Switchable re-entrant / linear setup?

aarondminnick

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Just curious if anyone has seen a setup that would enable you to switch between re-entrant and linear (i.e. high g / low G) on the same uke without restringing.

I can't think at the moment of how you could accomplish this mechanically, but I'm thinking a doubled octave course for the 4th string with some kind of cool lever action that would selectively enable/disable the string you don't want to use at the moment.

Even cooler would be 3 positions: high, low, or octave double with both strings active. Then you'd have the option of a full, rich octave-doubled sound for strumming, but could switch to either single-string setup for fingerstyle or picking.

I was inspired in my thinking by Appalachian dulcimers that have special pegs enabling you to do something similar... but those require you to loosen one string of a doubled course and physically move it out of the way. I'm thinking of a slick quick-change lever system, probably operating at the nut end of the fretboard.
 
Hmmm.... that's a cool idea. There are 5 string ukes that have high and low G simultaneously.

Maybe some thing could simply mute the high or low G string depending on which you want? When the strings are doubled like that, they're very close together so that it feels like you're playing one string when you're actually playing both.
 
I believe Bob Gleason (Pegasus) has done an "adjustable compensated saddle for a high G-Low G bridge."
 
As you would need to fiddle with it to make the change over, wouldn't it just be easier to pick up another uke with the required stringing, which might even have different strings, for a completely different sound/tone. ;)

You could dampen one string of a 5 string - like when using the damper pedal of a piano, or maybe something similar to a tremolo bar of a guitar. :)
 
The best solution that currently exists is a double-necked uke.

That is a very good solution, one of the leaders of our uke jam has a couple double necks. One of them is tenor uke on one neck and U-bass on the other.

Naturally the solution I like is 6 ukuleles. Soprano, concert and tenor in low G and the same sizes again in high G
 
Wouldn't it just be easier to pick up another uke with the required stringing, which might even have different strings, for a completely different sound/tone.

Yes, absolutely easier. And as an added bonus, you get to buy a second uke. :)

Even if someone built a lever-action uke, using the same gauge string for different octaves would mean less than optimal sound. No way around the physics, unless the lever changes the string's linear density, one or both of the Gs is gonna be meh-sounding.
 
HiG/LoG Switch-a-ble 5 string Ukulele by Shimoguitars

 
Rickenbacker once had a setup (a kind of muting comb) that made it possible to have a 12-string guitar sound like a 6-string, but muting exactly one half. It could be possible on a ukulele, with a switch that mutes either the high G-string, the low one of both...

Problem with the Rickenbacker was that the system was clumsy and vulnerable.
 
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