My First 21″ Baritone Ukulele - Custom Build-Sold

It’s still the year of the Baritone here.  This is My First 21″ Baritone Ukulele.

 

My First 21" Baritone Ukulele

Curly Hawaiian Koa.

The Woods

Body:  Does it get any better?  This is the sister set of curly, Hawaiian Koa shown on the Curly Koa Curly Maple Tenor Ukulele

My First 21" Baritone Ukulele

Koa match.

Binding:  curly, Hawaiian Mango with maple/black purfling accents.

My First 21" Baritone Ukulele

Curly Hawaiian mango binding.

NeckHonduran Mahogany.

My First 21" Baritone Ukulele

Honduran mahogany neck.

Accent woods:  curly, Hawaiian Mango.

Fret Board and Bridge:  Ebony species.

The Rest of the Build

Tuners:  Gotoh guitar-style open back 15::1.

My First 21" Baritone Ukulele

Gotoh open back tuners.

AmplificationMi-si passive.

StringsOasis Baritone with smooth, brass wound D & G.

CaseCrossrock ABS in bitchin blue.

My First 21" Baritone Ukulele

Crossrock ABS case.

TuningDBGD–Hawaiian slack key.

My Comments

Not bad!  As said, this is my first attempt at a longer scale baritone.  21″ has been a request by many baritone players who wanted more string tension than the standard 20″ scale.  The longer scale does not necessarily equate to a bigger sound though.  In order to move the bridge up on the sound board to approximate it’s original position I decided to go 15 frets to the body.

I’ve occasionally used wound D & G strings on previous 20″ builds because I felt that the G needed a bit more tension.  The Thomastik-Enfeld cf30/27 have worked well for this purpose.  This set of Oasis Baritone strings has a smooth, brass wound D & G and I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of sound. I plan to use the same combination on the next 21″ build as well–at least for starters and for comparison.  The client plays only slack key and the E tuned down to D sounded pretty damn ono to me.

So there you go.  My First 21″ Baritone Ukulele.