Leeward Lounge Ukes, back to the drawing board

finkdaddy

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So, after a long hiatus, I'm jumping with both feet back into uke building once again. Up to this point, my ukes have been loosely based on the Hana Lima Ia plans. But this time around I want to do something more unique and special, at least compared to what I've done so far. So I am literally going back to the drawing board to create my own set of plans. I want to create a proprietary Leeward Lounge design and spend the time to make all of the necessary jigs and templates to make it repeatable.

The body on this uke will be much wider than my previous ones, but will be substantially thinner; similar to the Kala thin bodied travel uke, but not quite that thin. I'm going to make the whole body out of solid myrtle wood with an ebony bridge and fretboard. Around the body, neck, and headstock will be a binding made of brass! I'm even going to make the saddle and nut out of solid brass as well. It's also going to try a zero-fret with a radiused fretboard.

It's supposed to look stylized, and the details I will be adding should give it an art deco look.

I will continue to post progress pics on this. I'm very excited to be building again, and I'm thrilled to be back on this forum!

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Sounds interesting. Brass binding huh? I don't think I've ever heard of that. Not sure about the brass nut and saddle idea though - would make tweaks quite a bit harder. The rest sounds good. Looking forward to how the design progresses.
 
Thanks, Jim!

Yeah, I'm prepared to take a lot of guff for the idea. I'm just going to try it out and see how it looks and sounds. If it doesn't work out the way I'd like, it would certainly be easy enough to change it to something more conventional.

I thought of the idea one day because I'm an engineer at a company that makes tools, and I found a little piece of brass in the maintenance room one day that I thought was the perfect size for a binding. It turned out to be way too small, but we have a metal distributor just a short ways away that has the perfect flat-stock for it. I just figured I'd give it a try!
 
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Will you design, which looks pretty cool with bigger lower bout, fit in a tenor HSC. On thing that is important to me is that any tenor I buy has to fit a tenor HSC.
 
Brass saddles can be found on Tiples.

Horrendous intonation past the 4th, which is is why I compensated the ones I made for Ramon Camarillo and Samson Sang.

Kehani, are you saying that those instruments have horrendous intonation because if the way they are built, or because of the brass saddles?
 
Will you design, which looks pretty cool with bigger lower bout, fit in a tenor HSC. On thing that is important to me is that any tenor I buy has to fit a tenor HSC.

M3Ukelele, you just totally ruined my day. :( I worked for days on that design and it never even occurred to me to check my HSC dimensions! Ugh. This design would be way to wide to fit in my Oscar Schmitt case. It probably wouldn't even fit in a baritone case. Oh well. As they say, back to the drawing board!

Edit: Ok, I just did all kinds of measuring. If I bring down the width by just a half inch on both sides, it should fit into a tenor case. My only concern is the roundness of the lower bout. It basically moves the whole shape forward in the case and I'm worried that it will interfere with the shape of the case. If I reduce the radius of the lower bout, instead of just moving it in by a half inch, it may eliminate both problems. I'll let you know once I redraw everything. Thank you so much for thinking of this before I got down to actually cutting wood!
 
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M3Ukelele, you just totally ruined my day. :( I worked for days on that design and it never even occurred to me to check my HSC dimensions! Ugh. This design would be way to wide to fit in my Oscar Schmitt case. It probably wouldn't even fit in a baritone case. Oh well. As they say, back to the drawing board!

Edit: Ok, I just did all kinds of measuring. If I bring down the width by just a half inch on both sides, it should fit into a tenor case. My only concern is the roundness of the lower bout. It basically moves the whole shape forward in the case and I'm worried that it will interfere with the shape of the case. If I reduce the radius of the lower bout, instead of just moving it in by a half inch, it may eliminate both problems. I'll let you know once I redraw everything. Thank you so much for thinking of this before I got down to actually cutting wood!

Fred, glad to see you building again.

Larger width tenors like a Moodyville use a baritone case. Or like JazzBoxUkes you could build your own case.

One more thing, brass frets will tarnish & discolor and don't look that nice to me when discolored. Maybe go with EVO-Gold frets if you want a good looking 'yellow' metal fret.
 
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Fred, glad to see you building again.

Larger width tenors like a Moodyville use a baritone case. Or like JazzBoxUkes you could build your own case.

One more thing, brass frets will tarnish & discolor and don't look that nice to me when discolored. Maybe go with EVO-Gold frets if you want a good looking 'yellow' metal fret.

