Hmmm...I think I am going to need to show some restraint lest this message turn into a sloppy panegyric because my Tinguitar ukulele, hereafter referred to as Yorkie, is the apple of my eye.
Yorkie cured my UAS. I sold all my ukes and other instruments except for one Kamaka to serve my re-entrant needs. Yorkie is my dedicated linear ukulele. With these two ukes, I have all the ukulele I need. I didn't even watch any NAMM videos this year because what do I care about what Kala is doing when I have Yorkie.
I don't know what to tell you about Yorkie. It is a custom uke and therefore everything about it is perfect. It even smells good.
I think it would be more informative to talk about working with Rob. I went to Rob with an idea: I wanted to make an island ukulele but instead of referencing the Sandwich isalnds as most people do, I meant the Yorkshire pudding islands or Great Britain. I wanted all the materials to come from the British Isles. Rob vetoed one wood I had in mind because it was too soft for its purpose but he otherwise codified my idea by suggesting Plane wood salvaged from a park in London, viburnum and English walnut.
I was concerned about how Yorkie would look (I assumed that Rob would take care of the playability and tonality) so I had a laundry list to necessities that I gave to Rob. They were things such as 185mm scale, 19 frets, Florentine cutaway, no fret markers, side markers on the pentatonic frets: 3, 5 7, 10, 12, etc, planetary tuners.
I didn't really care about what most other people grouse over--things like nut width, zero fret, radiused fret board, neck profile. I figured I would be spending the rest of my life with Yorkie and would according adapt to whatever qualities it had. However I will mention that Yorkie came with a flattened D neck shape. I never would have thought to specify that but now I cannot see how I lived without it. Having a flat surface for your thumb makes so much more sense.
And Yorkie was cheap. I honestly cannot remember how much I paid for Yorkie. I have an impression that it cost around 1600 pounds (because of all the special requests I made)...and that is super cheap for what I received. I remember even feeling guilty about it at the time!
I think I am starting to run on a bit too long now. I'll just say that every day I smell Yorkie and play the entire fretboard (I can only form chords until about the 15th fret). Yorkie's long neck gives me room for seven shapes per key whether we're talking about pentatonics or modes. Yorkie opened up a new regions of the fretboard for me. My favorite place to play is the 11th fret with the Dominant shape of E minor pentatonic located there as well as B Phrygian dominant and A Dorian #11.
I'm very happy with my ukulele. I don't have a cell phone or anything, but here is a grainy picture of Yorkie and its permanently affixed leather strap
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