Soprano body with concert neck??

[Quinny]

Hi there,

My query is about making a soprano (pineapple) uke body and the impact of a concert sized neck with it i.e. a concert scale length. The reason I have this query is that I am very tall with big hands, so playing a soprano size neck/scale length will be quite small for me.

A bit of background. Over the last 4 years I have made a concert, tenor and baritone uke. The soprano I made was my first build, but it was a practice build with mismatched wood, no decoration, and as i didn't have a thicknesser , I now know the top was too thick - so a crappy sound. Now i want to complete my set of ukes with a soprano, now that I can make a decent uke.

So my query is:
If I make a soprano sized body with a concert neck/scale length, is that likely to sound too similar to my concert uke. In other words, is the scale length going to determine the sound over the size of the soprano uke body? Or will the uke body significantly determine the sound over the scale length of a concert? I am prepared to make a soprano body and soprano neck if the concert neck will make it too similar to my concert uke.

Or is there another way to obtain that soprano traditional uke twang with a soprano scale length? I know I can lengthen the neck with more frets to where it joins the body, but it will still have more narrow frets of a soprano. Are there other ways to get more play-ability for someone with big hands for a soprano?

PS - I'm making it a pineapple shape just to build something different as all the others have the usual fig 8 shape.

Thanks

Andrew

[Allen]

Theres no problem doing this. Commonly called a long neck soprano. You just have to make sure that the bridge is in the right spot so you will need to adjust the fret to body join. More than likely it will end up being a 14 to the body instead of 12.

The tension on the strings will be marginally higher so if your design was on the cutting edge of lightness of build then just keep that in mind.

The sound is still going to be soprano as that is what the body volume, sound hole and soundboard realestate is, however it will be different to a traditional body shape.

[Quinny]

Thanks Allen. That is very reassuring that I won't alter the soprano sound. I will keep in mind the extra tension and robustness of the build and bridge/fret-to-body position. As usual, your replies are extremely helpful and to the point. You have helped me a lot with my queries over the last few years. Always educational too. Many thanks.

Andrew Quinnn