Carved neck

I'm pleased with this one. The neck is a bit beefier because of all the strings, but the little volute and the throat before the headstock feels really good.

Some rough shaping first with a japanese hand saw, then a stationary belt sander. But the detailing was all made with knives.

You can also see the mandolin tuners. Turns out they have a huge ratio, I didn't think of that when I ordered them. Tuning takes a long time, but hopefully that'll be better once the strings are stretched.

Finally in tune

And that is in D-tuning. I tune all my ukes in C, but Ronald is a D guy. And I needed to try it to see if the soundboard would fly off.

I'll keep an ear open tonight for the sound of wood coming apart.

But the sounds I've managed to get out of it so far are convincing, it sounds really good. If only Ronald would come to pick it up.

Pesky effin' electronics

Shellac is all but done, it could do with a final glaze coat or a careful rubbing. And the tuners are in place, strings take forever to tune but it works! It sounds different from all my others, as was expected. I'm not used to the tenor scale, so I'm eager to get Ronald over here so I can listen to it being played.

And I got a pickup in place under the saddle. And it sort of works, but the preamp is nigh impossible. I am crap at electronics and have no clue at all.

French polishing the 8-string

I've been a bit reluctant to call my process of putting on shellac "french polishing" because of all the secret mumbo jumbo that is connected with the method. But after a few ukes and with increasingly better results I now call it french polishing.

This is me doing it, and for a base coat / sealer I used vernice bianca, a mixture of gum arabic and egg whites. It was something I read about and wanted to try. The gum arabic was dissolved in water, and it felt weird to apply the mixture to the seasoned and dry mahogany wood. But no harm was done, and maybe a few pores were filled.

It's a bit awkward to polish around the bridge and fretboard end, and for those areas I don't use the muneca but an eraser wrapped in cloth. The edges of the eraser are a lot easier to use in the corners.

Ron's tenor... and a couple of concerts?!

Fretboard is finished, and glued to the neck. I sanded the body outside, in the forest behind my house, with our new cordless sander (to the right in the pic). It works great, and everything that helps to keep the dust level down is hugely appreciated.

I also made a very neat bridge of ebony, and it gets sanded underneath to conform to the domed soundboard.

But the strangest news is... the Argapa concerts took a leap forward when I sanded all the flat parts today. I made the necks last weekend. Look out, Ben and Brian! The parts can be seen behind Johan's jelly-fish-ulele.

Now; supper.

Ronald's tenor, back on

How come I never thought of this before? With a magical mirror, I can show both sides in one pic! Oh the joy of discoveries...

The back went on yesterday, and I cut the overhang tonight. With knives and a chisel. Laminate trimmers and flush cut routers are for non vikings. And wimps. And posers.

Anyway, you should be able to see the ash peghead veneer and the ash heel cap, the latter of which is integrated in the back. Both pieces come from the same tree that was used in Jukka's and Aya's wedding uke (see label called something along those lines).

This tenor has moved on quite fast. I'm used to mahogany and the new mold works great. For finish, I'm considering egg white pore filling and shellac.

Ronald's tenor assembled

Holes are cut. Holes for tuners, hole for pre-amp, hole for endpin jack, soundhole and all the holes for the bolt-on neck.

Low tech circle cutter, II

Done!

Low tech circle cutter

Simple. Perfect. I never believed the hype.

Scale length

It's not always easy for me to get the distances right, and this new body shape tricked me a bit. But with the guitar sized template (and some luck) I could choose a new scale length that will give me the desired neck to body connection, neck length and neck block to bridge plate distance.

Phew. So it'll be 440.5 mm scale length plus compensation, and a 14th fret connection.

Now I just need to keep calm and remember which slots to use when sawing.

Ronald's tenor, sides glued to top

Bracing pattern is sort of instinct based. I'll leave the back off for a bit so I can tap and feel after neck is bolted on, and the hole is cut. Then there's the issue of Rockonald's undersaddle pickup... I don't know anything about those yet, other than that they're lying in a heap somewhere.

Tenor lined, Grant's uke sanded

Just a progress pic.

Ronald's tenor

Too late in the evening to drumsand Grant's fretboard, so I bent the sides for Ronald's eight string tenor. These are the first sides built to my new mold. I braced the top yesterday and today I remembered Chuck Moore's advice: make the sides before you make the top and back. And, they didn't crack. Bending iron was a lot hotter than usual today (I'm so impatient I always rush things otherwise), and the bending process was fast, smooth and turned out perfect.

Grant's fretboard will be sanded to thickness during the week, I might plane it down a bit first.

Stuff I made this weekend

I was at the big workshop today, and managed to get some things done. Ronald's tenor neck was stacked and sawn, the wenge neck for my reso was sanded on a belt sander - wenge is so hard to carve I just ruined some knives on it.

I also took two of the cedar neck blanks I bought from Pete to the bandsaw, and from each I got two soprano necks and one piccolo neck. I don't know for sure if I'm going to make piccolos with cedar necks, but now I got them.

Finally, I attempted to make fretboards of lilac that was cut outside my house. But it had a spongy core, and I need to measure carefully to see if I can get pieces wide enough without resorting to flatsawn boards.