Two Ukuleles

[Nicco]

So, while I realise this is predominantly an electric guitar building community, I'd love to post my next project if that's okay with the community? 

My parents took up playing ukulele about 5 or 6 years ago as something to do over a drink on a Friday night. Since then, they've really got into it, Dad especially. I've had the idea that I'd like to build them new ukuleles for a while now. 

For me personally, I have very little interest in ukuleles, they are a bit dinky for me. Having said that, I'd like to build a hollow body electric in the future, so this will teach me a lot of the basics on a small scale. 

First off I had to buy a book and some plans.

Secondly, I had to work out what sizes they play currently. Of course they're different. Ha ha. Soprano for Mum and Tenor for Dad.

For construction, I picked up a bunch of really nice aussie timber veneers a while back; I'd like to try laminating the back and sides.

So the specs: 

Dad's will be have Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle for the back, very pinkish Myrtle for the sides, Tasmanian Blackwood soundboard, Qld maple neck, undecided on the fret board,  but probably some of a beautiful slab of Gimlet I picked up

Mum's will be quilted Qld Walnut back and sides, bunya pine soundboard, qld maple neck and mulga fretboard that I'm salvaging from a tea table that I picked up locally. 

I'm also going to try and inlay the sound board for mum's uke. That'll be a bit of a challenge for me. 

Early days so far, I've started building the forms for the soprano build.

Pics in no particular order;

Soprano half mould 80% done

Mulga tea table being salvaged

Rough draft of inlay layout for mum's uke

Qld walnut and bunya pine soundboard

1 half of the tiger myrtle back for Dad's uke

 

[Bizman62]

2 hours ago, Nicco said:

So, while I realise this is predominantly an electric guitar building community, I'd love to post my next project if that's okay with the community? 

My parents took up playing ukulele...

There's been quite a many stringed and strummed instruments other than electric guitars here. Some of them haven't even been guitars like the octave mandolin. Not to mention the old English hearpe which still waits for someone to bite the bullet. The acoustic builds all have gathered a crowd of loyal followers to see how the journey ends.

After all a uke is a small acoustic four stringed guitar featuring a different tuning. Put a pickup in and you'll have a hollowbody electric! Same principle, same problems to solve. Lots to learn both for you and us spectators.

 

[henrim]

That’s really nice thing to do. And at the same time an opportunity to learn. 

I’ve been thinking about building an acoustic guitar but I should probably start with an uke too. So following this thread with interest.

[Dave Higham]

11 minutes ago, henrim said:

I’ve been thinking about building an acoustic guitar but I should probably start with an uke too

Ukes aren't really easier to build than guitars. In fact in some ways they're more of a PITA because they are SMALL. I built a pair of tenor ukes which didn't really leave me wanting to make more.

[Dave Higham]

@Nicco I assume you already know about the ANZLF and Ukulele Underground.

http://www.anzlf.com/

https://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/index.php?forums/ukulele-building-luthiers-lounge.30/

[henrim]

18 minutes ago, Dave Higham said:

Ukes aren't really easier to build than guitars. In fact in some ways they're more of a PITA because they are SMALL.

I get your point. I was just thinking about practicing the bending process and construction with less material. Doesn’t actually need to be a playable instrument. Could be a hat box too  Anyway ukes are fun instruments.

[Nicco]

Thanks Henrim, yep, that's more or less my thoughts too, it's a nice way to do something for mum and dad, plus a nice way for me to learn some new stuff. Win win. Ha ha. 

Thanks Biz for the thumbs up as well. I'm keen to gives this one a crack and I'm sure there will be plenty of questions from me along the way. 

And Dave, thanks mate. I'm a member of ANZLF already, but hadn't seen the underground one. 

[Professor Woozle]

On 5/14/2022 at 7:08 AM, Bizman62 said:

There's been quite a many stringed and strummed instruments other than electric guitars here. Some of them haven't even been guitars like the octave mandolin. Not to mention the old English hearpe which still waits for someone to bite the bullet. The acoustic builds all have gathered a crowd of loyal followers to see how the journey ends.

I finally got round to cutting some timber for the experimental electric hearpe today, once it's starting to look like something I'll post up on the thread.

I also need to get started on another project more akin to this, when I can find some time. I've got some smaller bits of Brazilian rosewood and Cuban mahogany that need turning into a mandolin that will be baby sister to my cittern...

[Nicco]

Not particularly photogenic progress, but progress no less; almost finished the female forms for the soprano; the body shape is done, now just need to refine the shut line between the two halves, add bolts to clamp the two halves together, and a couple of flats for clamping against. I've glued up a block to do the male part of the form for side laminating.

One layer on one side of the form is screwed down rather than glued like rest of the block; the sides need to be bent at 60mm wide, but the working form be around 45mm tall to allow room for clamping kerfing and shaping the body taper. The removable piece gives me 48mm and 60mm for the two functions.

[Bizman62]

4 hours ago, Nicco said:

add bolts to clamp the two halves together,

Do you mean like loooooong bolts through the entire mould? If so, have you thought about latches? There's ones with adjustable tightness and you only need to drill small screw holes instead of a long one for a bolt. And you can have them on both sides to eliminate warping.

