Polished and strung up

At least the two new piccolos are strung up. They have a good sheen from the shellac finish, but getting a good surface near the bridge is damn hard. So the pineapple is finished without bridge, and I'll have to scrape it away before glueing the bridge.

This is standard procedure for most builders, but it's a first for me.

The hinoki soundboard has revealed cross grain curl, and it's gonna be beautiful.

Bound!

Not bad for a first attempt I think. The contrasting edge did reveal a slight irregularity in the shape though, one I didn't see before. But you can't get it all at once. At least it seems I can't.

Routing for binding..!

A spitcoat of shellac around the edges, and away we go. I've already made the part at the neck since I mount the neck before the back. I could put the back on (as I planned) before routing, but it feels stable enough. And I want to tune the top a bit before boxing up.

This might be the last you see of this uke. Routing is scary.