Dolamon
Dec-03-2009, 12:06pm
I suggested this out loud a several months ago and finally got around to trying it myself. I'd been looking at scale lengths of various members of the Ukulele family and finally took the plunge and bought a Kala Cutaway, solid mahogany with Shadow electronics. This has a seventeen inch scale which is mid way between the Concert at 15 inches and the Baritone at 19 inches. (Soprano is a 13 inch length and not in my finger width spectrum.)
The strings that came with it could not be retuned to get it into any fifth tuning which would be playable in this galaxy. However ... exploring the string catalogues from Aquila, d'Addario and a few others at Just Strings or Elderly, it seemed to me that a normal tension set could be pieced together to work as a nylon strung Mandola / Tenor guitar. Plus it should be possible to finger pick.
I settled on trying a set of d'Addario EXP 46 which are extended wear, Hard tension strings which have a micro fine coating http://elderly.com/accessories/names/d%27addario-exp46-classical-guitar-set--EXP46.htm With a little bit of really primitive math and some guessing, I decided to leave the High A from the Uke set on the Uke, and use the 46w for the C string, the 29W for the G and the 41p (plain wound) for the D. The high string, is a point 285 and I kept that as a spare. The other two strings are being used on one of my motorcycles. It was far cheaper to buy a complete six string set and have extras than to buy the strings individually.
The settling in of nylon strings is truly annoying but after two days, this thing was humming. Acoustically it was remarkable and plugged in - an amazing rock and roll Mandola! I went to the micro coating as I've had tremendous luck on the longevity of either the Elixer's or d'Addario strings on many of my other Mandolin Family. There were a few other minor set up issues - I lowered the bridge and had to enlarge the (now) C string groove on the Nut. I've never worked on a nylon string instrument before so ... if I erred in my set up, it was because I didn't go quite far enough. But ...
It flat out works and for two finger style Fado or Jazz chording ... incredible.
I wanted to try finger picks on this just to see if the tone would brighten up. Rather than using the more traditional, transverse type of finger picks, I went to a fado style offered by Elderly named the Alaska Pik. This fits over / under the finger nail and you pick with the tips of the fingers rather than the side. These picks can be shaped or polished with a nail file or buffing boards to get the profile to work for you. The pick noise is greatly reduced, two note intervals across three or four strings are possible and it is startling to hear.
A few observations - I bought a good, new, solid Mahogany instrument which was very reasonably priced http://elderly.com/new_instruments/items/KMSTCE.htm for the simple reason that the newer instruments should have a better construction and glue and be fresher. I've blundered into a few Ukes which looked like a good buy but had been stored in attics for a few decades and on closer inspection, the wood and the glue joints had dried out. Ultimately, newer is cheaper (for these at least) over the long haul.
Conclusion: definitely worth the effort to try, it changes the perspective of a tenor instrument and the shock effect on other players is worth the price. So - is it a uke or a Tiny Tenor Guitar?
PS Recently - Aquila strings is offering a GDAE set for sopranos ... the wave is changing!
The strings that came with it could not be retuned to get it into any fifth tuning which would be playable in this galaxy. However ... exploring the string catalogues from Aquila, d'Addario and a few others at Just Strings or Elderly, it seemed to me that a normal tension set could be pieced together to work as a nylon strung Mandola / Tenor guitar. Plus it should be possible to finger pick.
I settled on trying a set of d'Addario EXP 46 which are extended wear, Hard tension strings which have a micro fine coating http://elderly.com/accessories/names/d%27addario-exp46-classical-guitar-set--EXP46.htm With a little bit of really primitive math and some guessing, I decided to leave the High A from the Uke set on the Uke, and use the 46w for the C string, the 29W for the G and the 41p (plain wound) for the D. The high string, is a point 285 and I kept that as a spare. The other two strings are being used on one of my motorcycles. It was far cheaper to buy a complete six string set and have extras than to buy the strings individually.
The settling in of nylon strings is truly annoying but after two days, this thing was humming. Acoustically it was remarkable and plugged in - an amazing rock and roll Mandola! I went to the micro coating as I've had tremendous luck on the longevity of either the Elixer's or d'Addario strings on many of my other Mandolin Family. There were a few other minor set up issues - I lowered the bridge and had to enlarge the (now) C string groove on the Nut. I've never worked on a nylon string instrument before so ... if I erred in my set up, it was because I didn't go quite far enough. But ...
It flat out works and for two finger style Fado or Jazz chording ... incredible.
I wanted to try finger picks on this just to see if the tone would brighten up. Rather than using the more traditional, transverse type of finger picks, I went to a fado style offered by Elderly named the Alaska Pik. This fits over / under the finger nail and you pick with the tips of the fingers rather than the side. These picks can be shaped or polished with a nail file or buffing boards to get the profile to work for you. The pick noise is greatly reduced, two note intervals across three or four strings are possible and it is startling to hear.
A few observations - I bought a good, new, solid Mahogany instrument which was very reasonably priced http://elderly.com/new_instruments/items/KMSTCE.htm for the simple reason that the newer instruments should have a better construction and glue and be fresher. I've blundered into a few Ukes which looked like a good buy but had been stored in attics for a few decades and on closer inspection, the wood and the glue joints had dried out. Ultimately, newer is cheaper (for these at least) over the long haul.
Conclusion: definitely worth the effort to try, it changes the perspective of a tenor instrument and the shock effect on other players is worth the price. So - is it a uke or a Tiny Tenor Guitar?
PS Recently - Aquila strings is offering a GDAE set for sopranos ... the wave is changing!