Solidbody Electric Ukulele? (Steel String)

anthonyg said:

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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What didn't you like about the Vorson pickups?
I didn't find them lacking in any way, even compared to Risa, Jupiter Creek and a range of electric guitars.

They were very resilient against hum and had a standard clear tone to be expected from decent single coils.
Sure they aren't high-end, custom-shop pickups - but I found the pickups to be the single best thing about the Vorsons.

kissing said:

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...
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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I thought you couldn't cut flatwound strings without them unraveling. Have I been misinformed about that? That was certainly the advice I got with bass flatwounds.

I think you meant use the ADGB guitar strings as DGBE baritone uke strings, right? That seems to be what's on it now as the gauges are the same as this: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/acc...38-extra-slinky-rps-8-electric-guitar-strings

Went on your site to check out the instruments and perhaps look at placing an order. But no way am I giving anyone my name, address etc. before I can get in the section I want to check out. So will pass.

Patrick Madsen said:

Went on your site to check out the instruments and perhaps look at placing an order. But no way am I giving anyone my name, address etc. before I can get in the section I want to check out. So will pass.

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What's that about? The only place I see asking for that is the "Order Now". But there is nothing in stock, so surely you'd want to email first to work out details of any custom order.

Patrick Madsen said:

Went on your site to check out the instruments and perhaps look at placing an order. But no way am I giving anyone my name, address etc. before I can get in the section I want to check out. So will pass.

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Patrick,

There's no need to give any personal info to see my pricing, you must have clicked on the wrong part of my website.
I only ask for that info on my order forms, once those fields are filled out it brings you to the next proper pages to complete the order as needed.

The only order form currently active is for ukuleles, and I made sure to have all my pricing listed on each specific body size page.

I am rolling out the Electric Angell (Solidbody Electric Mandolin) Page update / price list / order form in the next couple days.

I haven't gotten far enough to make a proper page / price list yet for this potential Solidbody Electric Ukulele as I hadn't decided to offer a Baritone Scale Solidbody Electric Uke.

The initial post for this forum page was me thinking about modifying my existing Solidbody Electric Mandolin Model to a Uke version, and asking if there is enough of a market for one.

Patrick Madsen said:

I'd buy one right now if it was a baritone scale. Very few of those around; mostly concerts and occasional tenors.

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From your previous response I'd be more than happy to talk more about a build for a Baritone Scale Solidbody Electric Ukulele via email: P.Morande.Instruments@gmail.com

I'll even offer you an exclusive pricing since this would be a new variation of an instrument added to my build roster.

Sorry, for any confusion.

Email me anytime and I'd be more than willing to help.

-Peter

Wasn't meant to be personal at all Morande. My apologies if it did. I just copied your address from your tag and must have gone to ordering. Tried it again and see I did make a mistake. My big time apologies. Wonderful looking instruments and you have me thinking about a good electric bari.

I trust Jim realizes it's not my nature to post negative comments. I'm glad you brought it up Jim.

Jim Hanks said:

I thought you couldn't cut flatwound strings without them unraveling. Have I been misinformed about that? That was certainly the advice I got with bass flatwounds.

I think you meant use the ADGB guitar strings as DGBE baritone uke strings, right? That seems to be what's on it now as the gauges are the same as this: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/acc...38-extra-slinky-rps-8-electric-guitar-strings

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I certainly used ADGB strings as DGBE on Soprano and Tenor scale electric ukuleles. On a baritone, I wonder whether the scale would be long enough as such that the ADGB strings would have a higher tension.

It's a bit of a grey area, and you'll have a bit of liberty of choosing between ADGB from a rather light guitar set, or DGBE from a rather heavy set. Overall, you would end up in the ball park of similar tensions. Steel string electric guitar tensions can really vary depending on preferences.

If it was my own baritone electric ukulele, I would probably use DGBE strings and treat it like a short guitar.
A baritone electric ukulele, in the bigger picture, is a short scale electric guitar, which would be strung in that way.
I've owned a Squier Mini-Strat in the past that is similar scale length as a baritone - it just used regular 10 gauge electric guitar strings for its standard tuning (EADGBE).

Flatwounds do unravel a bit when cut, but you can get away with it if you leave yourself enough length to wind around the tuners a few times. It will only unravel a bit at the end and then stabilise. I guess this is a less-than-ideal situation compared to finding flatwounds that are specifically designed and wrapped with ukulele scale in mind, but it does work with a bit of care



EDIT TO ADD:

I think you meant use the ADGB guitar strings as DGBE baritone uke strings, right? That seems to be what's on it now as the gauges are the same as this: https://www.musiciansfriend.com/acce...guitar-strings

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That set you linked to is an extremely light gauge set. It's an 8 gauge set, where for reference 9 and 10 gauge sets are considered "Very light" and "Light".
Hence, using the ADGB strings on that would mean that the 11 gauge string (B) is your high E string.

That's not much different from just using a DGBE string from a slightly heavier set that has a 10 or 11 gauge string for the high E string anyway (Light and Medium gauge sets).

a very interesting thread

kissing said:

Flatwounds do unravel a bit when cut, but you can get away with it if you leave yourself enough length to wind around the tuners a few times. It will only unravel a bit at the end and then stabilise. I guess this is a less-than-ideal situation compared to finding flatwounds that are specifically designed and wrapped with ukulele scale in mind, but it does work with a bit of care

That set you linked to is an extremely light gauge set. It's an 8 gauge set, where for reference 9 and 10 gauge sets are considered "Very light" and "Light".
Hence, using the ADGB strings on that would mean that the 11 gauge string (B) is your high E string.

That's not much different from just using a DGBE string from a slightly heavier set that has a 10 or 11 gauge string for the high E string anyway (Light and Medium gauge sets).

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Thanks! That makes sense. I just looked for a set with 11/14/22/30 where the 22 and 30 were wound and that's the first one I found. Now I'm gonna have to look for an 11 flatwound set and if it's a total fail, I can always go back to a set like I linked.

Thanks! :shaka: