Knutsen pioneered this shape on guitars, Weissenborn popularised them (with the short, rounded neck being called the 'Kona' model) but neither ever used them on ukuleles. Their ukuleles were...

In the end, they're all funny guitars, aren't they?

Gibson made Army/Navy guitars and mandolins, but in and after the First World War. The guitars were simplified LG-1's, the mandolins were completely new 'pancake' models. The official designation was DY for mandolins and GY for guitars, and I'm a bit unsure about their backstory and nickname...

Bringing your playing to pawfection.

If you listen carefully, you'll hear he's tuned 'linear'. Here's an example of mi-composé, used in a quintessential soukous riff (marie-josé):

I'd go for grover friction tuners - simple, light and easy once you get the hang of it.

Lutes and renaissance guitars also come to mind - there's an interesting podcast on why those lute became re-entrant, with a nice nod to Aquila strings: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-renaissance-lute/id1564113869?i=1000523246859 On a more modern note, the electric guitars of African...

Interesting, but some older ukuleles also had bridge pin designs, and in my experience it's a hassle when a pin is sent flying through the air. They do look very cool, though. They do add some mass to the brdige area, which can be a good or a bad thing if you're looking for tone (my guess: a bit...

Yup - scale is more defining than body size, that was what I was saying.