In Spring of 2022 I decided to build some kind of ukulele-like instrument. The plan was to do things right and end up with something much closer to an "actual" ukulele than I had come before. I would use all the right materials, including old-school hot glue, which I had on hand from recovering organ bellows.
I decided to build a baritone ukulele-scale instrument with steel strings and an added low A- basically a mini guitar without the bass E. In retrospect, the layout was a little ambitious, but I wanted to come out with something unique. I was very interested in owning a 5-string, guitar-like instrument as a bridge between guitar and baritone ukulele- various interesting things happen with this tuning, such as root position and 2nd inversion chords swapping places. In general, the layout would force me to think.
Virtually all of the materials, except for glue and hardware, were local to Northeast Vermont.
Ripping and joining cedar halves for the top:
Planning the bracing pattern:
Cutting the soundhole on a drill press with a circle cutter:
Sizing the top- that is, applying a thin first coat of glue to fill the grain. Note home brew double-boiler for hot glue:
Side-bending jigs. Sides were wetted down and wrapped in tin foil before going in the oven. pressure was then gently applied to shape them onto the forms:
Finished top with walnut back and sides. Pieces for the back and sides were ripped much the same way as those for the top. All were subject to hand-planing and sanding before this photo:
Since the string setup was a little unprecedented, I decided to go on the safe side with an adjustable truss rod. I cut and threaded each end of a steel rod, one end to which I peened a slightly modified wing nut:
The neck built up and ready for shaping:
Beginning to shape the neck with drawknife, rasp, file and plane:
Slots cut for the sides per the Spanish heel style of neck jointery:
Rosette creation. Trimming bent cherry strips after cutting a channel with a plain razor blade:
Joining up the neck, sides and back. The sides were glued together at the tail block first, then glued into their neck slots. The back was then glued at tail block and heel. The sides are here shown being chased around with little gussets, shown in a jar at right:
The neck after shaping and sanding:
A rig for measuring top deflection. A hillbilly-flavored effort to introduce engineering and hopefully ensure a just-strong-enough top. Weights were introduced to the platform and the result measured as a distance. As it turns out, the braces were overbuilt:
Top attached and binding in progress. I cut binding channels by hand with a razor blade. The fingerboard is seen with frets going in at left:
Fingerboard attachment. Some clamps...
Bridge attachment:
Finished! Tru-oil coating. Mocked up with two strings and a saddle blank. Unfortunately, the neck angle came out very slightly wonky in the verticle plane, which I somehow missed throughout construction... not good... see what I did below...
The neck angle as it was would have forced too-high action- hard to play, and hard on the top. I made the difficult decision to cut into the instrument and adjust the neck. Removing the fingerboard with lots of hot water:
There were a few things I could have done, but I decided to cut the neck at the body, cut the neck to alter its angle slightly, and rejoin with dowels. So much for the Spanish heel:
The most unfortunate effect of this heavy operation was the slight repositioning of the fingerboard, resulting in the need to reshape the head slightly:
The best finished-project pictures I currently have are of the pre-fix mockup. Soon I'll take some of the final setup with strings and moose-antler nut and saddle. I also created a simple case for the instrument.
The uke was a success, with some reservations. I wish I had picked a less ambitious layout and built a plain baritone ukulele, or at least a 4-stringer meant for steel. Nerves about the tension led me to overbuild the neck, which isn't very comfortable to play, and the truss rod was probably unnecessary, especially if I had been able to build a 1-piece neck. The sound is nice, and the playability is so-so. I may end up swapping for nylon strings eventually, although I worry the sound would suffer. I will be building another ukulele next chance I get and no doubt applying a lot of brutal lessons from this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment