New member w/ thru-bolt neck.

Dr.Ukenstein

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Oct 19, 2019
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Florida Keys
Not quite sure how the forum works. This is my first attempt. About two months ago, I sat in on a ukulele class/jam in Key Largo and volunteered to play the instructor's Kala ubass that she had received as a gift. I had to work at compressing my fingers into the much tighter scale than my Fender Precision and not pulling the notes sharp. But, it was a lot of fun. The Kala has a good upright sound but I wanted more sustain. So, I took a block of mahogany and a 21.5" scale very short scale guitar neck and built an elec. ubass with roundwound strings and a magnetic humbucking pickup. It plays quite well (IMHO). Then, I, modified a mini-electric guitar w/ a 19" scale to become a non-re-entrant steel string tenor uke w/ an added D string on the bass end. Thus, earning the moniker, Dr. Ukenstein, from a fellow class member. Much of the building knowledge I used came from this forum. Maybe, I can some provide some unique insights, here. Dr. U.
 
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Cool!

Got pictures?
 
Looks pretty good. Does it sound a bit elastic bandy... you know like a U-bass? Or does it have a different sound?
 
Welcome Dr.U, you're right in my wheelhouse. For the last 5 years plus, I've been playing bass with my ukulele group, only because bass ukes and small bass guitars have become available. For the almost 50 years before that, I played rhythm guitar and was often told I should play bass because I had good tempo and feel, but didn't want to be encumbered by a large electric bass, forget a standup.

I too convert small electric guitars to bass, and modify available solid body bass ukes to look like commercial basses. Here's my entire collection in detail.

Bass Collection 2019-10-15.jpg



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, 11 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 35)

• 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
 
LilyL, Not a bit elastic bandy sound. More like the old EBO/EB1 sound of Jack Bruce or Felix Pappalardi. The roundwound stainless strings of larger diameter than long scale bass combined with the magnetic Ernie Ball style humbucker pick-up provide far more sustain and punch.
 
Mike, I have seen your adaptations in my searches. I especially like the McCarthy style violin shaped rig. Mainly, I wanted to use an off the shelf s.s. roundwound string setup that would not buzz when the bridge is set low. So, a 5 string set of Ibanez roundwounds for the 28+" scale Mikro bass was used. Note: the long string distance between non-compensated bridge and thru-body holes. The B-string gets tuned to E and so forth with the G-string left over. I intend to do some cosmetic stuff but this works well for now on a homemade rig made from past parts.
 
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