Official Luthiers Forum!

Well, I for one never said a uke was as as much physical work as a guitar. I said it is just as involved. And it can be more effort depending on the approach to either instrument and the materials, skills and tools available.

Process for guitars and ukes are more or less the same. Sure, there are less materials to use, less braces to contend with but at the end of the day they take up the same number of jigs, the require the same processes for making and finishing, and the smaller area doesn't necessarily diminish its difficulty. I'd say it's about 80% of the work of a guitar. Now add to the fact that no one would ever pay more than $1000 USD for a really good ukelele, it makes the prospect of building them for work not very appealing. However like I said I use them to hone my skills and test concepts where the only thing I lose is time rather than materials (which costs money)...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

All I'm saying is that if you compare apples to apples, it should take significantly less work to build a little uke. This assumes your overall design between uke and guitar are the same, same appointments, same general construction method, etc. If it doesn't take you less time with less work to complete the little uke, you mismanaged your time building the uke.

I'm also not sure I agree that you need all the same jigs, forms, and other special items most folks use when building guitars. Bend on an inch pipe, build without a form; don't have the right bearing size for the binding - use a gramil because there's really not a lot to remove anyway.

Under the right conditions, can building either be exceedingly challenging, labor intensive, creative, and/or fulfilling? Of course.

_________________
Aaron Craig

I totally agree. The size of the project does impact the amount of time involved. A uke of the same design most likely will take less time. It's just "rewarding", like "guitar" or "uke" are so ambiguous.

It's like building a bridge is hard, but so is setting a stone on a thin band. that said , nobody wants to drive across an unsafe bridge and nobody wants a bridge on their finger

I went back and read the OP's question and here is my answer:
No- it's AS rewarding as building a guitar or any other instrument. I'm not considering income from sales, time to build, difficulty, jigs required, etc. etc.
Others may, that's ok. I'm just saying for me, the build process reward is the same.

I've always thought of Uke's as toys. I have one and it's most certainly of toy grade. It makes me smile when I try to play it. A friend just sent me this link. An interesting take on a Uke for sure

Just skip to 2 minutes to get to the good stuff.

not only it's 80% of the work, but people are only willing to pay maybe 10% of the price of the equivalent grade of guitar.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

A new, nice but with simple appointments, solid wood factory made Martin soprano uke will set you back over $1K in the states. I believe a fair number of custom builders regularly charge between $1200 and $2000 for one. Assuming a base price for a custom guitar is $3500, a $1500 price tag on a soprano probably comes close to approximating the difference in the amount of materials and work. Check out the pricing for various builders offering both full size acoustics and small ukes. What you see is a price reduction typically between 50-60% from the full size guitar to the uke. Economics dictates the ability to charge the lower fee must come from some combination less work, lower material cost, and market pressure.

_________________
Aaron Craig

I have never seen a Martin uke in Taiwan, I have seen Kamaka, Big Island, and others and they cost around 800-1000 dollars. With that, I can't think of why anyone would buy a custom uke when in their mind a Kamaka is "top of the line"?

However I do think building ukes will help me understand the dynamics of building nylon stringed guitars...

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

In Asia brand and fame is already 90% of what people look for. When someone pays big money here, they WANT to pay for a name, and don't care for the quality. I just can't work out how I'd convince them otherwise.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I personally do not like the sound of a ukelele

If I wanted to build something a little different, it would be a travel sized guitar, a baritone or a Veillette Gryphon



If a person was talented at guitar making, but is just starting out, how many guitars do you think this person would have to make until his guitars were of a high enough standard to sell them?

What methods do luthiers use to market their guitars (especially amateurs)?

thanks Filippo

It took me ten but I was not particularly talented. I'm still not talented in so far as fit and finish but people like the way they sound. It really depends on the person and their ability.

My answer is I don't know, since the only acoustic instrument I've built is a dulcimer.
I guess I'll be the weirdo that casts an "undecided" vote.
I gotta say that the ooks I've seen here are spectacular.

_________________
wah
Wah-wah-wah-wah
Wah

The price range on Kamaka's web site is 1000-2000USD.

Todd, I usually lap up everything you say here like a luthier wannabe. But you've clearly got this backasswards. Why would anyone rather have an overly complicated six string behemoth when it is possible to have a baritone ukulele?

I don't agree that Taiwan market is similar to the American market. In Taiwan you can only buy what you'd consider to be run of the mill. For ukes you will only see sophrano, tenor and that's it. Even stores specializing in ukes will not have baritones. Banjo and even mandolin is hard to find and selection basically consists (and this is store the size of Guitar Center) of run of the mill instruments of various price range. I can find non standard stuff like harp guitars or Weissenborns in a small German music store but if you brought a Weissenborn to someone who's been around guitars/stringed instruments for a long time I guarantee you he will tell you he's never seen it in his life.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

I've sold ukes for over $4,000 multiple times.

The market is there. It's just not as big.

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Tai Fu, I got this:

John, in Taiwan, you can't do that.

_________________
http://www.CostaGuitars.com
PMoMC

I'm sure... but I wouldn't be able to tap into it because if the market is already small in the US, it is miniscule in Taiwan. Remember even baritone ukes are considered unusual in Taiwan.

_________________
Cat-gut strings are made from kitten guts, stretched out to near breaking point and then hardened with grue saliva. As a result these give a feeling of Pain and anguish whenever played, and often end up playing themselves backwards as part of satanic rituals.

Typhoon Guitars
http://www.typhoon-guitars.com

Unless it is

Wow! That's nice but I would call that a Mini-Banjo.

Here's a link to how it turned out: http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum ... o-Baritone

Machine tools are endlessly useful.

The real question.... is building a uke more rewarding than building a solidbody mandocello?

_________________
"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Yes and no. Helmolz calculated the rewardship of building a uke to be exactly the same as that of building a solid body mandocello, with magnetic pickups, when rounded to four decimal places. However, it is exactly twice as better when rounded to five or more decimal places. I forget where I read that though.

Maybe some chaldini patterns on the prefrontal cortex?

_________________
Pat