meatloaf Posted October 29, 2016 Report Share Posted October 29, 2016 To be honest I wasn't planning on building an other strat but when my lump of kitchen worktop turned into a strat body my son jokingly suggested that I make him an electric uke based on the strat design to go with his collection of uke's. As I already had a couple of ideas in my head for another build I ignored him ... but then I got thinking. Using my best friend google I did a bit of research and found that quite a few people have built solid bodied uke's based on guitars with various degrees of success, I downloaded a 1962 strat body drawing and after a bit of trail and error managed to print a copy just the right size to make a template but had to revert to pencile and paper for the neck. most uke builders appear to use guitar pickups but I think that looks a bit naff but I've found at least one source of a pickup designed for uke's, can't find a bridge with 14mm string spacing at the moment so I may have a go at making one. I'm planning on using a piece of mohogany that Iv'e had laying around for 30 odd years for the neck, just need to go shopping for some tools, I'll have a go at making a miter box but I'll have to buy a fret saw and a radius block but I'm not sure what else I will need. This will be my second build but it will be the first neck, I can see a learning curve ahead 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted October 30, 2016 Report Share Posted October 30, 2016 Making your first neck is definitely a climb up the learning curve, but like all good clambers up a mountain, well worth the effort and the view from the top is wonderful 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted November 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 My body blank arrived on Monday, three pieces of saple which was already glued, not the best wood for guitars but was a bargin on fleabay and from what I've read online should be fine for this project. On Tuesday I cut out the body with my jigsaw, I am really crap at using a jigsaw so had to go over the edges with my belt sander before routing the body using my cheap router bit, really chuffed with the result although I found routing the horns a bit of a bum clenching moment Today I used my spoke shave to round over the edges and then spent a lot hours sanding and then more sanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 2, 2016 Report Share Posted November 2, 2016 Actually sapele makes some very nice guitars. It is considered to impart a nice warm tone. It is heavy, so often chambering is done for weight reduction. Also its interlocked grain is prone to chipping out when routing the end grain. It looks like you have dodged that particular bullet, and that's something quite a few of us cannot say. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted November 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 11, 2016 Yesterday my fret cutting saw arrived so I started on the neck, it's a one piece neck made out of mohogany that I've had laying about for over 30 years that I salvaged from an old building that I worked in before it was demolished. After reading various Uke forums about Uke necks it became obvious that everyone concidered that truss rods were not required. I made a mitre box out of some off cuts that I had and stuck my shaped neck to a piece of mdf that was a snug fit in the box, making sure that the centre line of the neck was parallel to the box, then I could slide the neck along and make the cuts. A bit crude but worked quite well. I fitted the frets after I shaped the neck profile and used a radius block on the fret board, Ukes usually have flat fret boards but it did'nt look right and it is meant to look like a strat. After routing the neck pocket I just had to fit the neck just to see what it looked like, well it's sort of strat shaped but a bit stange as it's so small Today some of my hardware arrived on a slow boat from China, this cheap bridge turned out to be too small but it only cost £4 but my plan was to replace the base plate with a custom made one anyway, so time to go looking for something suitable. I recently dismantled an old trailer that I made 30 odd years ago that I havn't used in years but it still waiting to go to the dump, and the tow hitch connector just looked like it wanted to be used on a guitar ( honest). So after a bit of a clean up I started cutting it up. Drilling a few holes. After a bit of elbow grease. Now I have a bridge with 14mm string spacing, after I've sprayed it black it should be ok. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScottR Posted November 11, 2016 Report Share Posted November 11, 2016 That cleaned up nice. Very cool little project you've got going here. SR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted November 28, 2016 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2016 The slow boat from China has docked at last and I can get back to the build. The neck is almost finished now but I need to decide what finish to use on the mohogany. After more than one attempt I finally managed to make the pick guard and get the colour just about right, my son wants this uke to have the same colour sceme as one of his motorbikes but he has sold it now but I think I got about the same colour as the custom made saddle. Those chrome screws will have be replaced by black ones. My biggest holding point is the mini spray gun that I ordered which is taking an age to come, I really need to get the body sprayed asap as I'm not sure how well I can do it with my first attempt, My son had his bike panels spayed where he works and they make really expensive sports cars as well as F1 cars, as you would expect they did a really good job, so no pressure there then 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted December 1, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2016 My mini spray gun arrived today, too cold to spray outdoors as I value my tackle too much but this uke body is quite small and it fitted in my airbrush booth. Several coats of paint followed by several coats of clear, I'll never make a pro paint sprayer but pleased with the result. Still got a fair bit to do but it's looking like I'll get it finished for Chtistmas. Not my choice of colour but he wanted olive green so thats what he's getting. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted December 1, 2016 Report Share Posted December 1, 2016 That looks excellent, @meatloaf The home made bridge is pretty cool too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted December 2, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2016 @Andyjr1515 thanks I appreciate those comments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meatloaf Posted December 16, 2016 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2016 I'm not sure where all the time has gone but I finally found some time to finish my sons uke. I really need a lot more practise spraying clear coat, watching hours of you tube videos wasn't enough to stop getting really bad orange peel but after hours of attacking it with wet and dry and then cutting compound I got a really smooth glossy finish. All it needs now the string tree fitted a final tune up and wrapped up ready for Christmas day. Here it is with his genuine Fender, I just hope he appreciates all the work that went into it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strawtarget Posted December 16, 2016 Report Share Posted December 16, 2016 Freakin' awesome! A unique instrument to be sure. Nice job! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Natural Posted December 16, 2016 Report Share Posted December 16, 2016 Great job meatloaf- nice clean work, excellent job on that bridge- I am sure your son will be pleased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Norris Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Excellent work! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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