Recent content by RPA_Ukuleles

Here's a uke built of only redwood. Well, a few ebony bits but other than that all redwood. It's quite nice, very music box-ish and chimey sounding. I don't recommend using it for sides as they were near impossible to bend without cracks. But it's very solid and is holding up quite well.

I've built a number of hand drum based banjo-ukes. Quite fun and satifying builds. Here's one I tried to elevate the level by wrapping the drum with leopardwood, some binding, and a bit of inlay on the FB. Also made a brass tailpiece. Even so, it still sounds like a hand drum banjo haha.

Mine measures 13.5” + a little for compensation. The 12th fret is at 6.75”.

Here's a simple diagram of how neck angle, fretboard thickness, saddle height, and string height above the soundboard all relate to each other. (while maintainging .090" action above the 12th fret)

Check out this image sent to me by the photo archivist here at Langley Research Center. It shows Neil Armstrong playing ukulele in the quarantine quarters aboard the USS Hornet after the Apollo 11 splashdown. :)

I think it's fun to speculate on what's possible. Just because it hasn't been done before doesn't mean it can't be done! Here's a screen shot showing the challenge of making a uke just a few inches longer than its own scale length. Though technically it's doable, it seems that building - or...

Hi Ken, welp it doesn't seem the body measurement is one I'd flub up, but I might have! Anyway, I took a Vita uke photo and laid an inch scale over it. You can see it lines up with the 14" string scale length, and if you count the markers, the body falls right into that 9-5/8" measurement...

An additional page of measurements

Here's a page of measurements I took from a lovely Vita uke that came in for repair a few years ago

I found a late 1920s style 1 last year. It was dark and grungy but after cleaning (and cleaning and cleaning) it's ten shades lighter. A real beauty. A very koa looking mahogany.

Here's a quick/easy tailpiece option. Fit a wood saddle piece to the drum and drill through that and the drum. Knot the strings and feed through from inside.

From a previous post... For fitting a neck to a rim, I cut a two part jig for the spindle sander. The jig part on the left has the radius of the rim, and that's clamped down to the table with the edge of the sandpaper roll right in line with the arc of the jig. The second part of the jig has...

This makes me think of a tennis racquet stringing machine that uses a lever to apply force, but instead of using a torque wench, some use a long lever with a weight out on the end that's adjustable so you can set the amount of force. Seems like this drop weight lever idea could also be adapted...

Some screen shots of clever tools, jigs, and tricks I've found. No exlainations, just images to spark your imagination. Feel free to add ones that you'd like to share here in the lounge.

Big red vise at Stewmac The awesome guitar repair vise is on sale at Stewmac for $25 off. If you dont have one of these, here’s your chance. You know you’ve always wanted one. I will say that I waited a long time to get one thinking it was too expensive, but I “splurged” a couple years ago...