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Email Subscription[Video] I Made a $4 Electric Ukulele
Feb 4
While I was home for Christmas, I was watching lots of ukulele videos on Youtube. Somewhere in my wanderings I came across the Risa Uke Solid and my mind was blown. It’s a small electric ukulele made out of a single solid piece of wood and some hardware. The simplicity of the design made me think: “Hey, I could do that” and so I began thinking about how I could make a simple electric ukulele myself. Two days later, with lots of help from my dad and his tools, I have a working electric ukulele made from stuff I found around my parent’s house and a set of $4 ukulele strings. It’s currently fret-less and the pickup leaves a lot to be desired but my goal was really to create a mock-up so that I would know what I was doing when I built the actual thing.
Epilogue:
Possible improvements on this model:
- Frets
- Deepen groove on back
Things to learn before building next model:
- Are there shorter tuning pegs so that I can avoid drilling the extra hole?
- Are there better pickup solutions for my price range?
Improvements for next model:
- Less space between tuning pegs
- Harder wood
- No taper
- Strings further apart at nut
- Narrower holes for strings at nut
- Standard G-C-E-A strings
Dec 30, 2009 @ 21:00:53
[..YouTube..] Wow!! Who want’s to start the McGuyver jokes?
Dec 31, 2009 @ 06:38:01
[..YouTube..] Sweeeeeeeet.
Dec 31, 2009 @ 13:08:27
Something from practically nothing…ultra fun!
Dec 31, 2009 @ 16:50:02
Awesome job!
Jan 02, 2010 @ 10:41:10
[..YouTube..] that’s really really awesome.
Jan 02, 2010 @ 13:49:23
[..YouTube..] most excellent!!!!!
Jan 03, 2010 @ 16:02:15
[..YouTube..] haha Mcguyver would be proud
Jan 04, 2010 @ 05:54:27
[..YouTube..] Haha. Great stuff, man. I’m curious how you got the electret microphone in there and have the jack installed at the same time. Did you just drill deep? How did you get the jack to stick?
Jan 04, 2010 @ 09:18:04
[..YouTube..] AWESOME!
Jan 05, 2010 @ 05:42:39
[..YouTube..] I think it sounds pretty good for the price!!
Well done.
Jan 18, 2010 @ 18:52:27
[..YouTube..] Look out RISA. This is really cool. You’ve inspired me to build something like this myself. I’m really impressed by your pre-amp. Good stuff.
Jan 23, 2010 @ 12:07:31
[..YouTube..] well done!
Jan 23, 2010 @ 17:53:08
[..YouTube..] Fucking neat
Feb 21, 2010 @ 11:26:48
[..YouTube..] Random question…, I’m new to playing ukuleles and I’m trying to get a nice base on some good chords, which ones are you playing here? Thanks a ton!
And great job with the uke it looks awesome! Much respect!
Feb 22, 2010 @ 10:57:31
[..YouTube..] 2 thumbs up!!
Mar 04, 2010 @ 09:44:33
[..YouTube..] WOOOAH, awesome. :O