So, I have found that on some builds, after all the careful selection of boxes and doing what I can to insure good acoustic tone and volume that the string pressure on the bridge tends to deform the soundboard and the bridge ends up sitting on the through neck. All of the work in cutting the relief on the through neck to keep space between it and the soundboard has caused it's own set of "issues". If this happens on one with already low string action, fret buzz can become a problem. This seems to happen even on builds that do not have a very severe break angle at the bridge. Anyone else? Is this where internal bracing comes into my building picture? I use the thinnest surface of the box for the soundboard, often the "bottom" of the box. There is never a free lunch is there?
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I meant great job on the tune and uke Jim Morris!
Thanks Bluesheart. In print me and Wade look a lot alike! I like your solution - as Cool Hand Luke famously said "sometimes nothin' is a real cool hand" so leave it as is and file the lessons learned away for future builds.
SO,I opened up this box last night and messed around with ideas. Then it hit me that the simplest fix was not to fix it at all! The top is already touching the through neck under the bridge which leaves the rest of the surface free to vibrate and the neck is kind of weak and tends to bow a bit so the slightly lowered action from the box crush actually is a benefit. I like to play this one with a slide a lot so the crappy action is again a bonus there. I put on a lower and wider bridge but the break angle is already so shallow that any benefit was lost due to decrease of string pressure on the saddle, so while it made it more playable for fretting, the volume suffered. So I will reshape the top edge of the corian bridge, or maybe try a piece of the bone my dog is chewing next to me and leave well enough alone. It's not like I don't have a dozen or so guitars to choose from if I want to do fingerstyle. It just goes to show that sometimes a "problem" is really an added feature!!
Wonderful job on the uke and the tune Wade!
http://youtu.be/mRw9dbPFdQQ
Here's the cardboard cb uke with the soundpost.
Well I love a discussion that makes me go out and experiment. I normally don't use cardboard boxes due to their lack of strength. But I wanted to see if my soundpost design would work on a weak topped box. This shows my normal soundpost arrangement but I used a wider based bridge than I usually do and went with a nylon string uke for less tension. I'll give it some time and see what happens. If I see signs of sag I might try a 2nd soundpost on the bass side of the bridge. I'll post a vid of how it sounds in a bit.
Yeah Wade, I read your earlier post and thought about putting it on the thru piece. I think that would be better strength wise but this is how I do my fiddles (along with a bass bar on fiddles) and I didn't want to have too many variables to try and judge. You can see where I tried to glue a cross brace on the top but the paper covering pulled away so the experiment continues. Now that I've done a sound test this way I might try the post your way for comparison purposes.
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