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.

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. 

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

Bravo! Sensational build. I'm with Bizman, there are too many details that are noteworthy to mention, but the bevel is a standout for me too, such a smooth transition into it. 

The rosette subtly moving from darker to lighter is gorgeous as well. 

Oh wow, this whole thing is looking absolutely spectacular!!

Ah righto, yep, that all makes sense! Thanks!

And @mistermikev, there are a couple of terms there I don't know, sorry. Smugglers route? And radius cut on the thinline? As in putting a radius over the body like Bizman suggested? 

Thanks guys, all really awesome suggestions. 

I like the approach of resawing a sliver of the body and using that as a cap again later; I definitely feel like when I'm more confident in my saw set up abilities that'll be an approach I would be keen to try out. 

For this next project I'll be able to use binding (unless I change my mind yet again, lol), so the idea of using another material as the under-cap and hiding it also works really well. 

Yeah, that would definitely work as well, Curtis. I have a bandsaw that is technically big enough, not sure if I trust it/myself enough yet though to try that on. Ha ha

Thanks Biz. That's definitely a way to do it as well. I'd have to have a play with the design to make it work.

Hey team,

Just after a little bit of advice please. I'm currently finalising the design for my next solid-body guitar, planning on using tasmanian blackwood and a nice, 0.6mm thick, veneer. The blackwood is pretty heavy, so I'd like to try and take a bit of weight out of it. 

If I was using a 5mm top cap, I'd just hog out a bunch of material from the body blank and then seal it up, but given I'm wanting to use a veneer, I'm not sure what my options are, if any? The best I've managed to think up is maybe using a 30mm forstner bit to drill weight reduction holes, plus also put a ledge a couple of mm down with a bigger bit, and put in a disc fill piece to level the top surface back off? Seems heaps complicated.  

Does anyone know the best way to tackle this?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks Scott, really appreciate it mate! 

3 hours ago, henrim said:

Aluminium part is turned in a small metal lathe. As well as the padouk part, IIRC.

Yes, that is a modified Switchcraft end pin jack (for acoustic). Switchcraft jack is made of chrome/nickel plated brass. I removed the plating in the lathe and turned a aluminium outer ring for the jack.

Very cool, they both turned out fantastically. Well done. 

And the cool looking output jack too; did you make that?

Wow, that's actually a pretty good looking knob... not words I ever thought I was going to type!

I saw in your other build that you were milling parts, doo you've obviously got done machining ability, did you turn the aluminium ring on a lathe? 

Oh and I see in the early posts there seems to be a lot of discussion about the knobs you're using. What's the go with them? Ha ha

Looks absolutely sensational with the French polish. Also pretty impressively slim looking from side on, helped no doubt by the chamfer you've used on the back. What's the overall thickness of the body? 

Thanks everyone! Really feel a bit humbled given the quality of builds on this site! 

Edit: seems I can't respond to the voting thread any more. 

Just also wanted to say a quick thanks to everyone who voted in the GOTM, and to @ADFinlayson with that gorgeous SG!

Ooft! That's absolutely gorgeous! 

Hi everyone,

This is my second build, SSB (Semillon Sauvignon Blanc? Short Scale Bass? You decide!! Ha ha)

Here is the link to my build thread: 

Specs:
I really wanted to try and make this one, timber wise at least, all Australian. We've got some nice stuff out here, but it's not that common from what I've seen.

Body: Bunya pine (not a pine softwood, it's a hardwood that really does look a lot like normal pine)
Cap: Queensland maple
Veneer accent strip: Tasmanian blackwood
Neck: Queensland maple
Fretboard: Gidgee
Fretboard binding and markers: Bunya Pine
Pickups: EMG Active PJ set
Bridge: Hipshot D-type
Tuners: Gotoh sealed
Scale length: 30"

The history of this build: I did a 1 week building course back in 2015 and had been harbouring dreams of building another after that. It took me a couple of go's to eventually get build #1 done, which is also documented on this site. One of the false starts though was a bass - I bought all the hardware plus some timber to get started but messed up making the neck, got a bit dejected and parked it for a couple of years. After I made build 1 last year, I was keen to have another go at the bass - especially given I had the pickups, tuners and bridge just sitting in a box. I'd used the body blank in build 1, and I'd messed the neck up, so I was on the lookout for new timbers. I saw this cap pop up with a timber seller over in the east coast and jumped on it straight away. 

I drew the design up in Inkscape (think free Adobe Illustator), then used AutoCAD to flesh out the design in more detail. Build one took about 15 months from start to finish, I was keen to do this one quicker, partly with more experience and a few more tools, but mostly with better planning. In the end, I got this one done in 5 months, while not exactly record breaking, I'm pretty happy with it - I still have a day job and look after a 2 year old, very hectic toddler! Ha ha, so I'm limited to an hour here or there in evenings or occasionally during an arvo toddler nap. 

I chose the short scale as I'd always found playing a 34" scale bass a bit of a stretch for me - I could do it, but not comfortably. Having now played it, yep, that was definitely the right call for me! The short scale just fits so much better and is easy to play nicely. 

I also included an integrated pick and right angle jack adaptor cavity; I know, I know, picks, bass, blurgh! Too bad, I like playing with a pick. Ha ha. I'd often thought it would be handy to have a little holder build into the guitar to keep a pick, so you don't have to go searching when you want to have a 2 minute jam. The right angle jack adaptor was a more practical thing; most of my cables are straight, and a couple of my guitars can only take straight leads, but I really wanted to try to the front jack location, so I picked up an adaptor and designed the cavity around it. This is where the cad design really came into it's own, as I was able to build the cavity to fit in and around the pickups without interfering, and also sink a spare jack in from the top of the body blank before the cap went on. 

Right, that feels like enough wall of text, here are some photos. 

Thanks Charlie.

Biz, Yeah, thanks. I'm not really sold on the look of an external battery box, it just doesn't do much for me, but I also thought it would look unfinished with the main control cavity being exposed when changing the battery. I played around with it heaps during the design phase and finally managed to tweak it all to fit (just!)

As you've said, no one else will really know it's there, but it makes me happy. Ha ha

Oh and I realise I've not trimmed the strings... yeah... I'll get to that. Ha ha

Sanded the body up to 1200 grit today, the bunya pine burnished up really nicely, gave it quite a bit more character which was nice. First coats of oil are on. Looks so good, I'm pumped with it! 

Realistically, I need to join the neck to the body now, but the long of the short of it is I'm shitting bricks about a glued in neck, so I'm stalling. Genuinely considering just chickening out and using screws again... 

Thanks Scott. 

Funny you say about the headstock and the horns, I didn't actually pick up on that, but I tried a heap of designs before settlng on that one. Probably explains why it just looked right to me. Ha ha