Nicco

Thanks both Biz and Mr Natural, some good info in both your posts. I'll find an opportunity to respond in detail soon, so for now just wanted to say thanks. I did dampen the cupped side of the back plate and or flattened out pretty easily, but unfortunately it rapidly reverted back to banana shape after it dried out. ☹

Thanks Biz. Yeah, putting some moisture on it was definitely along the lines I was thinking. Steam or an iron are good ideas too. I might start at least intrusive (moisture) then work my way up from there. I like the idea with the slats too, thanks. I'll do that as well. Worst comes to worst, I have a backup plan for the back of the instrument. Soundboard not so much, but I'll work that out as I go. Ha ha

I really must clean my bench too... very unphotogenic! Ha ha

Hey brains trust, after a slight shed time deviation, its time to get stuck back into dad's uke. Unfortunately, that means I have to face the problem I'd been putting off... the back panel is really badly warped. Interested to hear any suggestions on how to save it, if it can at all. A bit of a recap of what we're looking at, it's a 3 ply laminate, 0.6mm qld walnut on the face, 0.5mm qld walnut cross grain in the middle, 0.6mm tasmanian blackwood on the inside. I glued it up on a flat panel, using white pva glue under vacuum. First thoughts are obviously that the middle ply shouldn't have been the thinnest, I didn't actually think to measure until after it was all done; silly me. Everything was dry when I glued it up, so wondering if the moisture in the pva has contributed too? Lastly, it's bloody hot and bloody dry here at the moment, when I glued them up, there was a lot more humidity in the air. Probably a big factor. Similarly, the top had warped too, it's actually popped the glue joint on the last 10mm or so of the two ribs. Worried that both will be scrap at this point. Back panel: Soundboard:

Congratulations, mate! Absolutely gorgeous guitar!

Thanks Biz! I feel pretty chuffed that the group thought my little uke was worthy of being compared with @mattharris75 gorgeous guitar!

Bloody nice looking scraps of wood!

Congratulations on taking out guitar of the year, mate.

Okay, I'll give Matt something to beat for this month. This is Mum's uke. I decided a long while back that I would like to make my parents ukuleles as they have both got into their playing in recent years. It's also become a bit of a thank you and welcome present after my folks decided to sell up their house in the north east if Australia and move to the southwest to be closer to me, my wife and their now 3 year old grandson. The specs: Soprano size All Australian timbers throughout; Tiger myrtle back, myrtle sides, both laminated onto bunya pine cores. Bunya pine soundboard. Qld maple neck with tasmanian blackwood accent strip, and qld maple and dyed black maple binding. Mulga fretboard, rosette and bridge. Qld maple blocks and braces. Passive, peizo pickup (the discs on the underside of the soundboard type) This has been my first acoustic instrument build and I've learned heaps. Dad's one should follow later in the year. Unfortunately I don't have any particularly brilliant photos of it just yet, I finished it 12 hours before handing it over. The note to mum is on the inside of the back, so is visible through the sound hole. Mum absolutely loves it. It plays easily and had a lovely, mellow sound.

Well, the soprano is all done! Mum's birthday was yesterday, so I got to give it to her for that, which was really nice. She absolutely loved it and was blown away. Good result! It plays nicely (for a uke, anyway ) The biggest hurdle I had was to fit the bridge; I tried clamps through the sound hole which didn't work, putting chocks in there so I could clamp around the outside. In the end I gave up and went full backyard and just pulled it tight with as much blue tape as I could! Ha ha. Seems to have worked. In the end, I've learned a lot; there's some finishing stuff I'd do differently next time, it was very hard to get the surface as flat as I wanted with wipe on poly. The sound board is probably a bit rigid too; it could definitely be louder, although it does have a lovely mellow sound. I'll take proper photos later, but for now, I'm very pleased with how it came out, plus relieved it's done. I'll slowly get the tenor done from here, but need to get a few other things done around the house first.

Finished product looks gorgeous matey

Hi everyone, merry Christmas and happy new year to all. It's been a busy few months, I ended up taking a new job which I started this week, finished up my last one just before Christmas. Everything was hectic doing hand overs and trying to get projects done before I left. Needless to say, I missed my Christmas deadline. It's mum's birthday next week, so thrashing now to get her's finished; dad's can wait, he's not playing as much at the moment anyway, he's preferring to play his cajon instead. I'll just let the pictures show where I'm at; tuner holes drilled, face plate trimmed, fretboard fitted and the frets all done, neck finished shading and sanding, clear filler put on the sides and back to fill the open grain (and my shitty work. Ha ha), first coats of finish are on sides and back as well. Last tricky step is to fit the bridge. Having only done electrics before where the bridge has adjustment, I'm concerned about getting this one just right. You'll have to excuse the messy bench. Cleaning is low on the priority list at the moment.

I love the neck joint, really interesting way to do it with the much larger footprint on the back. Looks like it would ge very stable. Do you typically do your bolt on neck joints like that? Or is it just this one?

I've been pretty quiet lately on this one, busy with family stuff and work then hit a bit of a snag with bringing the soprano fretboard down to thickness; one corner got away from me and ended up too thin to be able to salvage. Very frustrating. So with that in mind I decided to take a few days off work this week so I could, A) get some momentum back up, and just generally not go to work, which is always nice. I did also decide to buy a thicknesser. It's always frustrated me not having one, and I'm too time constrained to frig around without the right tools. With my new sidekick I got stuck back in. Soprano now is neck glued in; fretboard cut, thicknessed, and mostly fretted; neck heel shaped; body sanded to 400 grit and first coat of finish on. I have a little bit of clear filler to go in the open pores of the myrtle, plus a couple of little binding gaps to fill, but otherwise making good progress. The soundboard for the tenor has a rosette now and has been thicknessed (pre-machine and I almost had to bin it too! Grr) plus the first couple of braces are on. I think, if I really knuckle down, I should be able to hand them over for Christmas... hopefully... maybe

Wow, that's absolutely gorgeous, I love it. Just such a nicely balanced aesthetic where no one bit over powers but it all looks so classy together. Bravo!!