Session at the Baron's

Mange and Robin:

My soprano, Mange's cherry sop, and Robin's with the cedar top:

A couple of hours later, with the harps and some more beer cans:

Last night I got to see a couple of Argapas when me, Mange and Robin (BaronK of Youtube fame) got together to drink beer and jam a bit. You can see the result on Youtube, at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvBPiirLsU8

And this post is done from a computer, so it was possible to have more than one pic.

Maybe this works as well:

Yay, it seems to work! If only the font could work as well. Back to phone blogging after this experiment.

Group photo

Four small toy guitars. Numbers 1, 5 and 4 with the piccolo thrown in.

This represents half of the ukuleles I've built since December last
year, the rest consists of three tenors and two sopranos.

Cherry soprano done!

The mess in the workshop is awful but the cherry uke looks really
nice. I suspect the sophisticated sheen doesn't come across the grainy
pic though. I'm gonna try and make a Youtube presentation tonight.

Cherry uke, finish

Third coat of oil drying, the surface gets more and more convincingly
beautiful.

Bridge redux

Whew. This took its' fair amount of time. This time I use brads in the
saddle slot to stop it sliding.

My biggest mess-up this far

The one mistake you can't hide or live with. The bridge somehow
slipped during cure time and ended up at an angle. One corner of it
was 1.5 mm further away from the nut than the other.

Luckily I managed to pop it off before the glue was totally dry and
hard.

And why this sloppiness? I was in a slight hurry this afternoon. I was
on my way to play ukulele with some guys.

Good thing 1 in this shit misery: it won't show or affect the uke.
Neither the top nor the bridge was damaged.

Good thing 2: the bridge clamp works wonders. This was the best fit I
ever achieved. Wouldn't even have been necessary with a string through
solution. Speaking of which, there is that smart strategy with
drilling two of the holes and to use brads during glueing. Ought to try.

My choice to publish this may be ill adviced. I'll seem like a hack.

Cherry soprano looking like a uke

I'm very pleased with this one so far. Mange was interested initially,
but he really wanted binding so I don't know.

I have some very nice wood for the bridge, swedish gullregn. And the
fretboard will be african walnut.

Haven't decided on the frets, bar frets or standard.

A long day

This has been the best day since I don't know when. Apart from the
stuff already posted I put the neck onto the cherry sop, and also put
back braces and the back on.

In the background you can see the three-piece wenge back for Tenor no.
4, and somewhere there's also a laminated walnut/maple neck for
Markus' pineapple.

And in the holding form are four sides for the two mahogany sopranos,
for Robin and Thomas.

Cherry soprano

I haven't posted any lately, but I have been able to build some. The
cherry sop is coming together. Some springback caused the body to be
slightly wider than my others, luckily it was symmetrical and it will
maybe lead to some benefit soundwise. It looks good and I consider it
this uke's destiny (Darth Vader voice).

I'll get it a nice fretboard of african walnut.

Linings

Yesterday I made more lining strips in the apparatus I got from Ken
Timms. It took a while but they turn out nice. So now the cherry sides
are fitted with basswood linings, and the little piccolo prototype got
some as well.

I then realized that I should make the bridge patch before lining it
completely, so I made a nice patch of spruce.

I sometime complain about making more than one at the time, but find
that a couple of (different) ukes is perfect. Gives you something to
do while glue is drying.

Cherry sides bent

The shop-made (ok, home-made...) bender is in the vise, and the sides
were soaked in warm water for about 10 minutes and bent one at the
time with my small heating blanket. I had it made to my specs as my
larger one was to big for my soprano mold. Rather cheap, and it works
with a voltage regulator my father-in-law made for me from some
"tyristor control unit" that was made for a lamp.

And for the first time I prepared myself thouroughly. I marked the
wood with the word IN on the proper side, measured and marked out the
waist line, soaked the wood, wrapped it in tin foil and made sure the
markings got on the foil as well.

And then..!

It was a piece of cake.

Planing sides, super tip of the day

I'm getting along better and better with my block planes. On pic is a
low angle Stanley block plane. And the tip: when planing for example
sides that are bookmatched, turn one of them around (horizontally)
instead of "seeing the bookmatch". This way you avoid tear-out on one
of the halves. And check thickness often.

Compensated saddle

The bone saddle is compensated and appears to do the job.

And how does it sound? That's hard to say yet, really, but it sounds
different than the mahogany one next to it. Walnut is a pleasure to
work with but not a classic choice for soundboards. It seems to have a
slightly hollow barky voice, but volume is good and it is a pleasure
to play. No doubt it will mature a bit when strings settle and I get
used to holding it more firmly.

I'll get some friends over I think and let them listen, and they
should bring some ukes for comparision.

I'm really pleased with this my 4th soprano and 7th ukulele. Joints
and alignment and surfaces are getting better, and with the thinner
saddle and nut I think this one looks almost very good.

Thanks for reading!

Back side up

And from the back.

Walnut uke done!

Here it is next to no. 1, my reference.

Bridge glued

With a newly built bridge clamp, the bridge is set for an over-night
drying. Made the fretboard earlier today, this is shaping up to be the
best weekend for years!

Apart from Hollesley of course.

Oh, and when I went away with my wife. Of course.

Fretboard for walnut uke

Fretboard is prepared and awaiting dot markers and, of course, frets.

But I have to glue the back first, and that means fitting the back
braces.

Neck attached

Although every step takes about the same amount of time as before, my
experience allows me to cut down the idle time in between. So I
hesitate a lot less.

Sides glued

Last night I made the bridge patch and glued the sides to the top.
Also please note the inlaid maple strip by the end block - my first
attempt at inlay (to conceal a less than perfect joint). And it will
look good with the matching strip in the neck.

Status this morning

As you can see, the parts are done for the little walnut uke. Back
braces and bridge patch will be made tonight.

Oh I completely forgot fretboard... Could come in handy you know, for
playing. I have some nice wood for it though.