ALT UKE MANIFESTO First Published Sept. 2022, Updated Oct. 2025

This blog is a celebration of what I call the ALTERNATIVE UKULELE (Alt Uke for short)—basically any ukulele that does not look like a miniature guitar.

Everybody knows about the ukulele phenomenon—how a Hawaiian folk instrument of the late nineteenth century became a craze in the USA in the early 1900s, and again in the middle of the century, and again in our time—with ukuleles selling like hotcakes all over the world, community ukulele groups blissfully strumming everywhere, and ukulele music making a showing again in popular music like it did in the 1920s.

There really has been nothing like the ukulele in the entire history of world music, as far as I can tell.  The ukulele has become the people’s instrument par excellence, complete with an easy-going, life-affirming, live-and-let-live philosophy surrounding it.

In The Ukulele Handbook, authors Gavin Pretor-Pinney and Tom Hodgkinson use the term “ukulele revolution” to describe the uke’s happy history.

While everybody knows about this small but mighty revolution,  not so much is said about the revolution inside of that revolution: the Alternative Ukulele Movement that has gone on inside of the larger ukulele movement.

A bit of background here. You might have noticed that the world of musical instruments tends to be very conservative.  Once a type of instrument emerges and develops, it reaches a point where standardization sets in, with the instrument soon becoming defined by certain definite parameters—physical  as well as musical parameters.  And sure enough, this been the case for the most part with the ukulele, and one of the important parameters is that a normal ukulele has a body shaped like a guitar.  (And in fact, the uke is often thought of as simply a small type of guitar, even though it has a different number of strings, different tuning, and its own unique sound).

Still, even though this is the standard, and the great majority of ukuleles look exactly like mini guitars (all the way down to the typical decoration on fancier models), alternative types of the uke have nevertheless emerged over time and had some success--which is something you can’t say about any other acoustic stringed instrument.  When was the last time you saw a guitar with a shape other than the “figure eight?”  For that matter, have you ever in your life seen a violin without that scroll thingy on the headstock?  These standard parameters can be very specific!--and virtually obligatory.

Two popular alt uke types introduced in the 1920s

The Fuke--a popular alt uke today

It's really remarkable that there have been so many alternative  ukulele types that have come into the minds of ukulele makers, and then have seen the light of day, and then have even sold a number of copies--and more than a few of these have stuck around over time, their success spawning with copies from various makers.  In fact,  the first Alt Uke I know of, and the trail-blazing grand-daddy of them all, the famous Pineapple Ukulele,  has almost attained the status of the ukulele’s secondary standard type  [pic below].  Usually if you see just one non-guitar-type uke at a music store, it's a Pineapple.  

The innovative Pineapple was brought out by Kamaka in the 1920s.  A more recent popular Alt Uke has been the Fluke/Flea type introduced by Flea Market Music in the 1990s [pic to the right, the Fluke].  And in between, there have been others, some of them shown in the banner at the top of this blog.

I reckon the ukulele has had more variants than other instruments because its small size makes it cheaper,  easier and less time-consuming to experiment with for builders.  And then there is the perceived status of the ukulele, from its beginnings, as a non-serious, “fun” instrument, inviting builders to play around with its form, (sometimes in pretty crazy ways), and inclining players to be open to non-traditional shapes.

Looking at the ukulele movement overall, is it any wonder people go gaga about their ukuleles?  It’s an instrument that does not sit in the corner and silently berate you when you are not practicing enough.  It’s just for fun, after all.  It’s an instrument you can take up, and your friend shows you a couple of chords and you are playing a song within fifteen minutes—and as long as you’re singing along pretty good:  instant success!  On the other hand, if you want to be a virtuoso on the uke, no one will stop you from applying yourself to that noble goal, and by and by your art will be applauded at parties and open-mic sessions, or maybe even in the concert hall.  The ukulele is a win-win deal—and a true friend to humanity!

Focusing in on the Alt Uke Movement, we see yet one more reason to celebrate this marvelous thing called the ukulele.  The uke offers freedom and joy through the music it invites us to make with it—as a starting place or as a destination, just as we choose—plus, it offers surprising amount of creative variety in the physical object we take into our hands to make that music.

