Big Boy showing construction.

This is box #6. The box is made of Tulip Poplar with same for neck. Walnut fretboard from Mike Orr. The top is Sitka Spruce. It has a booming acoustic sound. No need for a pickup. behind on the chair are #3, #4, and #5.
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  • Oh, I see... 

    Sound of my uke: I still didn't have time to prepare the recording setup, but i had PC and access to the soundcloud ;-)

    Check my page

  • The case Seaman, not Big Boy... the case is the furniture. Big Boy is my child... By the way, your bent wood uke sure came out nice. I love the shape. How's she sound?

  • A piece of furniture? Don't say that...

    305851744?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

  • Seaman, Big Boy is the loudest acoustic box i've made so far. The case i made for him looks like a foot locker at the gym. It's a piece of furniture. This fellow is loud like a dreadnot. 

  • cigar box guitarron? hell yeah!

  • Thanks Andy, I've been using three soundboard choices. Sitka Spruce off ebay (about 30$ per bookmatched pair of guitar tops shipping included). Also Engleman Spruce at about the same price. And best of all Martin Guitar reject Sitka Spruce. I got 19 reject top halfs (they split the tops in half when they reject them) on ebay as a lot. They cost less than 5$ each. I can make a bigger box out of the other Spruce, but this Martin wood is very hard, close grained, lively wood! You can get some great wood on ebay. They are all about 3/16ths thick. I sand for a while to thin them a little.

  • Looks great!  What are you using for the soundboards? How thick? 

  • Not on Big Boy. He's an acoustic and there's no need for getting back inside. He's so loud, there's no need for electrics. Most of mine now have some means of entry. Some have back panels screwed down. Some have jack plates big enough to get in. Lately, they have cover plates on top to trim up the pickups and cover the pots. I'm going back into #3 to fix a piezo that quit on me. It didn't have any way in. I'll cut around my jack to open up an access panel. Some have screw on tops. These are antique boxes found in shops and ebay. I've been finding nice big boxes on ebay under "wooden box" for from 10 to 20$. I like it when all the electronics are on one control plate so I can take out the panel to change something and solder right on the panel.

  • Are these built in a way that you can get back into the box if you need to work on it??

  • Thanks much, yes I make most of the boxes. I'm on #19, a solid body lap steel six string. See todays photos. I love doing this. I started out repairing old ukuleles and now I'm really into building. I like some antique boxes too. I've done a few diddly bows using old boxes and my first two builds were made of an old produce spruce box I cut apart and rebuilt into two boxes. They play good, it's fun to bring them to life.

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