 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||
| Moderated by: Tony Provencher, Richard Hefner |
|
||||||||||||||
| Cutaway baritone | Rate Topic |
| Author | Post |
|---|
| Posted: Wed Nov 17th, 2004 02:18 am |
|
1st Post |
|
1four5 Approved 
|
I've asked this same question on every uke forum I can find, and so far no luck. I have basically given up, but what the heck, I haven't asked here yet After seeing the picture of Ukeforever's cut-away tenor, my juices are flowing again for a cutawy baritone...only problem is, I've have yet to find anyone who makes one. I don't have the resources to shell out $1000+ for a custom job (but have drooled over some of them on luthier sites) but could consider a $200 range production model...if there is such a thing. Is there such a thing? 
____________________ These are the good times! |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Posted: Wed Nov 17th, 2004 03:40 pm |
|
2nd Post |
|
UkeForever Approved 
|
Arthur Godfrey had one--probably made by Martin. One of the most famous pictures of Godfrey shows him holding his cutaway bari: So here's your holy grail. And you already have one...grab your skill saw...heh heh... In real life, I have never seen these either. You'd have to get a custom job, and you're talking bucks. I know a lot of folks have had great luck with Dave Means of Glyph--over at http://www.glyphukulele.com/Glyph_Instruments.html Looks like you'd be talkin $800-1000 though. Maybe more if you request a cutaway, which he may or may not be able to do. Of course, it would be the instrument of a lifetime, and your daughter's children's children could be playing it--a true heirloom piece. The folks over at Kanilea ukulele seem very nice, and people love their ukes: http://www.kanileaukulele.com/index8.html Still probably looking close to a grand for the customized shape you want. Of course, there are two possible solutions. First, you could make the plunge and get a tenor uke! Nylgut does sell a set so you can tune this DGBE, you know. Second--and I have been considering this myself lately--you could build your own. All you would need are some wood pieces, some sort of wood bender, a whole bunch of sandpaper, clamps, glue, etc... and you could conceivably do it. As long as you get the scale right and the frets are accurate (I'd get 'em pre-cut), you could have your own custom for around $150 or so... A third idea came to mind--I have also seen some Godfrey Vega baritones that have more frets coming onto the body. My standard baritone has 14 frets going in, but I think I read somewhere about a 17-fret instrument. That might give you those higher notes needed without needing a cutaway.
|
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Posted: Wed Nov 17th, 2004 05:41 pm |
|
3rd Post |
|
Richard Hefner Administrator 
|
I've got an "Arthur Godfrey De Luxe Solo-Lute" made by Vega. It's a baritone uke (I'm not sure what the deal is on the fancy name) and has just about the same inlays as the one AG is playing in the picture. There's no cutaway on it. It has 17 frets and the body of the uke starts just about right on top of the 16th fret. I've got 3 other baritones and the body meets the neck about the 12th fret on one of them and about the 14th fret on the other two. UkeForever... you mentioned the Kanilea ukes. They're building me a custom baritone right now that they said I'd get before Christmas. It's got a curly walnut body, bear claw spruce sound board, ebony fretboard and bridge with bridge pins, and gold closed geared Grover tuners. Mmmmm... can't wait. I'll be playing a lot of bari uke! 1four5... Have you looked at the Mele ukes? Their base price on a mahogany baritone is $450 and you can get a cutaway for $100. I played one of their tenors the other day and it was really nice. http://www.meleukulele.com 
____________________ Richard Hefner MP3 Page: http://www.ezfolk.com/audio/richardhefner Running Blog: http://old-runner.com |
||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Posted: Thu Nov 18th, 2004 12:40 am |
|
4th Post |
|
1four5 Approved
|
grab your skill saw...heh heh... Believe it or not...the idea has crossed my mind with my junker Hilo  Thanks a ton for the links (for drooling over...)  and I didn't know about the Mele ukes at all. Still a little hard on being able to make my house payments...but we'll see how things are after Christmas. I have also thought about making my own, and am also a reader of the Hana Limi La luthier forum, but man...it's hard enough finding time to play, plus equipping a shop with necessary tools...but I do know what I'll be doing when I retire. I would be very interested in a prefab kit with the tough "special tool" stuff done, and might even consider bashing a standard kit into a cutaway if that would be structuraly possible. I'm just not ready to scratch build yet. Lanikai sure would make it easy if they would just produce one! So, it's possible to tune a tenor uke to DGBE? I've wondered this, as there are some sweet tenor cutaways out there in my price range. On my Lanikai, the body meets at the 14th fret...the 17th fret would sure be nice...and I do try to keep an eye on whats out there at goodwill and ebay. Are the scale lengths and # of frets the same between a tenor and bari? Thanks again for all the great info...still new to a lot of this!
____________________ These are the good times! |
|||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| Current time is 12:32 am | |
| ezFolk Forums > Ukulele > General Ukulele > Cutaway baritone | Top |