You could say this variety is another aspect of that irrepressible ukulele “fun.”  I know it was absolutely the thing that drew me to designing and making ukuleles a few years ago, after many years of being a casual strummer while making my living in construction and woodworking..

If you have chosen to own and play an alternative type of ukulele, or if you build them or would like to do so--what about that?  Tell us about it. 

Maybe you have wondered about the “different” types of ukuleles out there and have questions.  I would like to hear from you, and other ukulele brothers and sisters would too.  

This blog is meant to be an open forum about all things ALT UKE.  

Another forum, open to all but specifically intended for ukulele builders, can be found in the Facebook Group, "Alternative Ukulele Builder."  We have builders and enthusiasts from all over the world, and a lively ongoing exchange of info and ideas and examples of highly creative original work in the "alternative" mode..  Join us!

Alternative Sides

 With the ukulele being considered a "miniature guitar" by many, and the uke market dominated by instruments that in fact look just like mini-guitars, builders of non-standard alternative ukes can proudly consider themselves to be upstarts and rebels. Instrument-making traditions are among the most absolute and authoritarian of any set of standards in any field, and breaking with them can leave a maker feeling an outsider, a mere hobbyist, a rank amateur. So we look for those rebels who have gone before us who have set a standard, as it were, outside the usual standards--both in terms of craftsmanship and success in the marketplace. One of those trailblazers is Alvin Okami of Koaloha Ukuleles, a maker of quality conventional ukuleles with a unique bracing system. The bracing is an innovation, an alternative element for sure, but Koaloha has also come out with some uke types of very innovate and artful shape--the Sceptre and the Pineapple Sundae, for example. Of particular interest me is Koaloha's use of solid wood sawn sides instead of the usual bent sides of guitar-shaped ukuleles. Here is a link to one of Koaloha's web sites, and following that, a pic illustrating how the sides are constructed on a Sceptre (far right in the set of pics). The pics to the left of Alvin Okami and his uke show the Purto Rican Tiple, which also has sawn sides/

https://ukesahawaii.com/

I find Okami's work of interest because I make the sides of all my ukes with the same method he uses for his alt ukes.  It's a method particularly suited for non-standard shapes with various angles and curves.  

What is a "Novelty" Ukulele?

Ukulele magazine had a recent article on ukulele collecting ("Collecting Compulsion," Summer 2020) that was par for the course for the magazine: well-written and informative, with some nice illustrations.  It focuses on three collectors and overall gives a good run-down on different sorts of collections and the motivations behind them.

Somebody's ukulele collection I had the
privilege of adding to.  It's that odd one there.

Just one thing in the article really caught my attention as related to the subject of my blog--alternative types of ukuleles, i.e., ukuleles that do not look miniature guitars. This was a reference to "novelty" ukuleles.

The article gives passing attention to a theme of mine, the fact that the ukulele exhibits a fair degree of variation in its forms, referring to "the diversity of this instrument that continues to charm."

The thing that caught my attention was how one of the collectors featured in the article, Andy Roth of San Fransisco, described the focus of his collecting: "Mainland makers who made fine instruments, not toys or novelty instruments."

Now this could be taken as a completely neutral statement, as if collecting "toys or novelty instruments" would be just a different focus, not an inferior choice, but I can't help seeing something of an invidious distinction here between "fine instruments" and non-fine ones.

I have to say the distinction is justified if we're talking  about the simple distinction between an instrument that is well-made and sounds good and one that isn't and doesn't.  Still, I don't see that a "novelty" instrument necessarily means the same thing as an inferior instrument, and the line between "novelty" and simply non-standard (but nevertheless "fine") is not so simple to delineate.

The Aeoro Uke: Pilot's License Not Required

Something like the "Aero Uke" of the 1920s is surely a "novelty" instrument, in about the same sense that the pop song "Monster Mash" of 1962 is a novelty song--it's a comedy item, or least deliberately offbeat in a direction likely to elicit a smile.

