What size ukulele?

[Brian Evans]

I have some off-cuts from my current archtop project, and I can get four ukulele tops out of them, up to tenor size. I know nothing about ukulele's aside from the obvious, so I don't know what size to make. My instinct and gut feel is that with normal Uke tuning in fourths and a third, the longer scale of the tenor would make playing easier, but I really have no idea if that is true or not. So what size ukulele would you build?

Brian

[Chuck Tweedy]

tenor - the perfect default uke

[Chris Reed]

It depends what you want to play on it.

The current fashion (though more in the US than in Europe) is for picked melodies and harmonies. This works best on a tenor.

If you want to strum and sing, a soprano is the real deal. However, sopranos are the hardest to make so they play well - most first sopranos I've seen from guitar makers are pretty dead sonically. Soprano uke construction differs markedly from the usual approach to making a guitar. So I suggest you don't start there.

A tenor can be made as a small guitar and still sound good.

If you want to strum and sing, how about a concert? Two transverse and three fan braces, minimal linings, hardwood top, and make everything as light as you dare, then take some more off. Softwood tops are OK on concerts, but the extra sustain tends to make strumming sound muddy.

None of the sizes are hard to play once you get used to them, except that sopranos can be a little cramped if you want to do complex picking up the neck.

[Chuck Tweedy]

yea, so ... tenor - the perfect default uke

[Neal Carey]

Oh yes, tenor for sure! Much easier for most peoples' fingers.