Solidbody Electric Ukulele? (Steel String)

morande23

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Hi,

Just wondering if there is much interest in the ukulele world for a Steel String Solidbody Electric Ukulele?

I've previously designed and built the Morande Instruments Electric Angell
(Solidbody Electric Mandolin) and with little modification to its design I believe it'd make a sweet sounding and playing Electric Uke.

Am I crazy to do so?

Should I just do it?

Attached are some video clips to get an idea of what the current design sounds like.












56790871_660027397779551_4948331078415810560_o.jpg
 
That sounds great, plus, it looks really good too. Was sorely tempted to buy a solid Risa telecaster uke recently for an upcoming engagement, still want one, they look cool as ....., as does yours. But went in the end for an electro acoustic. But yeah, build them.....and they will come :)
 
There are numerous examples of solid body steel strung ukuleles on the market already from one offs to mass manufacture so your welcome to join them.
I'm not quite sure what your asking though.
I guess I'm sounding dismissive and I don't want to yet what do you want to do that's not out there in the market?
There is a market out there for steel stung ukuleles although its not a huge market yet.

I own two of them already.
 
That sounds great, plus, it looks really good too. Was sorely tempted to buy a solid Risa telecaster uke recently for an upcoming engagement, still want one, they look cool as ....., as does yours. But went in the end for an electro acoustic. But yeah, build them.....and they will come :)

Thanks, I appreciate the kind words.

Another way to go about it would be a chambered body with nylon strings and a piezo pickup.
(Similar to the Godin MultiUke)
 
There are numerous examples of solid body steel strung ukuleles on the market already from one offs to mass manufacture so your welcome to join them.
I'm not quite sure what your asking though.
I guess I'm sounding dismissive and I don't want to yet what do you want to do that's not out there in the market?
There is a market out there for steel stung ukuleles although its not a huge market yet.

I own two of them already.

Thanks for the response, you're not sounding dismissive to me.

I was just wondering if there was much demand for them I guess, I've only ever seen a couple of Steel String Solidbody Ukuleles in person and I was wondering if there is much of a demand for them.

What are things you like best about your two that you own?
 
Thanks for the response, you're not sounding dismissive to me.

I was just wondering if there was much demand for them I guess, I've only ever seen a couple of Steel String Solidbody Ukuleles in person and I was wondering if there is much of a demand for them.

What are things you like best about your two that you own?

There are a number of steel string uke builders already.

There is Risa with a beautiful Les Paul style instrument.
There is Jonathan Mann with some stunning instruments and he builds solid body steel strung Mandolins as well.
There's Monkey Wrench, there's Clearwater/Vorson. More that escape me at the moment. Just remembered that there was a surf board style instrument as well from a big maker.

I have a solid body steel concert from Jupitercreek yet the gentleman that made them passed away. I also have an Aida steel strung which is a just like the Kamoa Evole yet its a hollow body jazz style instrument.

I like them for being able to get different sounds and great electric/effects sounds when I want them. There unfortunately is no standard for electric pickups for these instruments so either you use guitar pickups and space for guitar or you use blade pickups. Also you could go for yet another proprietary pickup but I don't see the point.

Using standard size guitar pickups is the most sensible approach yet it has some drawbacks.
Jonathan Mann uses blade pickups and a custom made bridge on his very nice instruments.
http://www.manndolins.com
 
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There are a number of steel string uke builders already.

There is Risa with a beautiful Les Paul style instrument.
There is Jonathan Mann with some stunning instruments and he builds solid body steel strung Mandolins as well.
There's Monkey Wrench, there's Clearwater/Tenton. More that escape me at the moment. Just remembered that there was a surf board style instrument as well from a big maker.

I have a solid body steel concert from Jupitercreek yet the gentleman that made them passed away. I also have an Aida steel strung which is a just like the Kamoa Evole yet its a hollow body jazz style instrument.

I like them for being able to get different sounds and great electric/effects sounds when I want them. There unfortunately is no standard for electric pickups for these instruments so either you use guitar pickups and space for guitar or you use blade pickups. Also you could go for yet another proprietary pickup but I don't see the point.

Using standard size guitar pickups is the most sensible approach yet it has some drawbacks.
Jonathan Mann uses blade pickups and a custom made bridge on his very nice instruments.
http://www.manndolins.com

Thanks for your insight.

I do know of Jonathan Mann's work but wasn't aware of the others you had listed, I'll have to check them out.

As for pickups I do like the blade pickups I used for my Electric Angell Model (Solidbody Electric Mandolin):

Seymour Duncan Hot Rails - Neck (Warm / fat / smooth, I found it compliments the Vintage Rails used for the bridge pickup)

Semour Duncan Vintage Rails - Bridge (Added a bit of sparkle to the tone / bright single coil sound / cuts out line noise)

I'm very tempted to try a hollow body build down the road, especially if I can set it up with flat wound strings.

Thanks again for the reply.
 
