I installed new goat skins on two vintage banjo ukuleles. Helpful video from StewMac: • How to install a skin ... Thanks to Brian of Carver Banjos for answering my questions. • How to install a skin ...
I’m surprised tortillas can withstand all that tension... What are you gonna do with the scraps? Maybe try some traditional skin glue? Apparently it’s what a lot of higher quality instruments use because it splits along the glue joint easier for repairs.
Hahaha. I had the same thought about these looking like a tortilla. But these would make the chewiest burrito ever. 😅 That’s an interesting idea about making my own glue. I would have to research and experiment a bit before I trusted it. I do know that Titebond has a Hide Glue version. Maybe I could start with using that.
@@CircuitsAndStrings Did you measure the diameters of both bodies? If you tell me the diameters of the heads on each banjolele, I'll be happy to find ya plastic heads.
Without the necks, these things look like drums. I guess the bodies are made the same way as hand drums, and I like the look of the goat skin. However, I think it's unnecessary to kill animals just for their skin or meat, or even worse, just to put its head on a block of wood and put it on the wall, but they're nice banjoleles for sure.
I was trying to figure out a way to put a synthetic head on one or both of these. But unfortunately I couldn’t find a solution to do that. But I do have another banjolele project planned. I found a hand drum that should work well for what I have in the works. 😏
I am not exactly sure. This is my first time doing a reskin. I’ll have to do a calf skin eventually and see which I like more. Do do know that goat skin seems to be less expensive.
Put a capo on the fifth fret of your guitar and only play the four highest strings. Boom, you’ve got a uke. If you don’t use a capo, and just play the bottom four strings open (dgbe) that’s the same as a baritone ukulele. Tenor is my favorite size, but I started with a 30$ soprano and worked my way up. Tuning doesn’t change, (except on a baritone) just the sound and comfort.
Both Bryan and UkeMasterDewey gave great advice. You could play a tenor or baritone in almost no time. If you play a tenor, the chord shapes are the same, but the names of the chords change.
