MIMF

I took a small kalimba made from a flat board, from Mountain Melodies, and glued it to the body of a soprano uke to give it a resonator box. It's about 3-4 times louder now. I didn't cover the sound hole, it's on the back side.

I varnished the uke body (from a kit) with red/brown violin oil varnish and hand-painted the roses using a stencil and acrylic paint.

What did I make? A Ukalimba, kalimbulele? It's not really a uke at all.
https://www.mimf.com/phpbb/download/fil ... w&id=13965

Whatever you name it, it is very cool.

Welcome to the Forum, Teresa! Ukalimba has a nice ring to it. Looks great! If you look through our archives, we have all sorts of odd hybrid instruments here.

Thanks Barry and Jim!

Since the sound hole is on the backside, there's nothing stopping me from putting the rest of the ukulele together, is there? Then it really would be a Ukalimba.

Ukalimba with sympathetic resonators, the plucked version of a hurdy gurdy!

Hmmm...do nylon strings resonate?

Any string will resonate, if the same note is played anywhere near it. Composition makes no difference, except perhaps in loudness.

I also vote for Ukalimba. I’d be very interested to hear it with strings.

I’ve got a few thrift store ukes that might be just right for this kind of treatment.

So… does it also follow that when the uke strings were plucked/strummed the kalimba keys would vibrate sympathetically? Ukalimba-itar?

We'll have to see!

Karl Wicklund wrote: ↑Thu Dec 28, 2023 1:14 pm I also vote for Ukalimba.

I've been calling it a Ukalimba as well.

what's the best way to share sound on here? or do I need to make a video?

You can either make a YouTube/Vimeo/whatever video and post a link to it, or you can upload audio-only MP3s up to 200K. You can make MP3s with most simple recording programs. This is part of our FAQ on media uploading:
https://www.mimf.com//phpbb/viewtopic.p ... 189f7407c0

Honestly, it sounded better before I glued the neck on. But I'm not finished. I'm adding some more to the paint job. Then I'll string her up. Maybe once the strings are on, she'll sound better.

Updated pic of paint job.

I've finished painting this and finally got it strung up. I'm happy to report that it sounds much better with the strings on it!