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Flea Market Music offers an on-line community for ukulele players, informative books on the ukulele, ukulele CDs,songbooks, videos and information on our instrument manufacturing of the FLUKE ukulele. Brought to you by "Jumpin" Jim Beloff.
Roy Smeck Concert Ukulele


Original Post By: Kevin Ko Date: 5/2/2008 11:54:36 PM   (Updated: 5/2/2008 11:55:32 PM)
Hey Duane, whatever you were on when you built this, I want some!!

http://tinyurl.com/44xltm

eBay item #180238811984

Outrageous!!

Kevin
Posted By: musicguymic Date: 5/3/2008 12:32:45 AM
now thats my kind of uke...just like my brain
Posted By: duane Date: 5/3/2008 1:04:15 AM
Just trying to come up with a way to get a low G on a soprano and have a little fun too. It actually works quit well and doesn't require any getting use to with the fingerboard fret arrangement.
Posted By: Kevin Ko Date: 5/3/2008 9:48:09 AM   (Updated: 5/3/2008 9:48:52 AM)
Duane, I took another look this morning. The more I look at it, the more I like it. Coming from a guitar background, I've seen several fan-fret guitars, and played one. I think it is a great idea to apply it to ukuleles (if other uke builders on this forum have done fan-fret ukes I apologize for my ignorance), providing sufficient tension for the lower bass strings without sacrificing the suppleness of the trebles. I can't imagine the extra planning and time it took to create this piece of musical art. Neat-o!

Kevin
Posted By: old smelly bob Date: 5/3/2008 10:35:13 AM
Duane, i think you have the cure for schizoid ukers with just two personalities. luvin' it....
Posted By: Aaron Keim Date: 5/3/2008 10:46:32 AM
Duane- You are the coolest and people should pay you far more than $1250 for your ukes!
Aaron
Posted By: Dave Means Date: 5/3/2008 11:24:33 AM
Outrageous, Duane... I love it! Hmmm, come to think of it, it's a great way to get rid of mismatched parts when you crack one side while bending or mar one side of a bookmatch! :-)
Your imagination and daring have no limits.
-- Dave
Posted By: cfiimei Date: 5/3/2008 11:42:14 AM
THAT is AWESOME! If I had the extra $$ it would be mine... like right now! If this were done by an "average" luthier I would have thought it was a just neat novelty. However, Duane is way beyound average, and just introduced a great serious instrument with a fantastic artistic twist. Well done... I am in serious lust!
Posted By: duane Date: 5/3/2008 11:45:57 AM
Yes. it did take a little planning, especially the neck joint to the body. The concert side joins the body at the 12th fret and the soprano side joins at the 14th fret. The bridge position also ends up in the optimum place for both sizes. A single body size would be much easier to build. The sound is quit good and the low G does work well, but I think a wound G might give a little extra boost.

There seems to be a glut of ukes on the market with more coming all the time. I've had to adjust my pricing to stay in the game. The high end market is very iffy right now so I've lowered my expectations and will go with the flow.

Thanks for the comments.
Posted By: Craig Date: 5/3/2008 11:57:03 AM
I'm glad Kevin began this tread because it saved me from doing so! I always keep an eye on Duane's auctions and find this ukulele to be very cool!
Posted By: Learner Date: 5/3/2008 11:30:41 PM

Duane, did you also make a left-handed model from the leftover other halves?
Posted By: duane Date: 5/4/2008 1:07:03 AM
This was not put together with 2 half ukes. It was designed to look like 2 half ukes put together, but it is built as one. I had to adjust the inside bracing and other parts to fit so everything would work with the two scale lengths and fret board configuration.
Posted By: musicguymic Date: 5/4/2008 1:20:42 AM
FAN FRETS GREAT DUANE I always wanted to see and hear the intonation on a fan fret ukulele and how it feels playing with the slight angles....hmmm Itchy fingers now
Posted By: Learner Date: 5/4/2008 1:23:38 AM

OK, it fooled me (without seeing the internals). Too clever!
Posted By: duane Date: 5/4/2008 11:59:45 AM
This fret arrangement can be used on any uke by combining the scales. On this uke I used the soprano/concert scales. One could also do a uke with a concert/tenor or a tenor/baritone with very good results. Perhaps other luthiers might also try this out.
Posted By: Teletodd Date: 5/4/2008 12:07:01 PM
I think the politically correct moniker is Super Bi-Polar.
Posted By: mLKauai Date: 5/5/2008 8:24:07 PM
WOW! I still dont yet get it; about how the different scales translate to the fretboard; ...but i will get it soon...
? like; how is the fret spacing decided on; and...
later.

Posted By: duane Date: 5/5/2008 9:29:07 PM
mLKauai, without getting too technical, the A string is laid out in the soprano scale 13 3/4". The low G is laid out in the concert scale of 15". The two middle strings, C and E, have scale lengths that fall in between the soprano and concert scale. To find the bridge saddle position, you do the same as you would for any scale length, the distance from the nut to the 12th fret doubled, plus a small amount for intonation. In stead of doing it for one scale length, you need to do it for each string since they are all really different scale lengths. Technically, you are dealing with 4 different scale lengths, one for each string. Got it? ;-P
Posted By: mLKauai Date: 5/5/2008 11:13:21 PM
so in terms of fret spacing, I assume, for the overall fretboard, the spacing will work out to be an average of the above described?
in other words, if I were to imagine the regular soprano or the reg concert scale fretboard fret spacing from a playerʻs perspective; it would feel like something in between or would it be like a concert?
Then, for a bari/tenor the spacing would feel like (be like) something in between a bari and a tenor... say somewhat like a longscale tenor?
Posted By: duane Date: 5/5/2008 11:42:30 PM
I wouldn't say it is in between exactly, but a little of both. You are getting the treble end of a soprano, but the low end of a concert. If it were strictly in between, the scale length would be about a 14 3/8" scale for all strings. The same goes for a tenor/baritone combination. You would get the tenor treble - 17" scale with the baritone bass - 19" scale.
Posted By: lecky Date: 5/6/2008 3:30:21 AM   (Updated: 5/6/2008 3:32:58 AM)
so a tenor bari version is, er, (miserable attempt at pun warning) tenable...
Posted By: Adrian Date: 5/8/2008 3:08:42 PM
I am glad you asked that question mLKauai because i too was trying to work that one out.

Nice creation Duane.

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Flea Market Music offers an on-line community for ukulele players, informative books on the ukulele, ukulele CDs,songbooks, videos and information on our instrument manufacturing of the FLUKE ukulele. Brought to you by "Jumpin" Jim Beloff. -