#6 Western red cedar, curly claro walnut, with padauk binding and fretboard

Matt Clara

Matt Clara

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First time with a rosette inlay, first time with an arched top (25' radius) and domed back (15' radius), first time with perfling, second time binding. Also, first time with a slotted bridge, where you tie a knot in the string and slide it in a hole in the backside of the bridge? Yeah, I need to replace that as string spacing is off. Other than that, it's a good build (for #6--still room for improvement!), and I learned a lot. Also, first time with peghed tuners. Not sure I like them, kinda fiddly. Oh, and a Spanish cedar neck--first time for that, too.


That's my toughest audience, right there!
(view full res http://i.imgur.com/MSCFxd3.jpg)




(http://i.imgur.com/vedGD6t.jpg)


(http://i.imgur.com/ltITliv.jpg)


(http://i.imgur.com/rANGfAK.jpg)

Sorry for the semi-crappy image quality. Need to quit using the camera on the cell phone for these!
 
Looks good Matt! That's quite a headstock! How did you come up with that design?
 
Matt, that's gorgeous. Looks like you have all the skills down pat!

Any way we could hear this beauty?
 
Looking good.
 
Wow! It's gorgeous. (Also, am I the only one who can kind of see the Virgin Mary in the wood grain on the right side of the back?)
 
Last edited:
Good work there Matt..I see you're getting well into bling ;) nice finish as well...I'm not 100% happy with the Peg-Heds, I've fitted 4 sets up to now and I always seem to get 3 pegs turning nice and smooth and the 4th one stiff ....fitting them ain't too difficult now I've since bought the propper tapered reamer.
 
auntieuku said:
Wow! It's gorgeous. (Also, am I the only one who can kind of see the Virgin Mary in the wood grain on the right side of the back?)
Click to expand...

It's my daughter's monster high doll. She wanted it in the picture, too. The reflection was a compromise, and an Easter egg, too! But not the Virgin Mary... :)
 
Thanks for all the comments, guys! Ken, I've got the right reamer, but I managed to ream one in crooked. Took a Forstner bit, drilled it out, plugged it, refinished the head stock, drilled it and reamed it again! Much better this time, but what a pain in the neck. Doug, the finish is the last of the Behlen's stringed instrument lacquer I had, but then polished up to a nice gloss. I didn't fill the grain, so some of the polish ended up in the pores, but I've got most of that out now. I've since seen the medium super glue method of grain filling--will definitely be using that from now on. Doc, I'll see about making a quick audio recording. It has a nice bright sound, very crisp.
 
Congratulations on a really lovely uke. You certainly seem to have mastered rosettes/purfling and binding. How many hours do you think you spent making this? Are you pleased with the way it sounds? I'm interested as my latest tenor ( no 7) was also in walnut/ western red cedar and sounds good.
 
Thanks for all the "you've mastered" this or that comments, but I assure you, at the risk of sounding self-deprecating, I've mastered nothing. I've got my foot in the door at the academy, though, metaphorically speaking, and I'm not taking no for an answer, so, I'll get there. Jim asked where I got the headstock design: I think I came up with it myself, Jim, but I recently designed a new body shape only to find that several other luthiers are using a very similar shape, so a better answer is, I probably saw it somewhere and made something like it!
 
the finish

wow great uke and I love the finish what type of finish is it
well done :D
 
Very nice work, Matt. Congatulations on a fine build.
 
Very nice work. Love the binding. Very shiny!
 
I know that shape cut into the headstock back from my old beer drinking days before twist off tops. You might be onto something with a little reinforcement you'll have a ukulele that can open a beer bottle.

Beers-Not-Bombs-Aviator.jpg


I'm sitting here mouth agape at the use of different woods, very nice.

~peace~
 
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