Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

With a bit of luck one of your ukes will make it to Cairns for the ukulele festival, Matt!

Well Rick, methinks you should start manufacturing ukulele pickups! There's so little choice out there and very few (if any) pickups deliver the goods. But you are right, because ukuleles are relatively cheap, people are hesitant to spend a lot of money on the pickup.

Haha - especially like the sign behind Richard!

I have an old Holden FE I might have to drop off there...

Allen, I always carry a few different uke pickups. I quite like the LR Baggs / MiSi combo as the output is high (higher than any other active pickup I know) and the LR Baggs pickup is one of the better ones when it comes to string balance and a natural tone. The Shadow Nanoflex pickups are probably ...

Liam came into our shop (Music City Cairns) and I must say, I was very impressed with this uke. First of all this would have to be some of the most beautiful blackwood I have seen. The finish is indeed great and tone is nice. You would not believe this is the first uke he has ever built and it shows...

You are all talking about looks of the finishes, but what about tone?

Some players swear by French Polish, and as said above, people pay a premium for it.

Hi its' Hannabach - they are nice strings indeed. I prefer Savarez myself though feel and tension wise.

Life's tough in the tropics! I meant relative humidity of course (though it is relevant :-). Unfortunately, lots of people subject their guitars to heat and humidity, car boots and even ute trays. Especially during the wet season you see a lot of bridges coming off... You're doing well keeping the R...

Allen, just wondering... the relevant humidity may be the same at different temperatures, but the wood may behave differently at higher temperatures (affecting the building process)?

Hi,

had a customer come in yesterday in the shop and he had an original Eko, made in Italy. Looks very much like this. They are a sixties guitar. Could this be one of them?

Funny how this thread caught my eye...my uke is based on the charango and made in Bolivia. Charangos were originally made with an armadillo back, but these days they often carve out a piece of wood or even make normal back and sides. The one thing I don't like about charangos is the weight of the ne...

Love the look of the wooden scratch plate, but, does it affect the sound at all?

What sort of machine heads are they?

Where did you get the strings?

Hi guys, It's interesting to read all your comments, not being a luthier, but just a player that loves ukes, and sells a few each day. To be honest, I am not sure about this soundhole reinforcement...So far, the best ukes I played have been the lightest. Also, it seems that some people are obsessive...

The Hip himself, what a small world! I noticed the links from this site pointing to the festival site so I though I'd better check it out. As you would understand, as the festival is a year away, many details are unknown, including stall costs. There may be even two market locations on two days, but...