I've now eaten my hat!

Many of you will remember how insistent I have been in the past about 'tradition' in ukulele design and building. Due to the way in which the market works here in Europe (K brands are king and I can no longer compete with them on koa grade or price, even with the exchange rate and duties to be paid!) I have done a complete mind shift and imagined the type of ukulele a 'guitarist' would want. As you can see from the video, the only thing missing is a cutaway which I am working to get right.

The IR is 'orphan' dreadnought sides. For $25 I get a back and side set from these. The top is a particular type of spruce which the German seller calls 'moon-spruce' - lovely Alpine variety used principally for classical guitars. Flat African ebony fingerboard on this slotted headstock model - the flat headstock model will be fitted with UPT Gotohs) and will also have a radiused fingerboard and dot markers... I may try snowflakes if my back gets any better... Strung low G - re-entrant will be on request.

So hat eaten more than once here

Wow! That's totally cool! Thanks for the video, and good luck with your new design.

Very nice Pete! I really like your new tenor design.

Looks and sounds divine.

Pete- do you like the sound better then your older trad models?

I am not qualified to judge the sound - Tommy likes it and I think most guitarists will. I love the immediacy you get from koa. This combo has a lot more 'throat'.

Very intriguing. Maybe because I was a guitarist first, this is very appealing.

I think it's lovely. I know that the purists are all about koa and perhaps grudgingly some mahogany but what's wrong with the sound of that? Not a uke traditional uke sound, pah? I say, play it and love it, enjoy the rich sounds and make something unique with it. I think you'll sell a bunch of them, the sound appeals to me for sure...

Very nice! Wishing you much success with it. Great design, and thoughts. Upt tuners on the flat head too.

Nothing wrong with permutation and utilizing an existing design to accommodate something new and different. Nice job!

I went the opposite way and used a standard baritone uke design as the basis for my low tuned mandolin:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageMando.html

Definitely sounds more guitar-like...but that's not a bad thing. I like it alot!!