Guitarlele

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Hilo, Hawaii
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Aloha, I have a luthier friend who made me a very nice tenor uke (It's a hybrid between the largest dimensions of a Martin, and a Kamaka, and gets many compliments on it's sound.); so, I paid him $900 down on a $1700 guitar before I lost my job.

Now, he's agreed to make me a guitarlele/6 string ukelele for the $900 I paid him; but, he's never made one before, and wants me to get the dimensions for the instrument I want.

So... I was researching plans for a guitarlele and found this site.
Does anybody here have input on what size a guitarlele should be?
I've seen a few different kinds; which size, and/or kind of guitarlele would the readers of this forum recommend?

Mahalo nui loa for your time.


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sort of obviously something like the Yamaha I think. I guess Cordoba and others are also making them so that means basically a Tenor Uke with two lower strings.
 
of course if you wanted it to be real

of course if you wanted it to be even more of a Guitar lele, then maybe a baritone with two more strings but then its a mini guitar and not really a uke in my opinion.
 
Are we talking steel string or nylon?

The nearest thing I've ever built is this steel - string soprano guitar with a cookie tin body..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dylPs_2qq0E

Scale length was 14" with a set of .009 gauge strings.

To make it a bit more roomy for chord playing, I made the neck slightly wider at the nut - it was the same width as the third fret on a regular guitar.
 
The other thing that bothered me about the guitarlele is the distance between the strings is not as much on a guitarlele as a uke. I sent the yamaha back as I wanted to focus on the Uke.
 
sort of obviously something like the Yamaha I think. I guess Cordoba and others are also making them so that means basically a Tenor Uke with two lower strings.



Thank you, we had settled on the basic tenor, or super tenor body, with a baritone neck, I've found dimensions for everything except the depth... I think he already knows how he plans on setting up the strings, and the nut for ukulele, and guitar style stringing.

I guess all I really need is the depth of the box; but, I'm pretty sure some guitarleles sound better than others, and want to use the dimensions from the best one.

I realize everybody probably wont agree on the best one, or the best dimensions; but, I'm very interested in what luthiers, and uke players have to say about guitarleles... what I don't know about them would fill volumes.


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Thank you, we had settled on the basic tenor, or super tenor body, with a baritone neck, I've found dimensions for everything except the depth... I think he already knows how he plans on setting up the strings, and the nut for ukulele, and guitar style stringing.

I guess all I really need is the depth of the box; but, I'm pretty sure some guitarleles sound better than others, and want to use the dimensions from the best one.

I realize everybody probably wont agree on the best one, or the best dimensions; but, I'm very interested in what luthiers, and uke players have to say about guitarleles... what I don't know about them would fill volumes.


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Would anybody consider making the body a little bigger than what is available on the market?


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of course if you wanted it to be even more of a Guitar lele, then maybe a baritone with two more strings but then its a mini guitar and not really a uke in my opinion.


I don't want to go much larger than a tenor; becase, I want to be able to travel, and camp with it.


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Are we talking steel string or nylon?

The nearest thing I've ever built is this steel - string soprano guitar with a cookie tin body..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dylPs_2qq0E

Scale length was 14" with a set of .009 gauge strings.

To make it a bit more roomy for chord playing, I made the neck slightly wider at the nut - it was the same width as the third fret on a regular guitar.




I hadn't even considered steel strings.

Thanks for the information on the spacing.

I like your instrument, that's getting bookmarked for reference!


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The other thing that bothered me about the guitarlele is the distance between the strings is not as much on a guitarlele as a uke. I sent the yamaha back as I wanted to focus on the Uke.




Thank you, it seems the strings are the biggest problem... I thought I would only be changing the box size; I'm really glad I found this site.


I don't blame you for focusing on your ukulele, it seems like a little practice goes a long way on the uke.

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Wikipedia gives some details on the Guitalele:

Its dimensions are: scale length (nut to saddle) 433mm (17"); nut width 47.5mm (1 7/8"); body length 730 mm (28 3/4"); body width 290 mm (11.4"); body depth 100mm (2 13/16")

The GL-1 guitalele has an unadorned laminated spruce top (with no rosette), laminated meranti back and sides, nato neck and rosewood fretboard. It comes tuned ADGCEA, and is played like a guitar pitched up to “A” (like a guitar with a capo on the fifth fret).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GL-1_Guitalele

KoAloha also makes the DVI, and Kala makes the U-Tar. Not sure how the dimensions compare to the Guitalele.
 
We have a 420 mm scale length guitar (tenor uke scale) with a depth of 60mm, and one with 480 mm scale length (baritone uke scale) with a depth of 72 mm, both with really huge, full voices.

Hope this helps.
 
Wikipedia gives some details on the Guitalele:

Its dimensions are: scale length (nut to saddle) 433mm (17"); nut width 47.5mm (1 7/8"); body length 730 mm (28 3/4"); body width 290 mm (11.4"); body depth 100mm (2 13/16")

The GL-1 guitalele has an unadorned laminated spruce top (with no rosette), laminated meranti back and sides, nato neck and rosewood fretboard. It comes tuned ADGCEA, and is played like a guitar pitched up to “A” (like a guitar with a capo on the fifth fret).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GL-1_Guitalele

KoAloha also makes the DVI, and Kala makes the U-Tar. Not sure how the dimensions compare to the Guitalele.



Thank you, I don't know how I missed that when I checked Wikipedia...? musta' had a brain fart.

I'll have to check out the KoAloha, and the Kala.

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We have a 420 mm scale length guitar (tenor uke scale) with a depth of 60mm, and one with 480 mm scale length (baritone uke scale) with a depth of 72 mm, both with really huge, full voices.

Hope this helps.



It does help, I'm not the luthier; but, when my friend comes the more information I can show him, the more likely it is he'll be able to make me the best possible instrument.... it seems like he should be able to get a better understanding of the acoustics of an instrument he never made, by seeing the averages.
I appreciate you taking the time to post it.
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