Electric ukes

[Martin Jonas]

It occurs to me that there are several builders out there that make solid body electric ukuleles, steel-string, with magnetic pickups. As far as I can see, there is no difference at all between these and a four-string e-mando, is there? Maybe a slight setup change at the nut/bridge intonation when going to mando strings, but that should be all.

Here are a couple:

Michael J King



Risa



Specimen



(Aside: Specimen also offer a truly bizarre electro-acoustic E-mando, with the biggest arch I've ever seen in a carved instrument, here).

Martin

[Arto]

"(Aside: Specimen also offer a truly bizarre electro-acoustic E-mando, with the biggest arch I've ever seen in a carved instrument, here)."

Wow, the missing link between carved mandolins and bowlbacks, that scientists have been searching for a long time!


Arto

[mandroid]

I think Blue Star Uke Blaster is another , the back of those is carpeted,
so no strap is needed,
[like regular Sop. Ukes]
as it kind of grips your clothing , not sure about with silk Hawaiian shirts, though.

[delsbrother]

Don't forget electric cavaquinho. I have one, and it works fine tuned in fifths too.

[david blair]

The Applause by Ovation, me thinks is the brand. Uh, I played a tenor Uke one night plugged in with a full band. Those things are really fun!
$349.00

[Martin Jonas]

The Ovation is a rather different beast, though: they are nylon-strung rather than steel-strung, and with a piezo rather than magnetic pickup, and that gives them a distinctly uke-ish sound even when restrung in fifths. There are quite a few electro-acoustic ukes like that, and they're fun in their own right, but the thought in my mind when I started this thread was that the difference between a steel-strung uke and an electirc mandolin is one of label rather than substance and therefore us mando players may want to keep these "ukes" in mind when looking for a new instrument.

Martin

[Patrick Killeen]

Risa even do an eight string #"Electric-Ukulele/Mandolin". (Now if you took a set of uke strings for that and put them on an acoustic mando you could have yourself a nice vintage Loar uke.)

Patrick

[Cliff D]

Hi David, it just so happens I was thinking of acquiring an Ovation Applause uke, similar to the one you have pictured (although the enjoyment I'm having with my new Mandocaster has put the uke project on the back burner). I would be interested to hear if you experience even volume between the different strings when the uke is amplified?

Returning to the theme of the thread, may I tentatively suggest any solid bodied steel strung instrument with a magnetic pick up owes its lineage primarily to the guitar, & regarding a uke as a mandolin (or vice versa) turns on the criteria you wish to define a given instrument by. Just like musical styles, there are some clear examples of genres, & others where distinctions are blurred.I would further opine the identity of any instrument is in the hands of its player, as well as its maker.

Cliff

[neal]

Here's a little higher end electric uke I had for awhile. Ko'olau Ukulele, CE-2

[Cliff D]

Ain't life full of little ironies? I was thinking of acquiring a uke, & had thought the Ovation Applause tenor a possible purchase. The main London dealer, Ivor Marants told me that they were not available in the UK (& were unlikely to be in the future). "Why don't you come & try a soprano?" I did. The sound? to my ear dull & uninspired. When plugged in, big variations in volume from string to string (of the three I tried some were worse than others). So I thought: a 4 string electric mando would be a better idea, with a longer scale than the Alden. So I started a thread asking about UK builders, & a thread contributor mentioned the Risa. Well, the suggestion seemed good, & to cut to the chase, it arrived yesterday set up as a uke, & is now a 'dola', although I'm still experimenting with string gauges, & some other modifications need to be made. So whilst never having intended to make the journey suggested by the initiator of this thread, I have now so done!

[Cliff D]

Here it is, slightly different from the Risa's earlier pictured in this thread.

[catmandu2]

I had a Fender 5-string electric mando for a while. I sometimes tuned it as a uke: http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin....=fender

[crazymandolinist]

I tune my mando as a uke all the time. It's fun. I'll bet it's evcen more fun with a four string mando/uke. The only differance I can see is perhaps scale length, but even that may be exactly the same.

[John Kavanagh]

One difference between the instruments is that the string spacing is usually much narrower on a mandolin, especially at the nut. It favours single-note playing but makes chording a little more awkward, especially the common shapes in a fourths tuning. Uke players who restring a mandolin as a uke often mention this.

I play all fourths-tuned instruments, and I've often thought of getting a 5-course mando and tuning it gd'g'b'e" or gc'e'a'd'.

Those Risa 4-stringers are very nice, by the way - I know three people who own one and they all love them. He'll string any of his solidbody models for either tuning, I think.

[Cliff D]

Agreed, the Risa I recently purchased has a wider string spacing than any of my electric guitars at the nut & the strings do not flare outwards as #they approach the bridge. Consequently they are significantly further apart than on the Alden or Crafter mandolins I have, which I find tedious. Ironically the only way I could cope with a parallel double stop (when I first started with the Crafter) was to put a single finger tip across 4 strings (which I now do much more on the guitar now) but the spacing on the Risa does make this technique just a little more difficult again. I am tempted to have the neck modified: get rid of the annoying zero fret, put on a proper nut, & have the neck tapared #at the nut end.

Quick addendum: when I mentioned 4 strings above I meant two double courses, not four singles. My hands ain't that big!

Where I think the Risa does score is the way the neck joins the body on the slant, making high fret access much cleaner.