Two ukes finished

Well I finally decided to be happy with the finish and call them done. Of course, after that decision there are a few small jobs that need seeing to. Especially on the reso. 

The acoustic soprano got a saddle, a nut and tuner pegs. Those are planetary geared pegs from Twofold Media if I recall correctly, excellent but pricey and I need to import them from Australia. 

Number 129 is what it is. This one went to a friend of mine on the island so it stays in the vicinity. 

And here it is in the kitchen. As always a flat bottom means it can stand by itself if you’d ever want to show off in front of your friends. 

The reso then. It needs a string holder instead of the cutting holes stamped in the coverplate. I fashioned this one out of ironwood, from a scrap piece of demo flooring material I got to the office. 

The string holder is held by a couple of small screws and washers from beneath. 

Setting up a reso gets old very quickly - shaving off a smidge from the bridge means removing all screws hilding the coverplate. I needed to do that three or four times before the action height was perfect. The. Ut is buffalo horn, I thought the black detail went well with the tuners. 

And a full frontal with it standing next to number 74, one of my personal ukes. 

Now it is shipped off to its new home. 

Everything all at once

I hope my license to blog doesn’t get revoked even though I mismanage it severly. So sorry for the lack of updates. A while back I made the fretboards and I took some extra time making the frets level and shiny. Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures of the processes but the results are fine. 

And for the acoustic soprano I made a bridge that I placed using the old method of marking the extended edge lines from the fretboard. 

The lengthwise position is twice the ditance of the twelth fret from the nut, plus a wee bit for compensation. 

And now we’re at the finishing stage! I have developed my method of making a shellac finish over the years and I am getting better results. Simply put, I make a thicker base coat and level that with a thin card scraper before I start polishing. 

It’s looking rather nice isn’t it. Ye olde mahogany from my dad’s boat building project in the 1960:s. 

New ukes started

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more. 

Or as we say more often: hiya. The itch is coming back and it can’t all be ticks can it now. I delved into the stash and emerged with mahogany and parts for a reso skeleton. 

Starting out by glueing up the skeleton and sawing out plates for the acoustic soprano. 

Bending did not go smoothly. This is ancient wood and it is brittle, I actually had to bend the soprano rim back to straight again and shave a bit more off with the drum sander. Now it’s a bit thin, maybe I’ll secure it with transverse cleats. I’ll give it a think. 

Last pic is of the reso, I glued the rim onto the skeleton. It is a one piece rim, both because I like that better and because it is much easier to glue since I can tighten it around the round part as I clamp the waist with my waist clamping clamp. 

Cheers! 

New project started

Is there anywhere a more patient man than S? He and I have been penpals for a couple of years now, since he first approached me enquiring about the chance of me building a soprano resonator for him. I then explained the circumstances under which I toiled, with all tools and jigs packed and stored in boxes in grandma’s attic. 

But now the new workshop is well under way to completion. I have spent a month constructing storage solutions for the tools, and today I dug into the remaining boxes of… stuff, and found the small pile of resonator skeletons. 

And I thought, why not start already. 

I even found the ready-made dowels that hold the halves together. What I didn’t find was the spacers I used to get the distance right, but they were easy to replace. 

And a neck block of the right height. I think I remember using a strip of plywood for those, but this will sound better for sure. 

Clamped up and drying. Fanx, S. You’re a champ.