2022 Beansprout Baritone Banjo Ukulele

A local customer of mine had Mr. Aaron Keim of Beansprout build this "baritone banjo ukulele" (like a tenor banjo but not) for him. It was playing perfectly when it arrived here, but he wanted to both go to lighter, all-plain strings (vs normal two-wound, two-plain bari strings) and coax a little more volume and pop from it. Fair enough!

My only "work" was to find the right bridge to suit the strings and so we swapped-in a 1920s Grover Non-Tip bridge which was the lightest-weight one I had on hand. I radiused the top of it and then quickly set the instrument up for the all-plain EJ99TLG string set and... hey presto! There was the sound he was looking for.

Aaron's build, by the way, is super-quality. This guy has a block-walnut rim, brass tonering, figured-walnut neck, pistachio fretboard and headstock veneer, and heavy-duty, high-grade hardware used throughout. The only non-original bits on it in the pics are the Vega-style wire armrest and the new/old bridge.

So -- Aaron, good job my friend! It's nice to encounter another Beansprout again. This one has all sorts of nice features, too -- not the least of which is a radiused fretboard which gives it a much more modern feel.