Ukulele beginners tips - shapes

17 May 2010

Ukulele beginners tips - shapes

Whats in a shape?  Well, as you begin your hunt for a ukulele, you will notice that all ukuleles are not the same - aside from the traditional shaped uke, you will also find some oddities in the musical instrument stores.


The different shapes are, in the main, cosmetic, although you will get some variance with tone with different bodies.  So some examples of body shapes...


1. STANDARD - also known as the "guitar shape" or figure of 8 shape.  These themselves come in a variety of shapes some fatter at the bottom "bulge", some symmetrical., for example:

standard ukulele shape

and


standard ukulele sizes
Add caption


2. Pineapple shapes

Traditional hawaiian shapes - often styled on the top with texture of pineapple skin, and often a spiky topped headstock, such as


pineapple ukulele shape

and





And I suppose you would also include the good old Flea in the Pineapple category (I suppose)


3. Boat Paddle shapes - shaped like (you guessed it) boat paddles.

Such as


boat paddle ukulele shape

And I would put the Fluke Uke in this category



4. others and oddities - there is so much you can put in this mixed bag, so below are a few examples

First - the flying V!


and how about a Les Paul?





This next one is a  style I like - called the Vita shape



Then we can start getting REALLY weird!




But really, what matters is you get one you like - they all do the same thing really!!

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4 comments :

  1. Do you know anything about the Kamoa Mahogany Pineapple Soprano? Are Kamoa's a quality brand? Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ashley - never had my hands on a Kamoa, but...

    Read some good things. They are beginner ukes andbi won't pretend they are not, but have only read positive things!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thinking about getting an Oscar Schmidt OU250Bell. Any thoughts on it?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Never played an OS uke I particularly liked I'm afraid. They always tend to be over built (heavy) and that kills the tone.Or at least the one I have played have been.

    ReplyDelete

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