Project Ukulele

[Jaam]

Introduction:

Alright, I've never built an ukulele before so this will probably be a challenge. I don't really know a whole lot about ukuleles either but I have been doing some reading. The first thing I found out was that they're really really tiny . After doing some picture stretching and comparing with specs from a "real" ukulele I've ended up with a real sized plan. And this is about where I am.

Specs:

The neck will be a spruce, mahogany, birch, ebony, birch, mahogany, spruce laminate. They're all pieces of scrap left over from other woodworking projects. The body will have beech top and back, birch sides, pine neck and tail blocks and some unknown quartersawn wood for braces and kerfing. All the wood together cost about $1.40. The fingerboard will be ebony and so will the bridge. Tuners are off a cheap fake strat and the nut will be bone. The body will also have some black plastic binding. Concert(I think) scale - 382mm or 15"(whatever that means). Jumbo frets and maybe a piezo pickup.

Conclusion:

I hope I don't mess up bad.

Tips from people with uke building experience are very welcome.

[Jaam]

Do you think a soundhole like this will be strong enough or would it be too flimsy?

Edited August 3, 2007 by Jaam

[Mattia]

Flimsy, yes, but might be OK if you baced it with a couple of cross-grain patches/veneers. I mean, c'mon, if you can carve a lute rose, this is certainly doable.

[Jaam]

In autumn this project got put on stand-by because of army service but now I'm back at it. Following a crazy idea I asked David Myka if I could use his dragonfly shape because of my obsession with his work and amazingly enough he gave the project a green light. The shape isn't the exact copy of the dragonfly (flat butt) but close enough. The sides still need a bit of smoothing with "the iron" (The upper waist is way sharp) but I think its going quite nicely.

[Jaam]

Few changes in the specs also. Top, back and sides will be ash and it'll have gotoh tuners. Not sure about the neck yet. I have the laminate block ready for shaping and such but I also have a nice short piece of mahogany that would make a great neck.

[fryovanni]

Is that one piece of wood you used for the sides? Looks like you bent the wood around the neck block area. Very nice job bending A uke is a smaller intrument and the curves are much tighter than say an acoustic flatop, and it's a cut to boot. Very cool.

Rich

[Jaam]

I used two pieces for sides. I tried a single piece at first but the bending got way complicated . The neck block is in the process of being shaped and the neck itself will be attached like an electrics.

[verhoevenc]

Yup, that Mr. Myka's one cool cat.

Chris