[Nicco]

Nah, I'll cut a rectangle out of each corner and just use shorter bolts, I don't need that much meat at the edges anyway. The latches would be easy, but I'll need access to both sides for sanding edges and kerfing, so on top or bottom they would get in the way. 

I spose I could chuck them on the end, that would work too. Bolts will be a stronger joint though. 

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, Nicco said:

Nah, I'll cut a rectangle out of each corner and just use shorter bolts,

Silly me! That option didn't even pop into my mind...

[Nicco]

Right, so the Soprano forms are all but done; just need to buy some bolts to bolt the two halves together. The bandsaw and spindle sander have been game changers for this, I can get so much more done in a chunk of time now than I could before.

I might need to clearance the male part of the form a smidge more so there's enough space for three layers of timber, but I did a test run with one strip of veneer in there and it easily bent to fit the form, no cracking and no heating or water required, so very happy with that. 

Couldn't resist the urge then to pull out the veneers and see how they might look as the finished instrument. Interestingly, the bloody thing is so small I'm struggling to get enough figuring in there to actually be interesting. I think these veneers would look better at guitar scale. 

Finished form:

Form all clamped up. I'll buy some better clamps for the actual job. 

 

Bunya pine sound board. I'm loving this. Interestingly the colour doesn't extend far into the timber, about 1mm. The other side is actually pretty plain. 

Queensland walnut top deck. (do you overseas people get what I mean by top deck?)

 

Qld walnut 

 

Asymmetrical tiger mrytle looks better than I expected actually. 

 

Book matched tiger myrtle. Too much tiger for my liking. Ha ha.

[Bizman62]

5 hours ago, Nicco said:

(do you overseas people get what I mean by top deck?)

Nope. And Google didn't help much either. Please explain.

That bookmatched tiger indeed looks dangerous! It may produce killer sounds. Roarr!

[Nicco]

Maybe it's an aussie thing? Ha ha.

It's white chocolate on top of milk chocolate (and quite yum! )

[Bizman62]

1 hour ago, Nicco said:

Maybe it's an aussie thing?

Now that the name of the maker got revealed Google could tell that it indeed is an aussie thing. It seems to be available from UK through Amazon, but I doubt it's not worth a tenner for the chocolate and another for mail plus some for post-brexit taxes etc.

Thanks for clarifying, a double layer chocolate makes much more sense than a travel agency!

[Nicco]

Got to laser cutting templates for fret slot cutting, fret board overall layout and neck layout yesterday. Far out these things are small, everything guitar related it's bigger than the cutter bed and needs to be in 2 pieces and glued together

[Nicco]

Templates all done, so started playing around with fret board layouts. 

I think I'm still going to go with the salvaged mulga for mum's soprano, but I'm now looking at a piece of lace sheoak for the fret board for the tenor. It was originally out of bounds because the size is good for a guitar and it's pretty special, but bugger it, let's just go for it! Ha ha. 

For the bridges, I picked up a set of knife blanks off a local, speciality timber place. It's all local stuff, hard wood and either birdseye, flame or burl. 

There's one that closely matches the mulga fret board for mum's... but the bridge is so small it's probably wasted on it; I'll probably just grab a piece of mulga left over from the tea tray handles. 

Undecided on the bridge for dad's; from top to bottom is birdseye sheoak, lace sheoak and birdseye jarrah. The jarrah is probably closest is colour (less purple in real life than it looks in the photos), and closest in figuring is the lace. 

All good, don't need to have decided yet. 

[Bizman62]

Your local woods look fantastic!

 

[Nicco]

Yep, there's some nice stuff here. 

Tried to bend my first side. It didn't go well. ☹ The two inner layers of bunya pine fit the form easily, but the myrtle on the face is just too brittle to fit the upper bout.

Hrmm. I'll need to maybe soak it before I can bend it up. My form is MDF, so I'll need to up my sealing game on it too, because I can't get them wet. 

I spose the other option is to use some heat to pre bend the side to suit, but that kind of defeats the purpose of laminating them. Ha ha

[Nicco]

[Bizman62]

4 hours ago, Nicco said:

My form is MDF, so I'll need to up my sealing game on it too, because I can't get them wet. 

Ducktape or aluminium tape, perhaps?

[Nicco]

Yep, good call. Thanks mate. 

Had a play this morning and had a win. Soaked a test myrtle piece under hot water for a few minutes and it went into the form no problem. Pulled it out 3 hours later and it had dried into approximately the right shape. Slipped back into the form no worries after that. Phew!

I've got my final pieces in the form now together setting into shape. Hopefully I can get the first side glued up tonight

[Nicco]

Well, fingers crossed here we go! First side is glued and clamped. I'll check it tomorrow. Eeek!

I ended up sanding the male form a little smaller, then put in a strip of 3mm insertion rubber to take up any slight variation between the male and female parts

[Nicco]

It worked!! Stoked!!