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Thread: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

  1. #1
    Registered User mreidsma's Avatar
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    Default Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    I couldn't find anything on the forum about anyone using one of these as a mandola or tenor guitar (It's a 17" scale, so probably a little short for a tenor, but still.) These look like great little Jazz ukes - just wondering if anyone has any experience with them:

    https://www.soundsmithgear.com/produ...tique-sunburst

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  2. #2
    Harley Marty
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    Default Re: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    I have two of them & I think that they are terrible. I hacked out some of the bracing on them & put them to mandolin tuning which improved them a bit. I got one for me & one for friend but it is too bad to give away!

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  4. #3

    Default Re: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    If you want an electric ukulele with steel strings, this is the cream of the crop. https://www.ukulele.de/tenor/63/risa...herry-sunburst

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  6. #4
    Registered User mreidsma's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    Quote Originally Posted by Harley Marty View Post
    I have two of them & I think that they are terrible. I hacked out some of the bracing on them & put them to mandolin tuning which improved them a bit. I got one for me & one for friend but it is too bad to give away!
    Ha! That's what I assumed. I did a conversion on one of the Vorsons a few years ago and the string spacing killed me. I swapped it out with a narower strat-style 4-string bridge and then it was a little better, but the pickups were terrible. I eventually built a new tenor guitar-scale neck for it, but still didn't bond with it. Every now and then I think that might be a fun project, but thanks for bringing me back to my senses!

    -Matthew

  7. #5
    Registered User vwfye's Avatar
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    Default Re: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    I played a very well built 17" scale uke with truss rod as a mandolin for several years. The E had to drop and octave to keep from snapping, had I dropped all the strings an octave, it would have been very sloppy/buzzy. But, perhaps, there is a string combo that will help.
    2022 SRC Electric Octave Mandolin
    Crafter Acoustic/Electric Mandolin
    Surf City Octave Acoustic Mando
    Epiphone Les Paul Ukulele
    Epiphone 1924 Recording A Tenor Banjo
    Paramount 1929 Artcraft Tenor Banjo


  8. #6
    Harley Marty
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    Default Re: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    Quote Originally Posted by vwfye View Post
    I played a very well built 17" scale uke with truss rod as a mandolin for several years. The E had to drop and octave to keep from snapping, had I dropped all the strings an octave, it would have been very sloppy/buzzy. But, perhaps, there is a string combo that will help.
    To get Mandolin tuned 'E' string I use d'addario .007 plain. I tune it to 'E'flat, let it settle for a few hours then SLOWLY bring it up to 'E'. I always keep lots of spares due to the occasional breakage, but if it's been installed correctly it should last for months. I recently built a 17.5" to 18.5" multiscale banjo wich I'm going to try mandolin tuning next week, I have it a semi-tone down until a batch of spare .007's arrive from Germany.

  9. #7
    Harley Marty
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    Default Re: Sound Smith Hollow Body Electric Ukulele - tiny TG candidate?

    Well the d'addario .007's arrived yesterday from Germany. I bought 15 of them just to be sure to have enough spares. I put one onto the 17.5" E on my newly built banjo Mandolin, went very slowly & carefully (holding my breath!) brought it up to pitch & Eureka! got there easily with the first string. So now I have a 17.5" to 18.5" fan-fretted openback Banjo-Mandolin with a 10" pot. The bonus is that it sounds great.

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