A baritonuclear conversion

Got a little special assignment, to convert a baritonuculele to an alt mandolin, admittedly with only 4 strings. The 50 cm men's watch fit the conversion well. The ukulele was an unlabelled old thing from about 1940 to 1950. European manufacturing and very curvy 🙂

The bottom was glued with a strong glue, had to work hard to remove the bottom. In order for it to last, new ribbing inside and a floating stable were necessary. It already had an old string holder in place from a previous quick repair so everything was there. The tuning screws were not good, they were replaced with the new Grover Sta-Tite. One problem was that the head was very thin, had to cut the post screws of the tuning screws to make them fit better. In addition, the head was swung on the underside so I had to cut out some wood around the tuning screw plate to get it flat mounted. A K&K with two sensors was installed and a floating stable was manufactured. The fretboard was strapped. The stable got a milled pocket for a loose stable leg. The neck was not repositioned, but the fingerboard, which was slightly screwed, was sanded flat before banding.

Used the E, A, D and b strings from a Newtone Heritage 0.12 set. Got loosened a bit on the winding at the bottom and then used a conical awl to make the loop large enough. Cut off the ball with a Stewmac pliers (used to loosen old ribbons). Tunes like a mandolin GDAE but one octave lower.

It was very fun I think! A shallow mandolin with fewer strings. Can improve more baritone nukes! 🙂

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