Tuesday, April 29, 2008

It works

More than a year ago I bought an Epiphone Mandobird. It's a 4 string electric mandolin modeled on the famed Gibson Thunderbird Guitar. Of course I play the Uke not the Mandolin. So I tuned it to GCEA, but the intonation was off because the some of the strings were the wrong gauge for that tuning. So on and off for the last year I've fiddling around making an electric ukulele out of an electric mandolin using guitar strings. No wonder I was having trouble. In the process I've learned a lot about setting up an electric instrument. I have a bit of refining to do since I get some fret buzz when I really wail on it, but for the most part I have a fully operational electric solid body ukulele that looks like a Firebird. I call it my UkeBird.