Long Neck Soprano

Down Up Dick said:

All you Folks seem to be really honed in on the sounds of your Ukes. To whom do you play? Is your "sound" for your audience or for your own ear or do you just play?

French Horn players debate the merits of silver horns over brass, and some trumpet players swear by rotary valve trumpets. Yet no one in the audience ever hears the difference.

If you play wired or miked, doesn't that change the sounds of your Uke? So why be so nitty picky over minute differences in the Uke? I mostly play to sing, or whistle, or play my harps (not too much yet), and, if the chords are right and have no thunks, I'm happy. I'm not criticizing, just wondering how others think.

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I play for me. 99% of the time I'm the only one listening. If someone else is listening I try to tune them out. The sound of a uke has to please me or I won't spend time playing it.

I posted my first Seasons video after two years of playing. It was interesting but that's not why I play.

Gosh, if I waited to play better to buy a Uke, I wouldn't have one! The National is pretty loud at full strum. One nice thing about it is that it speaks clearly when strummed very gently. I just finished playing it this evening while sitting on the sofa watching TV with my wife. I can run through tunes so softly that she doesn't even notice, yet I can hear each chord change even with the TV blaring. I think it has something to do with the number of high overtones in the tone of the instrument. The sound reaches my ears, but doesn't fill the room.

Wow! You're really lucky to have a National Steel. I'd like one (later) for blues with my harps. The banjolele's good for blues too. Well, I hope you appreciate your luckyness.

Well, Pere, (doesn't that mean father?), I play all my instruments for my own amazement too. Sometimes, if I'm playing well, I have a really great time.

And back to the subject. Some of those writing on this thread have two or three long necks. If they don't sound exactly the same, I'm sure they'll be very similar. I wonder about all this. It seems very strange to me. Well, it takes all kinds . . .

We build longneck instruments almost exclusively, and there are indeed differences in sound between longneck and standard scales. But a lot of that has to do with how they can be strung.

So I can understand DUDicks perspective. First, because a longneck Soprano can be strung to sound very much like a Concert. But second, because of the assumption that seems to made so often here, and that is that everyone will use “Club Tuning” (tune to C).

While scales influence the stringing, which influences sound, if you’re going to tune everything the same, then the only other marked difference in sound between Soprano, Concert and Tenor is sustain and clarity up the neck. If those aren’t aspects that interest you much, then you might as well just pick the size that feels best. For DUDick, that’s the standard Concert.

But why is there so often this assumption for Club Tuning? Nobody would ask if you can hear a difference between a Violin and a Cello. You’d have to be completely deaf not to pick that one up. A Soprano will sound much better than the other two in D tuning – a Concert is superb in C tuning and a Tenor is wonderful in B flat. Standard or longneck, those three bodies can give you three very distinct voices, each with a range of notes naturally suited to its scale and acoustics properties.

Otherwise, as DUDick noted, the differences are somewhat more subtle and those subtleties just aren't that important to a lot of players.

There comes a point where the hearing degrades, and it doesn't matter which uke it is through ears which have need of assistance. Yes, I speak from experience---not just book larnin". The long neck soprano does sound soprano, and it also costs soprano rather than concert by about $100.00 . Both Leolani (laminated) and Lehua make very nice LNS units. The Lehua is matte finish with Aquila strings and strung through the body. They are made in Portugal;designed by Bob Gleason of Pegasus Guitars and Ukes, and sold through local dealers. (of which I am one, and have a new Lehua and Leolan for sale.

Dirk, I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a brass man from the start, and I never heard of anyone (other than collectors) having 10 Bb flat trumpets, or a bunch of double French Horns. Having lots of Ukes makes sense if each one has a specific purpose. A couple of long necks in different keys is a grand idea. I plan to buy a pineapple concert one of these days, but I'll tune it to ADF#B. I also want a DGBE tenor Banjolele. Well, thanks for joining the thread, I enjoyed your comments.

Down Up Dick said:

Having lots of Ukes makes sense if each one has a specific purpose....I plan to buy a pineapple concert one of these days, but I'll tune it to ADF#B. I also want a DGBE tenor Banjolele.

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Agree - I plan on doing my KPK pineapple longneck in D tuning (low A) at the first string change although it is supposed to be coming in C (low G). I was going to put that tuning on my tenor banjolele but it won't take it without major alterations to the nut and tailpiece so I ended up doing it in dGBE (high d).

Hi Jim, yeah, I want the high DGBE for my new Banjolele so I can play clawhammer and sound more like a banjo. If I were 50 years younger I'd take up the banjo (and the oboe). I really like those two instruments.

Someone really needs to straighten the low g/highG thing out. There's a thread about it, but I don't know if we settled anything.

I was thinking of tuning something to Bb to get into a bit lower key for my voice, but the chords are finger busters. Worse than regular Bb! I dunno. . .

Down Up Dick said:

I was thinking of tuning something to Bb to get into a bit lower key for my voice, but the chords are finger busters. Worse than regular Bb! I dunno. . .

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Tenor is great for Bb but you could do it for concert with the right strings. Not sure what you mean about finger busters - just play it like your C ukes, especially if you're trying to "auto transpose" for your voice.

I mean the chords in the key of Bb (i.e. Bb-Eb-F7 etc). I like to stay away from the flat keys ( except F ).

Down Up Dick said:

I mean the chords in the key of Bb (i.e. Bb-Eb-F7 etc). I like to stay away from the flat keys ( except F ).

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Right, but that's all the more reason to tune the uke to Bb! Then to play in the key of Bb, your chord shapes are C-F-G7 etc. - exactly what you're used to.

Hey! Yeah, of course, you're correct. I knew that too! I was befuddled. Thanks a lot.

Did you see my last entry on the GCEA/gCEA thread? I think my answer clears up the problem, and I'm gonna use it from now on.

Down Up Dick said:

Did you see my last entry on the GCEA/gCEA thread? I think my answer clears up the problem, and I'm gonna use it from now on.

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I saw it. Maybe it'll catch on. As you can see in my signature I've gone with the capital-for-linear/lower-for-reentrant convention.

It's too confusing because the g and G don't mean anything. It's too easy to mix 'em up. H and L actually stand for something. Well, we'll see. I'm usin' 'em.