Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Here are photographs of the first of three ukuleles that I've recently made.

Back and sides are Blackwood, from the Otways.
Bindings and back-strip are Mountain Ash, from here in Emerald, in the Dandenongs.
Neck is Queensland Maple, and the centre of the neck sandwich is Satrin Box, also from the Otways.
Soundboard is Engelmann Spruce.
Bridge and fingerboard of Indian Rosewood.

Frank.

Beautifully made Frank
Anything on how it sounds?

Two thumbs up for this little beauty Frank!! Stunning.
I'd be interested too know what brand of strings you fitted ?

Well done!
Gaz

Hi Gaz and asgilbert (?)

With regard to the strings, they are a set of Aquila Red tenor 4th (low-G) wound ukulele strings; that is to say, the 4th string is a "re-entrant" low G, and it is wire-wound to make it as dense as possible so that it can be tuned an octave below the "normal" G usually found on a tenor ukulele, without the string being too thick, dull or too floppy.

I guess it's because of my guitar background, but I much prefer the four strings of a ukulele to mimic those of a guitar, going from lower to higher frequencies, as one goes up the strings. I always feel sort-of "dudded" by the 4th strings of ukuleles. It's almost as if the instrument has only three strings.

It is often stated the that "standard" ukulele stringing pattern is for people who like to strum accompaniments, while the re-entrant low-G string configuration is for people who prefer to play melodies.

And so, to your question asgilbert; to my way of thinking, the instrument sounds pretty full, and not quite as "plunky" as many other ukuleles. Most of the tenor ukuleles I've made have this re-entrant low G string.

Because the red strings are a little more dense than plain nylon (they are, I think, impregnated with copper dust), they exert a little more tension, and so I think that they sustain a little longer. It's probably quite wrong of me, but notwithstanding that these are ukuleles, and should sound as such, I keep trying to make instruments with greater sustain - and I guess that's why I'm now in the process of building a baritone ukulele, which is beginning to be, and sound like a 4-string tenor guitar!

Frank

Whoops!

When an instrument has strings that get progressively higher in pitch, from string to string, that's NOT re-entrant tuning!

The "normal" tuning on a ukulele - where the 4th G string is higher in pitch than the 3rd C string - is referred to as re-entrant tuning.

Sorry. My bad.

Frank.

Hey Frank, You lost me at re-entrant Just got a beautiful Tenor out of my mate in Albany, hence the interest in the sound.
Love this forum... learn so much from the participants.

Andrew

Really great work Frank. I was reading your description of re-entrant and wondering how I had got those mixed up