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Harp ukulele finally finished. now with a video

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 12:09 am
by johnnparchem
I strung her up today. It does sound good. Still like a Ukulele but with a bit of punch and power. I have no idea how I want to really tune it. Right now it is standard tenor ukulele except the 4th string is an octave lower than it would be. More like a guitar 4th, 4th, 3rd, 4th. I repeat the notes an octave down on the bass strings.

I am considering different tunings. I will play around to see what I can come up with.

Bear claw spruce top,
Koa back and sides,
cocobolo with a black fiber purfling
mahogany neck.
Amboyna burl rosette and head board veneers.

In any case here it is ...

Please excuse the bad playing at least you can see and hear the instrument. I get so nervous when I try to play before other or record. This was recorded on a still point and shoot with the internal microphone.



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Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 9:06 am
by tippie53
that is a sweet build Congrats

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:50 am
by darren
Way to persevere John. Congratulations!

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2013 10:53 am
by Ben-Had
Nice going John. Who gets it?

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 2:03 am
by Kevin Sjostrand
Yah! Looks Grand!
Lets hear it!

Kevin

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 9:30 am
by johnnparchem
Thanks all for the kind comments I will post a video as soon as I figure out what to play.

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2013 1:25 pm
by Darryl Young
Beautiful and interesting!

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:08 pm
by B. Howard
Really cool. What is the tuning for something like that?

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished.

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:50 am
by johnnparchem
B. Howard wrote:Really cool. What is the tuning for something like that?
I have been playing around with tuning. What I like best so far is close to a standard tenor ukulele tuning on the fretted neck with GCEA. I use a G an octave lower than a ukulele G so really the top four strings are like a guitar capoed on the 5th fret. I have the base strings CDEF.

This basically gives me a selection of bass note I need for open and first position finger style guitar tunes. The D is like a open capoed A at the 5 th fret. It is really easy to play a chromatic bass line as well :).

Re: Harp ukulele finally finished. now with a video

Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:54 pm
by johnnparchem
Please excuse the bad playing at least you can see and hear the instrument. I get so nervous when I try to play before other or record. This was recorded on a still point and shoot with the internal microphone.