Thanks, Doc J! Yeah I wasn't planning on doing brass frets at all. I did look at the EVO-Gold frets and may go with that. If not, the classic nickel ones will do. I will look into the dimensions of the Moodyville ukes. Thanks for the heads up!

EDIT: Actually, Doc J, it turns out that my design would easily fit inside of a baritone HSC! This poses the question, should I keep my original design, or do I size it down for a tenor HSC? Would you be willing to buy a high-end tenor uke that needed a baritone sized case? (I'm not asking you to buy it. It's just a hypothetical! Ha!)
 
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I don't see why the case would be an issue. As long as there is a case that works for those that want a HSC, what's the problem?
 
Making an ukulele fit a case? Seems like cart before the horse to me.

Yeah, I've already decided to go with my original plan, regardless of the case issue. I was just thinking that I would really like to sell a few of these, so I wanted to make something that pleased everyone. However, upon further consideration, I decided that my original, large body idea would stand me apart from the typical builds.

Thanks for all of the input!
 
Fink daddy,
I have a Moodyville. Doc is correct it fits a baritone hard shell case. Mine came with a canvas hard foam case, which got smacked during a shipping. I also find that the foam HSC don't hold the humidity inthe case as well as a plywood HSC. I purchased a Musicians Friend baritone case it it works fine but....it big. I suggested to Shelly at Moodyville that she might get a Chinese maker to build a case to fit. Or you could approach Andrew at HMS to make you a custom case. Either way, if you build the bigger body tenor and are happy with the sound..... they will come if you build it. Good luck with your re design. I like different thing so will watch to see what you do. If I could get a baritone case that was not as long in length then perhaps I could take my Moodyville with me on plane trips. It's a great player. I've never had problems traveling with a standard tenor HSC but could see resistance to a bigger baritone case. Airlines are getting picky these day.
 
Making an ukulele fit a case? Seems like cart before the horse to me.

I completely agree. Luis of LfdM designed and builds baritones with a larger body than normal and it does not fit a standard baritone case. The solution was to contact Americase with his dimensions and have them build a custom case for it. He orders them in 4 - 6 at a time for best pricing. Yes they are still expensive but he just charges his cost, includes them with the instrument and the cost is built into the total price quoted. It is a great way to insure the instrument is protected by a properly fitting case.
 
I completely agree. Luis of LfdM designed and builds baritones with a larger body than normal and it does not fit a standard baritone case. The solution was to contact Americase with his dimensions and have them build a custom case for it. He orders them in 4 - 6 at a time for best pricing. Yes they are still expensive but he just charges his cost, includes them with the instrument and the cost is built into the total price quoted. It is a great way to insure the instrument is protected by a properly fitting case.

This is a great idea and is something I will definitely look at! And then I could get my logo printed on the case and everything. Exciting! :D
 
I spent some of my morning sourcing and pricing materials and tools and putting together a list of what I need and/or want. It's amazing to me that anyone manages to sell any hand built ukes at all when you consider how much it costs to build one!

Since coming home from my day job, I've managed to work on my prints as well. There is so much that still needs to be done, and I'm sure that as I finally get into my actual build process, that most of what I'm doing will change. But it sure is fun to do!

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Keep UU posted. I like the looks and would like to see one when made. The bigger lower bout really gives a fuller sound judging from mt experience with my Moodyville. Custom case idea is a good one also. Jake uses a case that isn't traditional shape and he seems to travel everywhere with it. Looking forward to more.
 
I like the design, very curious about the brass binding. How will you glue it? And that end block looks a bit massive. I think you could use some half inch baltic plywood so it doesn't stick into the soundboard as far.

From what I've read on a pen makers forum, Titebond CA glue works well if you rough up the gluing surface a bit. I will test it out first, and if it doesn't work I'll try some type of slow setting epoxy. As for the end block, you are probably right, now that I've stared at it for a while. I got the dimensions for it from the Hana Lima Ia plans, which I've made dozens of. Should I worry about soundboard deflection if the end block isn't as wide?
 
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I have used large end blocks, but noticed on a spruce soundboard that it telegraphed as a flat spot when the rest was domed. So I started slanting the top of the block so the contact area was as wide as the lining strip. Then I started using thinner blocks so the entire block is now as deep as my lining. Width I keep at around 35 mm, would that be 1 1/2 inch..?
 
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