Sven Nyström’s all cherry piccolos developed from a prototype made after taking measurements from a perhaps pre-1920 ukulele owned by Phil Powell. Kumulae were famous for the first ‘midget’ ukuleles which were built with the same care as their sopranos. Sven thought the modern ‘sopranino’ classification not suitable and opted for the name ‘piccolo’. By numbers 71 and 72, a zero sanding process for his builds had developed, solely using knives, hand planes and scrapers.
In Autumn 2017 I decided I needed to do a considerable thing i.e. commission a proper luthier, rather than just learn about some of the aspects of how to attempt being one in a hobbyist way. I suppose it tied with a significant birthday coming up and the recent loss of a parent. I did own a Timms for a little bit, but that “existed prior” – and then I purchased it – which now seems a very different thing.
I’m proud to be the guardian of Argapa 104, and quietly following its gradual development on his builder’s diary here, (see his other posts from Sept/Oct 2017 onwards) which kept me going through the winter. I provided a scrap of snakewood that was given to me by a violin bow maker years ago. Sven integrated it into the build in his own way, which has, for me, made it both more mine and more ‘his’.
The anticipatory aspects of this new creation have had such a positive effect. I can recommend the richness of the process, even before seeing the instrument in physical form.
I remember starting a thread on the Cosmos forum about soprano weights and distilled a lot of information here. It was only after seeing Sven’s last post on the completed instrument that I noted an impossibly small 198g finished weight. Four years on, had he been subconsciously considering that thread? I note his piccolos are typically 275g…
He commented: Under 200 grammes is a bit lighter than other piccolos I’ve built. The main factors are neck profile and depth of body. On yours the neck is quite slim and the body of normal depth. Regarding weight – you wouldn’t want it to be too thin in the top and back for structural reasons of course. But also, a top that’s too thin will give you volume but no tone, like a banjo.
It plays nicely in C and I’ve built a simple red velvet lined ‘case’ from a thin vintage mahogany board.
2022 update: I didn’t change my original fluorocarbon strings until now and now need to think carefully about maintaining the slightly baggy standard GCEA on this short scale. I’ve fitted some Graphtech Tune-a-lele 6:1 planetary tuners and they do not disturb the balance at all; just over 5g each rather that nearly 3g for a violin peg. At present I’ve got a low G Worth Brown string for the C string and it’s doing very well… but please message with what you are using for strings, Argapa owners. I’ll add them here. I’d also like to know if any owners are using the higher C tuning with Aquila string set, an octave up from normal High G sop tuning.
Ukulele 