And I think it's fair to say that a type of ukulele I make, the "Michi-lele," is a novelty type instrument,  but I do not just make these Michi-leles

The Michi-lele--Complete with 2 Peninsulas

to be hung  on the wall and laughed at, or shown off by proud Michiganders as a tribute to our great state.  This ukulele is meant to be played, and to sound sweet, and to be a good-looking piece of woodworking too. I guess I will let better musicians than myself judge if the sound  quality is "fine," but that is something I strive for, in any case.

The Pineapple: A Novelty Then, a Classic Now

Also let's consider the venerable and famous Pineapple ukulele by Kamaka, a type that has since the 1920s become almost a secondary standard type of ukulele type--presumably because it is pleasing to look at and produces a fine sound.  I have no doubt that many folks at the time the Pineapple first came out considered it a novelty instrument, a stunt, a bid to make sales based on its new and different look.

In a very real sense, the ukulele itself can be considered a novelty instrument.  It certainly has been considered that in the past, and  this is a defining part of the history of the ukulele--its perception as a non-serious, "fun" instrument (or even just a toy).  As I have mentioned elsewhere, it is this aspect of the ukulele that has helped make it particularly susceptible to "novelty" forms--alternative forms.

Why they named it "Shrine,"
I have no idea,  but it's
mighty cute!

And how about this little beauty?  It's a so-called Shrine ukulele put out by Lyon and Healy circa 1927.  Is it a novelty ukulele or something else? Again, it was perhaps considered a novelty type when first introduced, but by now I believe many consider it a sort of rare classic type.

The overall point is, "novelty" is close to the beating heart of the entire ukulele phenomenon as we know it, and that's a good thing.

For good or for ill, a respectable symphonic instrument like the violin, and even the acoustic guitar to a great degree, are instruments whose shape is virtually set in stone by rigid design and craft traditions.  There are reasons why people hold fast to those traditions, but I for one am glad to be as free from them as I want to be as ukulele maker, and still have some prospect of my work being looked at favorably in the ukulele world. 

And I do believe the worlds of the other instruments would be enriched by some of the spirit of freedom and "fun" that the ukulele brings with it wherever it goes.

THE ALT UKE TODAY: The Long Triangle Type

It almost seems like a travesty to impose a classification system on alternative ukuleles, separating them into different general types, since the whole phenomenon of alt ukes is a manifestation of  creative freedom, a kind of rebellion against adhering to a type in the first place.

And there are some examples of alt ukes that absolutely defy type--they are individuals because they take creative freedom to the extreme, often to the point of absurdity (see my post from Feb 10, "The Alternative Ukulele--from the Ridiculous to the Sublime").  In all fields of design, I suppose, there are examples of this sort of thing--like a chair made up of a hand and a foot.

"Give me a hand with this chair"

On the other hand, there are alt ukes that are not absurd or funny or wild and crazy, but simply markedly different than the standard guitar-shaped ukulele.  The creative freedom that the ukulele offers--uniquely in the usually very conservative realm of musical instrument design--has been used in these cases for the personal expression of the designer, perhaps, or with the goal of improving the musical properties of the instrument, or maybe for attracting buyers with novelty.  In any case, it is these less wild and wacky  alt ukes that are sometimes able to gain a degree of broad appeal among players, and they are repeatable and liable to be imitated by other makers, and they fall into categories based on their basic shape.

In this post I want to consider the basic shape I call the Long Triangle.

As far as I know, the pioneer of this shape for the ukulele was the Ontario music educator (famous in the ukulele world) J. Chalmers Doane.  (If anyone knows of another person or manufacturer who did this type before Doane, please let me know in a comment.)  Doane's story is a very interesting and inspiring one.  An article in Ukulele magazine tells about the "Northern Ukulele" he originated.  And you can view an unboxing of a vintage Northern Uke here.

Doane's Northern Ukulele, c. 1977

Doane had a music education program based on the ukulele going on in Ontario schools when his supplier of cheap ukes for the students went out of business.  So Doane and his brother, an engineer, came up with this ukulele design.  The main idea behind it is to be as simple and  inexpensive as possible to build.  Hence the straight sides and bottom--also the straight, non-angled headstock.  It may be that the three sound holes, instead of one larger one, were meant to make bracing under the top unnecessary, and save time and costs that way.

