FIRST BUILD TENOR UKE - DONE! NICE EDUCATIONAL PROJECT. - Intermediate building tips and tricks forum

Mark, attached are photos of the ukulele I had started before the holidays. The biggest mistake I had made was the placement of the bridge. Some how - and I still do not know why - it was off about 1/4 inch to the left. To correct the problem I moved the saddle across the slot so the strings would lay even on the neck. The only other minor problem was the pin head - IT MUST BE 3/8 INCH THICK. The cheep e-bay tuners (about $4) do not like thicker wood. I had to sand down the black plastic backing so the wing head could be screwed in. The are tight and holding well.

The best tip you folks had was to use a sample block of the plastic counter-top material corean. It cuts great and sands easy. Great material for nut and saddle.

Thanks Folks - I also have more construction photos and comments. This box actually sounds very good for having cheep strings on it.

John

Thanks Mark - Here we go!

The neck was not too bad - a little trick discovered through the build process was to leave some extra wood in front of the stacked heel. Comes in handy to clamp in the bench vice. Neck was shaped with spoke shaves, rasp and half round files. The box was fixed by adding two 1/2" thick oak blocks to each end. The origional box lid was badly warped so 1/4" cherry wood strips were used as filler and a new 1/4" birch veneer plywood lid was made. The nece was attache with a 1/4 x 20 hanger bolt, into the stacked heel. Sorry that photo is a little poor.

Mark Bliss said:

Thanks for sharing John, looks good! I think theres always something special about the first one you finish and play. That ones a treasure!

I appreciate how you stuck with it and found workable solutions to a few problems, and thanks for sharing those as well so everyone can learn from them.

I meant to point out a while back that the headstocks, and the dedicated tuners for ukes are much thinner than common guitar parts, thanks for pointing that issue out as well.

Please show us some more build pictures if you have them. The neck looks like it came out real nice. I'd like to see how you reinforced the box on the inside.

Thanks again!

Replies

John V. Pflaum January 19, 2011 at 7:31pm

Thanks Mark - Here we go!

The neck was not too bad - a little trick discovered through the build process was to leave some extra wood in front of the stacked heel. Comes in handy to clamp in the bench vice. Neck was shaped with spoke shaves, rasp and half round files. The box was fixed by adding two 1/2" thick oak blocks to each end. The origional box lid was badly warped so 1/4" cherry wood strips were used as filler and a new 1/4" birch veneer plywood lid was made. The nece was attache with a 1/4 x 20 hanger bolt, into the stacked heel. Sorry that photo is a little poor.

Mark Bliss said:

Thanks for sharing John, looks good! I think theres always something special about the first one you finish and play. That ones a treasure!

I appreciate how you stuck with it and found workable solutions to a few problems, and thanks for sharing those as well so everyone can learn from them.

I meant to point out a while back that the headstocks, and the dedicated tuners for ukes are much thinner than common guitar parts, thanks for pointing that issue out as well.

Please show us some more build pictures if you have them. The neck looks like it came out real nice. I'd like to see how you reinforced the box on the inside.

Thanks again!
Mark Bliss January 19, 2011 at 7:19am

Thanks for sharing John, looks good! I think theres always something special about the first one you finish and play. That ones a treasure!

I appreciate how you stuck with it and found workable solutions to a few problems, and thanks for sharing those as well so everyone can learn from them.

I meant to point out a while back that the headstocks, and the dedicated tuners for ukes are much thinner than common guitar parts, thanks for pointing that issue out as well.

Please show us some more build pictures if you have them. The neck looks like it came out real nice. I'd like to see how you reinforced the box on the inside.

Thanks again!

This reply was deleted.