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.