A soprano Wolfelele

Another Long Triangle uke that is apparently designed that way for simplicity of construction is a build-it-yourself instrument called the Wolfelele.  I'm not sure how long this one has been around, or whether it was directly inspired by the Northern Ukulele or not.

There are lots of DIY guitar-type ukuleles available everywhere.  It's nice to know at least one alternative ukulele has made it to the mass market.

Probably the biggest player in the alt uke marketplace today overall is the Magic Fluke Company, which introduced its Fluke ukulele, a concert size uke, in 1999, followed later by the Flea, a soprano.  The smaller Flea is not a Long Triangle type (it's more like a Pineapple), but the Fluke is basically a Long Triangle, only  the sides are slightly curved instead of dead straight.  The distinctive Fluke style headstock is set up  like a violin headstock, as shown in the picture.  Another innovation of the ukulele, aside from the basic shape of the body, is the material used for the sides and back of the body, which is plastic.

I can only speculate on the motive behind the alternative shapes of the Fluke company's ukuleles.  When Fluke's founder Jim Beloff, along with his collaborators, decided  to start a ukulele manufacturing business, they could have simply started making them like small guitars, like almost everyone else does.  Perhaps the idea was to do something different as a marketing strategy, or as an experiment, or maybe it was just for the fun of it.
 Keep in mind we're talking about ukulele people here, so "just for the fun of it" is not beyond the realm of possibility.

Along with the Long Triangle type, there's another type of triangular ukulele I personally like, but more about that later, in a continuation of the series "THE ALT UKE TODAY."

Note:  If you read a post, please leave a comment, no matter how short.  Of course, longer comments of all sorts are welcome too.

Ringing an Old Bell

The Bell Ukulele has been one of the most popular types of alternative ukuleles, as far as I can tell.  I'm judging just from the number of times I have seen it in informal surveys I have done of ukulele types, and the number of times I have seen it for sale. Today it is made by a number of manufacturers.

The Bell Ukulele came out in the 1920s in the era of the ukulele's "first wave" of popularity in the United States, a time when some ukulele manufacturers tried to increase their share of a burgeoning market for the instrument by introducing novel forms.  It was a great time for the regular type of ukulele, the ones that were built like miniature guitars, and also for the alternative ukulele.

The Fall 2016 issue of Ukulele magazine has a nice article on the Bell Ukulele and other alt types built by the Lyon and Healy Co. in the 1920s. https://www.ukulelemag.com/stories/the-great-ukes-lyon-healys-unusual-bell-and-shrine-ukes


I have to figure the the popularity of the Bell is due mainly to its beautifully elegant shape. which to me seems somehow naturally suited to a small stringed instrument.

The original (really?) Lyon and Healy Bell Ukulele

So where did this shape come from?  Did it spring fresh from the brain of some inspired designer or artisan with an eye for the graceful curve, the balanced proportion?  I guess it had to, because where else would it come from but someone's head?  But apparently it did not come from someone's head for the first time in early 20th-century America.

It seems this particular shape for a small stringed instrument originated about 250 years earlier, in late 17th-century Europe.

I was paging through a pretty dry and boring academic book on stringed instruments of Medieval times when I came upon the  page pictured below.

The drawing at the bottom left of the page is captioned "Hamburger Cithrinchen" ("Hamburger" as in the city of Hamburg Germany).  All the instruments on the page are also called generically citterns, an instrument about the size of a concert ukulele. 

Bell Citterns circ 1700

A little more research and I found a picture of the actual Hamburg instrument from 1676, which is in the collection of a British museum.  https://museumcollections.rcm.ac.uk/rcm_collections/hamburger-cithrinchen-bell-cittern-joachim-tielke-hamburg-1676/

Hamburger Cithrinchen (Bell Cittern), 1676

It hardly seems possible the Lyon and Healy Bell Ukulele is an original design that just happens to be shaped exactly (or almost exactly) like the Bell Cittern made in Germany in 1676.  More likely, Lyon and Healy patterned their uke on just this old instrument from way back when.  Maybe the designer at Lyon and Healy saw a drawing in a book just like I did, or took a stroll through that museum at the Royal College of Music in London and spotted something he liked.  

