Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

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Bob_H
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Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

Post by Bob_H » Sat Jan 16, 2021 4:53 pm

I am looking at building a small six string ukulele / guitar for personal use. I have a fused spine and find the ukulele form more comfortable than my old full size Yamaha steel string and, after building a couple of ukuleles that I have been happy with, am interested in further challenges.

I have been able to find considerable information regarding the Martin 5 Terz style of guitar, including a number of interesting threads on builds by Allan from Cairns and Bob Connor. I have got some plans including from LMI, which I am looking at, and it looks like a potentially interesting and challenging project.

I have been less successful in finding technical information regarding the guitalele.

What I would be looking at is something similar to the Yamaha GL1 https://au.yamaha.com/en/products/music ... oduct-tabs or Islander GL6-SA https://www.islanderukulele.com/product/gl6-sa/ - essentially a six string tenor or six string baritone, tuned A/D/G/C/E/A with nylon strings (which allows ukulele chord forms to be used and for easy playing in concert with other ukuleles).

The Yamaha uses a tenor form and scale length (17 inch) and the Islander closer to baritone, with a 20 inch scale length. They both run to about 48 - 50 mm width at the nut. Strings would be something like the Aquila Red Series 6-String Guitalele String Set (A-Tuning) although I have also seen people using light classical sets.

I would be grateful for any insights or advice on whether the standard tenor / baritone ukulele body structure and bracing (such as those set out by Graham McDonald in his book) would be adequate for an instrument like this, or whether additional bracing or other adjustment is required. I don't want to overbuild it, having effectively done this my first scratch build. Also, I am wondering whether adjustment to or reinforcement of the neck (eg truss rod or carbon fibre insert) would be helpful.
Bob Holbert
Lyndoch

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Allen
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Re: Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

Post by Allen » Sun Jan 17, 2021 7:20 am

I've built several Guitalele's on both the tenor and baritone body size. The more traditional one is on the tenor but I think the baritone size with a 21.5" scale suits the tuning of A-a better.

All my necks get a CF truss rod no matter the size of the instrument.

I use Requinto strings or alternately Pepe Romero has strings for Guitaleles in either tenor or baritone tuning.

You are only adding minimal extra tension with the 2 extra bass strings, so I'd recommend at most making the soundboard very minimally thicker and keep your bracing the same as a regular build. For instance my regular baritone sound board would be 2.0mm and I might go to 2.1mm if I thought it needed it.
Allen R. McFarlen
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blackalex1952
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Re: Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

Post by blackalex1952 » Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:22 am

Alan...Would you think that a deep body on an instrument such as this would enhance the bass in a constructive way? I have been contemplating a build with soundboard offcuts which when joined make a larger uke around those dimensions, with my own body shape modelled a little on a scaled down LOO guitar. There was a Gibson LOO design for a famous singer, Nick Lucas, author of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" which Tiny Tim covered. That model guitar was used by Bob Dylan during his early days for songs like The Times Are A Changing. The Nick Lucas model had an extra deep body and a thirteen fret body join to position the bridge. The deep body and the larger LOO lower bout, along with the ideal bridge position enabled by the thirteen fret neck gave a responsive deeper bass to the guitar. I have recently built a similar LOO for a friend who wanted a strong bass and it isn't at all "tubby" in sound, but quite warm...words fail when describing tone and texture!..The you tube clips I have listened to with my studio monitors of guitarleles seem to have a weak and flacid bass, and seem unbalanced to me. Cheers! Ross
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Bob_H
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Re: Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

Post by Bob_H » Sun Jan 17, 2021 11:30 am

Allen wrote:
Sun Jan 17, 2021 7:20 am
I've built several Guitalele's on both the tenor and baritone body size. The more traditional one is on the tenor but I think the baritone size with a 21.5" scale suits the tuning of A-a better.

All my necks get a CF truss rod no matter the size of the instrument.

I use Requinto strings or alternately Pepe Romero has strings for Guitaleles in either tenor or baritone tuning.

You are only adding minimal extra tension with the 2 extra bass strings, so I'd recommend at most making the soundboard very minimally thicker and keep your bracing the same as a regular build. For instance my regular baritone sound board would be 2.0mm and I might go to 2.1mm if I thought it needed it.
Thanks Allen - I like the idea of the baritone size as well - it seems to balance the wider fretboard more successfully, give a bit more room to access the six strings, and hopefully some deeper tones. If I can ask a couple of questions:

What string spacing do you use at the nut and saddle?

When you refer to a CF truss rod, is this an adjustable truss rod or more in the way of CF reinforcement (like https://www.stewmac.com/luthier-tools-a ... -rods.html).

Thanks for the advice on the bracing and strings.

regards from Canberra
Bob Holbert
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Allen
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Re: Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

Post by Allen » Sun Jan 17, 2021 1:07 pm

I use 45mm width at the nut and 53mm on centre to string spacing at the saddle.

I did one out at 50mm at the nut and I think from memory it was 56mm at the saddle for a client that was coming from Classical Guitar and he liked it but I thought it was way too wide for my liking, and it just looked really odd on such a small body.

The Carbon Fibre is just a stiffener. It's a 4mm x 6mm one. Partly into the underside of the fret boad and the rest into the neck. I use it to do that job plus the trench is used in various machining operations of the neck and fret board and a positive registration / alignment of the fret board when it comes time to glue-up.

No idea about making the body deeper.
Allen R. McFarlen
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Bob_H
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Re: Guitalele / Martin 5 Terz

Post by Bob_H » Sun Jan 17, 2021 4:10 pm

Thanks Allen - much appreciated
Bob Holbert
Lyndoch

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