Injection-molded ukulele up on Kickstarter (closes 19 Sept)

Trad Strings
1

Noting in advance that I have no financial involvement, but think this is cool and worth sharing with other acquisitive gear-nerds. Also I play Irish on my uke, so still topical :thumbsup:

Having dinged up and spilled beer all over a couple of other sacrificial ukuleles I carry around in public, it’s occurred to me that a non-wooden uke might have a longer service life. The Fluke ukes are a little pricey for a beater and still have wooden (and thus non-beer-resistant) soundboards anyway.

Accordingly with interest I note there’s an injection-molder up on Kickstarter now, Scott Seelye, who’s raising funds to tool up to mass-produce injection-molded ukes, and after looking over the material I’m finding this a more promising option:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/scottseelye/the-plastic-ukulele?ref=live

Kickstarter-style, a $125 pledge gets you a uke when they’re released onto the market. If they don’t hit their funding goal, nobody pays anything. Bulk deals for larger pledges, so I pledged $225 for two, and am debating buying a couple extra to chuck up on Craigslist or something just to help get enough orders to get the product to market (it can be nice to be unmarried and irresponsible). The maker is also pledging to donate one uke to school music programs for each sold during the fundraiser (kind of like the “One Laptop per Child” deal), so that’s motivational.

As of today they’ve used up 10 of 20 days, and only 10% of the way to their target, so if this is of interest to you now would be a good time to pledge in and spread the word to anyone else who likes eclectic instruments, backpacker gear, etc. I’m sure there’s at least a little crossover between tinwhistling and ukeing, so hope some folks enjoy this too.

2

I don’t see what’s new or different here. Maybe the material. I started out playing stringed instruments in the early 1950’s on an injection molded Maccaferri Islander ukulele. They are still around and quite collectible in certain circles (isn’t everything?). They were very playable, held tuning well but the tone was not what I would want in an instrument these days.

I’m not sure how the polycarbonate will sound but it may be more resistant to heat than the Maccaferri’s were. Mine died an un-natural death in the backseat of the family car during a very hot summer vacation trip. Polycarbonate does have issues with swings in temperature. It develops cracks, but it is still tuff stuff.

I think I would prefer a Martin OKX instead.

I presently use a Johnson uke as a beater. $25 and it plays and sounds better than what it is worth.

Feadoggie