Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
I get a lot of questions about this so I took the time this morning to snap some photos and share my procedure. If I could do a video I would but I'll leave that to my friends across the pond as that is still over my head and too time consuming. The procedure is not as scary as it sounds. Of course if you've built any number of instruments you know that there are 1000 opportunities to screw things up and this is certainly one of those times. Do a couple of practice runs on some lacquered scrap first before attempting to do this on one of your precious ukes.
The top is masked (with GREEN tape for lacquer) and the bridge is indexed in the usual fashion, outlined with a sharp pencil and cut 1/16" on in inside perimeter with an X-Acto knife. The mask is removed and the routing begins with a cut just shallow enough to remove the lacquer and nothing else. I use an 1/8" carbide bit in a Stew Mac Dremel base. (You'll notice that I've put blue tape on the bottom of the base and I also paint the top of the base flat black to eliminate glare. Not necessary really but a good thing to do anyway.) You'll also notice Aaron Oya's patented dust deflection device attached to the carbide bit.
I've probably done 500 ukes this way and I find it very fast and easy. I timed myself on this one and it took 40 seconds for the lacquer removal on this uke. And it leaves a nice clean flat surface to accept the bridge.
The top is masked (with GREEN tape for lacquer) and the bridge is indexed in the usual fashion, outlined with a sharp pencil and cut 1/16" on in inside perimeter with an X-Acto knife. The mask is removed and the routing begins with a cut just shallow enough to remove the lacquer and nothing else. I use an 1/8" carbide bit in a Stew Mac Dremel base. (You'll notice that I've put blue tape on the bottom of the base and I also paint the top of the base flat black to eliminate glare. Not necessary really but a good thing to do anyway.) You'll also notice Aaron Oya's patented dust deflection device attached to the carbide bit.
I've probably done 500 ukes this way and I find it very fast and easy. I timed myself on this one and it took 40 seconds for the lacquer removal on this uke. And it leaves a nice clean flat surface to accept the bridge.