On the 31 of May this year, I made a stringholder and regretted I didn't show the process. And knowing you lot you've hardly slept since. But finally we'll get closure on that troublesome matter because here is a post thick with pics, tips and a glue never before seen on an Argapa.
First I made three wee blanks of two bits of wood. One is Ipe, one is Jatoba and both are samples that came to my office. The Jatoba is from the same piece as the fretboard of my old number one soprano.
I cut the rabbets on the table saw since it was up and running, usually I make cuts like this with a tiny plane.
And that tiny plane was still used to clean the rabbets up a bit. It's from Veritas' miniature series and it works great.
From the same series comes this spokeshave, here I use it to make the bottom of the stringholder concave to match the cover plate.
Like so. It fits but it slides around like crazy and I got a great idea for drilling the mounting holes from below.
Look! A glue gun with melt glue. Two dabs keeps it steady, if not rock solid.
Drilling with my Proxxon and a depth stop on the drill bit. Two holes as far apart as possible in the outer holes.
After removing the stringholder I drilled holes for the strings, stearing clear of the screw holes.
And this it what it looks like. Using counter sunk (and cut) screws against flat metal is of course unclean but in this case it helps to keep the stringholder in place when the screws go in.
And there you have it - three stringholders on the cover plates, which are loosely placed on the ukes.
And Mary Agnes - I gave your unicorn a black eye. And it's coming for you.
