PIccolo Bass

[RSteve]

I've always wanted to learn enough bass to noodle around when listening to music. I have an electric bass guitar, but it's big and relatively heavy and I'm old and shrinking. I thought I might buy a bass uke, but it's an investment that I might find to be wasteful, if not fruitless. I scoured the web for a couple of hours and finally came upon an idea on a uke forum. Use the EADG strings from a fractional 1/8 size set of classical strings on a baritone uke. I have more than one baritone uke. Apparently the only modification necessary is to widen a couple of slots on the nut. It's a bass, but one full octave down from a bass guitar, therefore piccolo bass.

 

[Brewdude]

Sounds like a reasonable venture Steve. Let us know how you get on.


Cheers,

RR

 

[RSteve]

Sounds like a reasonable venture Steve. Let us know how you get on. Cheers, RR

The strings were $13.00 including shipping. Somewhere in the house, there's a Venezuelan cuatro hiding that looks something like this:

It's about the same size as a baritone uke with a deeper body. The one that I have is a garage find, bought for a couple of bucks, so there's no real investment risk. If I decide to take some lessons, then the dollars will add up, but that will have to wait post pandemic.