Sound port on my Kanilea soprano

ktsa5239

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Added a dog paw sound port to my Kanilea soprano! Love the result, exactly the same tone as before but noticeably louder. It feels more lively with the increased volume. I'm rather surprised by the change.
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Great (dremel?) work!
 
Didn't have a dremel, it was a drill and loads of sandpaper
 
Weren't you afraid of cracking sides?
 
This is incredible! Both the design and because you had the guts to drill into the side of your ukulele!
 
Looks great. I'm glad it worked out and sounds good. It took lots of guts to do this home mod. I like the design. What made you pick the dawg paw? I bet Kanilea would be interested in the sound improvement the side port made.
 
Very nicely done, but if you intend on doing more, I suggest a Dremel. I've been cutting out a number of my ukes for preamps with a cordless Dremel and it makes quick clean work of it. First I use the cutting bit, then a sanding drum.
 
This is incredible! Both the design and because you had the guts to drill into the side of your ukulele!

+1. Nice job! My dogs like it too, but I hope they're not inspired to try adding their paw prints to my ukuleles.
 
A few beers makes you feel fearless, don't really have a particular reason on the dog paw pattern but I knew I didn't want a regular oval or plain circle and everything else I found on google was too complicated so I went with the paw!
I liked the result so much that it's now on my tenor as well!
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This is incredible! Both the design and because you had the guts to drill into the side of your ukulele!

+1 agreed!!! :agree:
 
Fabulous job.

How much do want for for a simple oval? Lol
 
Love it! Now you have a pair of "woofers". ;)
 
I am glad to see someone else customizes their ukuleles. I am an upholsterer in real life with lots of random sized pieces of fabric. I did a profile of a beaver on an orange ukulele. (Go Beves!!) The wood edge was carefully inked black, and a piece of beaver brown suede was glued behind it. From any angle it is immediately recognizeable with no interference from the internal structure of the ukulele. The three decreasing size hearts on the side of another were backed with a red thin fabric. It does not diminish the amount or tone of what comes out. I also have random sized pieces of foam rubber. I tie a long piece of string to the piece I am going to use as a backer for the cutout design and let it stick out of the sound hole as I push the chunk of foam against the back of the cutout design. I can then work the backing fabric into place and get it smoothed out. I use a hypodermic needle and a syringe to apply a thin layer of yellow glue around the outside edges.The foam keeps the pressure between the fabric and wood as I go around the outside perimeter. A bent wire can be inserted through the sound hole to make sure the pressure is on until the glue dries. Yes...I loosen string tension to have access to the hole
 
Once again, Bravo on a well done job on the Tenor. That really was gutsy on that beautiful Tenor. Nice job. did you also notice a difference in sound or projection once you added in the dawg paw? what size drill bits did you use. A hole saw bit for the bigger opening? Just curious. Too bad you never made a video of this.
 
That looks great !

Do the ukes have more 'bark' to the sound now? LOL

Did you use a template, or just put a layer of masking tape and draw the lines freehand?

I may put a sound port in one of my ukes, either a Fluke or Flea, and likely will go with an elliptical shape in order to get the size I want without going too large a diameter hole and end up having too little space left between the edges of the hole and the top and back...any thoughts as to if this is a good idea as opposed to 3 smaller circular holes?

MFC now offers a side port as an option and they are showing an elliptical hole, which is what gave me the idea..

I have a Ryobi hole saw kit (made for installing door locks) that I will use with an electric drill at low speed for the initial cuts and a dremel for finishing up.
 
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