Speaker A
The ukulele, an instrument that is inexpensive, portable, and easy to learn. But it has one big problem.
Mattias Krantz builds a ukulele that transforms into a guitar mid-performance, solving engineering challenges with a sliding neck and custom strings.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- Innovative engineering can solve traditional instrument limitations.
- Collaboration with experts is crucial for overcoming material and design challenges.
- Custom solutions like extra-long strings and sliding necks enable novel musical instruments.
- Persistence and iteration are key to successful complex mechanical designs.
- Transforming instruments can change public perception and respect for the ukulele.
What the video covers
- Mattias Krantz aims to make the ukulele cool by creating one that transforms into a guitar.
- The main challenge is making the ukulele neck extend from short to guitar length using a sliding, disappearing neck design.
- Initial folding neck designs were unplayable; a telescoping neck with a steel core was developed to handle string tension.
- Mattias collaborated with material scientist Adam Damato to reinforce the neck for 80 lb string tension.
- String tension and tuning were major problems; early ideas like rubber bands and stretchy ropes failed.
- Custom-made, extra-long guitar strings and strategically placed rollers allowed strings to wind and unwind during transformation.
- The body transformation mechanism was complex, requiring multiple moving parts and metal components for durability.
- After multiple design iterations and expert help, the functional transforming ukulele-guitar was completed.
- A designer helped create an appealing aesthetic for the transforming instrument.
- Mattias demonstrated the instrument in public, gaining respect for playing a ukulele that becomes a guitar.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Ukulele Problem
- 00:35Researching Neck Extension Solutions
- 01:16Designing a Disappearing Neck
- 01:49Engineering the Sliding Fretboard
- 02:40Strengthening the Neck for String Tension
- 03:19Testing the Neck with Strings
- 04:08Sponsor Message: Chime Banking
- 05:10Solving the String Tension Problem
- 06:35Using Non-Stretch Rope and Custom Strings
- 08:52Body Transformation Mechanism Challenges
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
It's a ukulele. It's the only instrument where getting good at it actually makes people respect you less. But today, let's change that.
Speaker A
Let's make ukulele cool again by building one that transforms into a guitar. But this will not be easy. So, let's start with problem one. Ukulele neck is short. Guitar neck is long. So, how do I make
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this neck magically grow 10 inches? Well, I did some research and I found this instrument, which is called a Cithara orbo. It had already solved this problem by making the neck fold out. So, let's try that.
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But there was a huge problem with this idea.
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Okay, so in guitar form, it's pretty good. But as a ukulele, it's completely unplayable. I mean, there's literally half a guitar neck where you're supposed to hold your hand. So, what I needed
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wasn't a neck that folded. I needed a neck that completely disappeared until I pulled it out.
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Kind of like this. Such a simple but genius design where each section just slides into the next one. So, all I had to do now was to steal it.
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Well, turns out it wasn't that easy to apply this to a functional guitar neck.
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Because after it slides out, the fretboard also needs to somehow rise up to be an exact level with the previous part. But it wasn't a problem a sleepless night couldn't fix.
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Let's see if it works in real life. I'm playing this lame ukulele. Such a short neck, but then Uh, okay. Anyway, attempt two. Now it's a stopper here. So, when I push it out, Wow, that's perfect.
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This was an engineering marvel. Until I put strings on it. How can it be so bad?
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It bends like crazy. Anyway, how do I keep myself? Making it extend was one thing, but making it extend so it can handle 80 lb of string tension was another. And no matter how much I tried, I couldn't find
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a solution myself. So, I reached out to a material scientist, Adam Damato. How's it going? I mean, the big challenge is maintaining tension between both states. Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a way we can pull it off.
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First, he added a steel core. Then, he redesigned the moving parts. So, when the neck was fully extended, they all snapped together and reinforced each other. And the result?
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Wow. But, let's put some strings on it for the real test. Oh my god, it feels almost like a real guitar neck. It doesn't bend at all.
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Okay, let's try it. I love Adam. Wow. And something else I love is the sponsor of this video, Chime, America's number one choice for banking. Why? Because it actually helps you save money. And you can get up to a
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$350 bonus, but more on that later. Building this guitar has been a grind. And just when I thought I was done spending money, I realized that I needed to buy this super expensive robotic guitar tuner. Fortunately, Chime's round-up feature has helped me
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save up money here and there every time I make a purchase. Like this $2.59 energy drink, Chime rounded up to $3 and put the leftover into savings. 41 cents doesn't sound like much though, but throughout this project I needed a lot
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of these. So, here it is, partly paid by Chime's round-ups. But, this is not the only way Chime helps me grow my money.
