Baritone Uke necks

My Pono MB has a bad buzz, and when I talked the the owner of a local music shop about it, we got into a discussion of baritone ukes and his contention is that a baritone uke is a gamble - the long neck without a truss rod (Pono's excepted) is prone to having issues.

This fits with my experience - I've seen a fair number of bad baritone necks over the last few years.

I'm wondering if this is just me, or just those of us living in a high desert that experience this.

The conditions an instrument lives in or are exposed to can certainly change it or damage it. It's more likely to happen from swelling or shrinking of the top than the neck though. That said, there are plenty of instruments out there without truss rods doing just fine. Deering Goodtime banjos, for instance. I've never owned the 5 string version of one of those, but I have owned two different tenors at various times. One was a 17 fret, the other was the 19 fret version (I think that's right.) Either way, one had about the same scale length as a baritone uke. I'm guessing the string tension was even greater on those necks with steel strings. Actually I'm sure it was, because I tuned mine in DGBE with steel strings. I'm sure that the species of wood used, how it was seasoned/dried etc. plays a big role in any future problems. I know there's not as much care taken with proper wood conditioning before the Asian made mass produced ukes go out.
I've also heard of classical guitars that use no truss rod. I do realize some of those have a rod in the neck that is non-adjustable, but plenty of instruments have no truss rod. The Martin Backpacker guitars also have no truss rod and they usually hold up incredibly well. Of course, those necks are really thick.


I saw your other thread about your buzzing problem. Normally, if it's an open string it is a nut problem...you said you tried putting something in the slot already. Hm. It could be that the angle of the slot is wrong. If you're right handed and have the uke in playing position, try pushing down that B string (just to get some extra break angle/pressure on it) to the left of the nut (on the headstock side of things), and pluck that string while doing so to see if it still buzzes when played open. If not, it may be an angle issue or at least some slot issue. Make sure the nut slot is clean as well....and that the string isn't so much smaller than the width of that slot that it's moving back and forth and hitting against one side.
If you didn't try changing strings, you could try that too. Some buzzes are just hard to track down. Hopefully it's not a loose brace or something that the B string is setting off.

I hope you get it figured out.

Thanks Jer - I've got a Deering Goodtime as well (actually 2 - a five string and a banjo-uke), and in my research, they indicated that one reason the goodtime doesn't have neck issues is because it is a single piece of very hard wood. With a typical neck you have a fretboard on top of another type of wood and if they expand or contract at different rates then the neck profile can change. Make it all out of one piece of wood and you eliminate the problems with different responses to humidity, etc.

Also, thanks for the test on how to check the nut issues - I'm going to try that next.

Nice. I was very impressed with the Deering Goodtimes. I thought for a quality made in the USA instrument the price was really reasonable too. I got one on sale for something like $350. I think the normal price was $399 at the time. It didn't stick with me, but I had zero issues with the instrument. I was just more into guitars and ukes. I was tempted by the banjo ukes, but passed. They seem pretty cool though.

I had a 3/4 size guitar and a smaller guitarlele made by the same company (that will remain nameless) without truss rods and both of them developed warpages. The guitar developed a backbow to the neck resulting in buzzes on the first fret and the guitarlele developed a curved fretboard longitudinal to the neck. I will never buy another instrument with a longer neck that doesn't have an adjustable truss rod. As information though, the guitar with the backbow in the neck has become my favorite sit around guitar since I started using a capo on the 2nd fret. So, it turned out well for me despite the backbow. I gave the guitarlele to a friend who appreciated it as it was.

Sounds like there is a legitimate case for carbon fiber rods in necks especially with the longer/baritone scales.