So what do we have here?  Theft of "intellectual property"?  The passage of time makes it a moot point, and who cares, anyhow?  We prize originality in art and design, and for good reason, but the fact is that art and design in all fields builds on the work of the past, and even originality is usually about three parts "theft" and two parts novelty.  And even the outright copying or near copying of an existing idea serves a purpose--the propagation of an idea considered worthy of copying.

Here's the way I look at it myself as a designer.  I like to be original--that's the heart of the fun in design, the thrill of new creation.  So I shy away from just copying something outright, but sometimes like to do something old with a new twist or an added dimension.  Most times I try be as original as possible, though, and have the hope that maybe someday someone will think it's worthwhile to "steal" something from me.

The Alternative Ukulele--From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

What I have called "the Alternative Ukulele Movement" I look at as one thing (a unified phenomenon, so to speak) because the impetus for making any sort of "different" type of ukulele comes out of the same one thing--the particular personality of the ukulele, and its basic appeal to masses of people,  as a non-serious, "fun" instrument.  I think builders have felt free, all through the uke's history, to be creative with the form of the ukulele, and players receptive to variant shapes, because the instrument has been regarded in this way.

When you look at examples of Alt Ukes, though, they usually fall into two categories--the Artful Type or the Novelty Type.  Both types differ from the norm (the norm being a ukulele that looks a miniature guitar), but in different ways.

The Artful Type tries to be different in an aesthetically pleasing, artful way, competing with the guitar shape on its own ground--because the guitar shape is certainly a lovely thing, refined over centuries, a sort of a compendium of the "greatest hits" that many creative luthiers have come up with over time.  It is a beautiful thing, like so many products of a long tradition.

By contrast,  the NoveltyType of alt uke tries to be different mainly for the fun of it, like a "novelty song" on the pop charts.

The Aero Uke , replica

The Aero Uke, introduced in the 1920s, when commercial aviation was the coolest new thing, is a great example of the Novelty Type of alt uke.  It's deliberately and extremely weird--I guess you could call it "surrealistic" in the art history sense of that term, juxtaposing two different realities:  it's a ukulele and an airplane.

A good example of the Artful Type of alt uke is the Bell Ukulele, which also came out in the 1920s.  It's not a completely original shape. I once came across a picture of a stringed instrument centuries old, with this same basic shape.  Too bad I lost track that picture.  I don't remember the number of strings or what it was called, but the basic shape of the body was the same.

An Oscar Schmidt Bell Ukulele

Texalele, special Eyes of Texas version

Just for the heck of it I'm going to throw in another example of a Novelty Type, one of my own wacky creations, the Texalele.

It's important to point out these two categories are not mutually exclusive.   For example, novelty aspects can be present in a uke that is  mainly of the Artful Type,--like in the case of the classic Pineapple Ukulele: the shape is elegant, with a simple organic feel, while at the same time the name (given to it only after it was made) is fanciful, and details applied to certain versions of it can be fanciful too (like painting the top to look like a pineapple).

Also, a ukulele can be a Novelty Type in it main conception, but executed in a restrained way with an eye toward making it aesthetically pleasing--like the Cat's Eye Ukulele I came up with as the very  first instrument I ever made.  The body is a cat's eye and  the headstock a cat's head--anatomically incorrect, but oh so clever. ;-)


This post TO BE CONTINUED. . . .

Do You Own an Alt Uke? Call for Nominations to The Alt-Uke Hall of Fame

When I started getting interested in alternative ukulele types, I made up this graphic, "Alt-Ukulele Hall of Fame," including the most popular ukes, past and present, that do not look like miniature guitars.

(The Aero Uke wasn't all that popular, but I included it just because it was so zany, showing how far "alt" the Alt Ukulele Movement has gone at times.)

Anyhow, this collection of pictures is not all-inclusive by any means.  Any suggestions about other ukes that you think belong in the Hall?--let me know.

Do you own and play any type of Alt Uke?  Maybe you collect them.  Maybe you have come across a crazy sort of uke like the Aero. What do you think of the sound and "feel" of your uke as compared to a more conventional instrument?  I'd like to hear from you.