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For example, their high-yield savings account lets you earn a 3.75% APY, which is nine times the national average savings rate. And right now, Chime is offering up to a $350 bonus to anyone who signs up to a Chime checking
Speaker A
account through my link. So, click the link in the description or scan the QR code on screen to get your up to $350 and 3.75% APY with Chime.
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I finally had a working transforming neck. So, let me introduce problem two, the strings.
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If I put strings on it in ukulele form, it's stuck like this forever. These strings do not stretch a millimeter.
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But, if I instead put them when it's in guitar form, this will happen. My first idea was to use rubber bands as strings.
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And it was promising, but then I realized that playing a guitar with rubber bands is almost worse than just playing the ukulele. But, then I thought, what if I keep the real strings and instead build
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something that reels them out and back in? Kind of like a fishing reel. We can pull it out and we can reel it back in. The concept was there. So, version two of this idea let the guitar do this reeling itself. When it extends, this
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rope feeds out more string. When it retracts, the rope winds it back again. And the transformation now worked amazingly.
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Okay. Ah. Okay, maybe not amazingly. The tuning was completely random. Every time it changed form, it became something new.
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It was like guitar tuning roulette. Ah, damn it. Completely lost it. And at first, I didn't understand why.
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Until I realized that this rope must be stretching. Which was a pretty huge issue because the tuning entirely depended on the rope not doing that. My solution, find a rope that doesn't do that.
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And there I had it, a rope that didn't stretch. Wow. Let's put it on the guitar.
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Hey, but that's easy. Let's see what happens. Wow, I think it's working. I was now wielding the power of a rope that doesn't stretch.
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My god. But it did break. A lot. The entire guitar just exploded. I hate ropes.
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Huh. So, I started to think of ways to eliminate ropes from my life and this design.
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After a lot of thinking, I found a loophole that can simplify this design a lot. If the guitar strings were just long enough, they could actually wind up themselves thanks to these strategically placed rollers. The catch, I needed some
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ridiculously long guitar strings, like twice as long as normal ones. And the only way to get this was to have them custom-made.
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And 20 days later, they were finally here. So, let's put the strings on and pray that this works. Okay, let's do this.
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I can't believe this works. I had finally solved the impossible string problem. But visually, it was just a neck becoming more neck.
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So, it's time for the big transformation of the body. So, the ukulele needs to go from something like this to this. So, I started looking into ways to achieve that. I first found this mechanism, which would be perfect if I wanted to
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make a banjo. But to create a convincing guitar, this body cannot expand symmetrically. Every section had to move a different distance at a different angle. So, instead of this being one simple problem, I had six annoying ones.
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But I had to start somewhere. So, I started on this section. And my first design looked kind of perfect. But surprise, surprise, in real life, it didn't work at all. But second attempt, surprise again, it kept getting stuck.
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But finally, the third attempt actually was working. It's so satisfying. Oh, 90% of the time. But with this success, I felt confident going into the other sections. But I shouldn't have because the more I added to the design, the more shitty it worked.
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What? And eventually, I had added so many things that had to move that it couldn't move at all.
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You can do it. Evolve. But, instead of continuing abusing my ukulele expecting it would magically start to move, oh I decided to bring in some expert help.
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This cannot move outwards because of the hub. And switch out the plastic parts to metal.
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It works so well suddenly. And after 2 days of just assembling hundreds of parts, it was time to try version 2.0.
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Imagine you go to a guitar lesson and they're like, "Why do you have a ukulele? It's a guitar lesson." And you're like, "What do you mean?" It really feels like a full-size guitar even.
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Now, the functional skeleton of the ukulele was completed. But, if we just dress it up and expand, it doesn't really look that good yet.
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So, I reached out to my designer Shervin. And after a lot of iterations, we came up with a design that would take this transformation to a whole other level. So,
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performing on the street. And at first, I don't think people understood why I was playing such a lame instrument until [music] And from that point, I started pulling it out everywhere.
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And for the first time in history, I was gaining respect from playing a ukulele.
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But the ultimate success would be to get this thing on stage in front of a live audience. So I convinced the guitarist of a band to bring this up on his next performance. [music] But when it was time to transform,
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[music] it got a bit stuck. But eventually, it happened. [applause] [music] And there we had it. The first ever ukulele performance that an audience actually enjoyed.
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[cheering and applause]
Topics:ukuleleguitartransforming instrumentMattias Krantzsliding neckcustom guitar stringsengineeringmusical innovationinstrument designmaterial science
