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Tenor uke on the dark side!


Terry Allan Hall

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Pretty cool. Is it yours, or still on Craig's List? Fender made a mandolin 4 string like that. Regarding the sound and strings, you just need to find the proper gauges, and it would sound probably pretty much exactly like a uke with steel strings played thru an amp. wink.gif

Amp in case?!

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Quote Originally Posted by Pine Apple Slim View Post
What kind of strings are on that thing? I assume they would have to be metal cause theres a pickup.
They make electric uke strings? Seems like it would sound like an electric 4 str mandolin in uke tuning.
Make us a clip please. I'm curious what it sounds like.
Not mine, but I'd probably just work out the guages and buy individual strings...guessing, I'd try .010, .018, .015, .010 (recombinant tuning) or .024, .018, .015, .010, if you prefer "Low Bass" tuning.

And, yeah, most likely would sound a great deal like an electric 4 string mandolin in uke tuning
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Quote Originally Posted by Neal View Post
Or an electric guitar with a capo on the 5th...

Or, if you tuned it in 5ths, like an electric uke in mandolin tuning.
Problem with a single-course electric mandolin is that it doesn't sound like a mandolin, it sounds like the electric guitar played high up on the neck...the string pairs being very slightly out of tune w/ each other is what makes a mandolin sound like a mandolin.

Or, to put it back in uke terminology, a taropatch sounds like a taropatch because of the double stringing.
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Quote Originally Posted by Terry Allan Hall View Post
Problem with a single-course electric mandolin is that it doesn't sound like a mandolin, it sounds like the electric guitar played high up on the neck...the string pairs being very slightly out of tune w/ each other is what makes a mandolin sound like a mandolin.

Or, to put it back in uke terminology, a taropatch sounds like a taropatch because of the double stringing.
Exactly. You get any solid body instrument with single or double courses, using metal strings thru an amp... it's hard to differentiate which is which. You could play a 4 course 8 string solid body instrument using steel strings, and who could tell if it were meant to be a uke or a mandolin... until you were playing rawhide, of course. I don't think it's the slightly out of tune aspect, I think it's the slightly out of phase that makes them sound that way.

Cool instrument.
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