If you intend to build some quality instruments somewhat like Jonathan Mann then I'm sure that you will find a market for them.

The Risa Les Paul model is a well regarded and high quality electric ukulele from a large company. It uses a proprietary pickup that's guitar spaced.
There are some cheap mass market solid steel strung ukuleles from Vorson/Clearwater as well although they use cheap proprietary pickups that aren't that good and can't be changed.
 
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I'm no so sure that there is much of a market for steel string electric ukes, as said above, there are a few already, & there have been others, that failed to attract much attention, but if you want to, just give it a go.

I always fancied a RISA, but ended up buying a Clearwater in the end, the cost just wasn't worth it, for me.
 
If these are made to order like your other instruments, it doesn't seem like it would be a problem to make one to put on your site with a sound sample. The more options you have, the greater the sales if you aren't carrying stock.
 
I have one of the Risa ST electric Ukes.

It is a great instrument, three position switch, twin pickups, vol and tone controls hence very versatile in available tones.

I have not tried the Risa LP which should be even better and have even more range of tones available.

So do check these out as you will have to produce an excellent instrument to surpass a Risa if you are going to compete at their price point.
 
I've previously designed and built the Morande Instruments Electric Angell
(Solidbody Electric Mandolin) and with little modification to its design I believe it'd make a sweet sounding and playing Electric Uke.
Looks and sounds lovely, and that should work as a ukulele already with just a string change to tune gCEA. All of the other solid-body ukulele's I've seen (caveat: I haven't looked real far ;) ) are tenors or baritones, so there may be a niche there that hasn't been filled. Not sure if that's because of supply or demand. Either way, there's enough interest in the area that a good custom build could be a great addition to your line.

Another way to go about it would be a chambered body with nylon strings and a piezo pickup.
(Similar to the Godin MultiUke)
This one seems to be an empty space for custom builds. The only prominent ones I've seen are the Godin and Ponos (again: I haven't looked real far - looks like there are/were a few others). The hitch is the pickups & preamps. From what I understand, part of what makes the Godins great is that their custom electronics.

[Vorson/Clearwater] use cheap proprietary pickups that aren't that good and can't be changed.
In what way can't they be changed? Just that they're an odd size and hard to match? Either way, these cheap ones won't compete in any way with a custom built ukulele. They're great to get ones feet wet and build UAS for a really good one :)
 
There are a number of steel string uke builders already.

There is Risa with a beautiful Les Paul style instrument.
There is Jonathan Mann with some stunning instruments and he builds solid body steel strung Mandolins as well.
There's Monkey Wrench, there's Clearwater/Tenton. More that escape me at the moment....

Using standard size guitar pickups is the most sensible approach yet it has some drawbacks.
Jonathan Mann uses blade pickups and a custom made bridge on his very nice instruments.
http://www.manndolins.com

I have not tried steel string but do have the Seagull Nylon Electric. It has a twin with steel strings that usually sells out first on the websites I've visited. Barry Maz on gotaukulele reviewed the steel string version. So why not? But it maybe a more limited market? However there is the build it and they will come ... :)
 
I've tried steel string ukes a couple of times; East Start with a single cut archtop style and a Vorzon Tele, but I found that I never had an occasion to use them, so I sold them. I also play bass uke and ran across a builder on Etsy out of South Africa, Fanner Guitar Works, who makes a line of steel string ukes to order. I'm having him make me a Gibson SG style mini electric bass, 22.8" scale.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FannerGui...o-avatar&listing_id=661605435&order=price_asc


This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly West near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 5 acoustic bass ukes, 11 solid body bass ukes, 9 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 34)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/video, Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheCCStrummers
 
I'm very tempted to try a hollow body build down the road, especially if I can set it up with flat wound strings.
Now that would be a unique offering. Are you still talking steel strings there or flat wound nylon like the popular Thomastik Infeld strings?

I have a steel string 19" baritone made by Bruce Herron/Blue Star Guitar (who may not be building anymore?). I have thought about flat wound strings on it but from my minimal research, I didn't find any that would work on the short scale. But I didn't look all that hard.
 
Now that would be a unique offering. Are you still talking steel strings there or flat wound nylon like the popular Thomastik Infeld strings?

I have a steel string 19" baritone made by Bruce Herron/Blue Star Guitar (who may not be building anymore?). I have thought about flat wound strings on it but from my minimal research, I didn't find any that would work on the short scale. But I didn't look all that hard.

I really don't see why flatwounds designed for electric guitar wouldn't work on any steel string electric ukulele.
In your case, you could use any medium or heavy gauge flatwound set's DGBE strings directly as the DGBE strings on a baritone scale instrument.
The underlying logic being that your baritone electric ukulele is just a shorter guitar lacking the bass strings. The shorter scale would shift the string set from heavy/medium down a notch to medium/light. Actually I would expect this logic to work in your case with any type of electric guitar string.

When I owned RISA Tenor electric ukes in the past, I often had them strung with flatwounds, both in GCEA and DGBE.
 
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