Thanks for all the good info. And I agree, the shorter the scale, the harder to get the frets, nut and saddle close to 'right'. I hope you get it improved to your satisfaction.
Thanks Uncle John. This is a little 13 inch scale uke that I built for my five year old nephew. His name is Patrick, hence the 'P' on the headstock, and he loves dinosaurs.
The neck is made from Tasmanian oak, reclaimed from my kitchen cabinets, and the fretboard is a thick piece of Tasmanian myrtle. The heel and the sides of the headstock are myrtle as well. The inlays are local abalone shell that I found on the beach. The bridge is an off cut from the end of the headstock with a piece of bone (reclaimed from the dog) glued on. The nut is a bit of very hard acacia. This was my third cigar box instrument and my first attempt at making shell inlays. I made a lot of mistakes but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
I'm still fiddling with the intonation. I need to file the nut down a bit on one side, and I'll probably try to do some fine tuning of the shape of the bridge to compensate for the difference in string gauges. One thing I've learned is that short scale length instruments like this are very unforgiving when it comes to any small inaccuracies in fret position or leveling.
Comments
Thanks for all the good info. And I agree, the shorter the scale, the harder to get the frets, nut and saddle close to 'right'. I hope you get it improved to your satisfaction.
Thanks Uncle John. This is a little 13 inch scale uke that I built for my five year old nephew. His name is Patrick, hence the 'P' on the headstock, and he loves dinosaurs.
The neck is made from Tasmanian oak, reclaimed from my kitchen cabinets, and the fretboard is a thick piece of Tasmanian myrtle. The heel and the sides of the headstock are myrtle as well. The inlays are local abalone shell that I found on the beach. The bridge is an off cut from the end of the headstock with a piece of bone (reclaimed from the dog) glued on. The nut is a bit of very hard acacia. This was my third cigar box instrument and my first attempt at making shell inlays. I made a lot of mistakes but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.
I'm still fiddling with the intonation. I need to file the nut down a bit on one side, and I'll probably try to do some fine tuning of the shape of the bridge to compensate for the difference in string gauges. One thing I've learned is that short scale length instruments like this are very unforgiving when it comes to any small inaccuracies in fret position or leveling.
Very nice 3 string uke. Love the dinosaur. Tell us about this nice build.