Bari Uke Madness.$5 Acoustic & $25 Solid Body Electric starter kits

Picked this pair up for thirty bones.

Gonna do a little convertin, and maybe some paintin.
Both have 20.25" scale and 42mm nut. Which is in the ballpark for where I want all my collection to be. Being a beginner, I have found that four strings on a medium-wide neck are easiest for me to play chords on. And if they're all tuned the same, then I can more easily switch between them

I still like to have a little collection. A little variety. Especially since I don't really have a considerable amount invested in this plot yet. But I'm headed towards having a half dozen wide neck DGBE tuned baritone ukes and tenor guitars. And then off with the rest of the six strings.

The First Act FG125 is the lowest of low But appears to be a pre-plastic all wood model. Not sure if that's good or bad, as I've recently noticed a upward trend in popularity for plastic outdoor ukes. Geared tuners, but the knobs slip.
Still don't intend to put any money into it to start. Just use what I have on hand. If I grow attached to it, maybe I'll find some used electronics for it.

The Harmony baby strat, I believe, was similarly low budget when new. Although it has slightly more charm and style in my eyes.
But I was really looking for the slightly larger Squier Mini-Stat for a tenor guitar conversion.

I like the looks of that Harmony. It looks like like Vorson electric uke.

Jerryc41 said:

I like the looks of that Harmony. It looks like like Vorson electric uke.

Click to expand...

Thanks! Haha! Yeah, just going out and buying a Vorson might have been the smart and easy thing to do. But I was drawn in by the 42mm nut and potentially wider string spacing.

This old Harmony has mismatched strings, though I have managed to tune it with careful tension adjustments. And I haven't decided what strings I want to use yet. Probably either all steel, or all flourocarbon.

Going to just roll with the stock 6-string pickup for now. As I've seen that our resident solid body conversion expert, @kohanmike, has built at least one bass using a 6-string pickup I believe.
Actually, maybe one of these should be a bass...that'd be fun.

Not sure how I'm going to work the bridge yet. But doesn't look like rocket surgery.

Went ahead and made a wide neck baritone uke out of the FG125.

This was more of an inexpensive experiment that would let me find out how I like the oversize nut and wider string spacing on a baritone uke, before I lay down a more substantial sum on a nicer but similarly spec'd instrument.

So far I'm liking it. It was a crude but effective setup that was only after acoustical effect, with asthetics not taken into account. And even though it doesn't have the bell-like clarity of the Giannini, the volume, sustain, and intonation of the crudely altered First Act are good enough to think of it as more than just an instrument shaped object. And for my eleven dollar investment(5 for the guitar and 6 for the baritone uke strings), I'm happy with the result.

Pics of the FG next to the Giannini clearly show the much wider nut and string spacing. I may grow to love the playing the Giannini in time, but right now I appreciate the extra wide nut and string spacing.

Now I...possibly... may be...could be...looking forward to the possibility of converting a higher quality instrument...if one falls out of the sky... with a higher attention to detail, into a super baritone uke. Maybe a quarter or half size classical if I happen across one with dimensions that could translate into a jumbo baritone uke with not too wide a nut for a 4-string.

Not sure the Harmony is going to be worth the effort to convert or not. Never reallized how much hum an electric guitar without a humbucker has. And not having a neck pickup seems a disadvantage also.

Think I'll focus my efforts on converting my much nicer, and much better sounding sixty-nine dollar LP style into a long scale solid body electric tenor guitar for now.

Maybe if I run across a cheap set of bass strings I'll give it a go with the baby strat.

After playing the cheap uke build for just a short time, now I'm thinking it has made me appreciate the Giannini much more.
I mean it works and all, but the nicer uke just sounds so much sweeter. And I have decided to work my way past the mental block I had in my head over the narrow string spacing....I hope.