Oak & spruce soprano

jbsuke

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Hello everyone,

I've been an avid reader of this forum for the last three years since I started playing uke. I also bought a uke here recently from some nice folks. I currently have three good sopranos in mahogany, Australian blackwood and mango, which all have their individual and distinct voice. I like them all. For a while now I have been looking for a spruce-topped instrument for the sake of tonewood diversity, as I've heard a few really nice ones being played by other people.

Long story short, instead of buying one, I decided to build one myself :cool:. On my kitchen table. Step by step. I have no prior experience in this, so let's see how it goes. I have to add that basic woodworking chops exist, though they have been dormant for many years.

I have a pretty limited tool selection available at the moment as seen below, no major sawing possible and no fret work. So I went and bought some pre-cut wood sheets, blanks and strips, a prefab neck (okoume?, needs some reshaping) and fretboard (rosewood) and an inexpensive very simple electrical bending iron.

This is how far I've gotten in the last ten days (an hour or so a day in the evening). The top seen in the image below is 2mm spruce, which will be thinned down a little later on. The sides were bent from 1.5mm thick White Oak sheets cut to size. Bending was easier than I thought, I guess oak is a 'friendly' wood for bending. I just quickly splashed some water on the wood and bent it step by step, rewetting frequently until I got the shape right. The bent sides were rested and dried in an improvised cardboard mould to keep the shape for 2 days.

Neck and tail blocks, braces were cut from spruce and shaped. Bridge plate is a piece of bamboo (this is what I had available and it looked just fine for the purpose ...). The lining is basswood.
The curved back is also oak, which I've already cut, glued and braced. Currently I'm waiting for some basic white ABS binding material, that I've ordered, so I can bind the front before glueing on the back (therefore the offset lining, hope this will work out ...).

Most used tools so far have been utility knife (used to cut wood sheets, instead of sawing them, slightly tricky for hard oak but doable), mini plane, and scraper. Slow-paced manual woodwork with sharp blades has something satisfying to it, especially if you see your endeavour taking shape gradually.
BTW, my work bench size is 20 by 40 cm ... :D.
Will keep you posted on the next steps.

Cheers,
Jan

uke body 2.jpg uke tools.jpg
 
Well done, so far, given your limited tools! I presume your method of off setting the linings to accept the binding is due to not having a router? Certainly an interesting concept. I'm looking forward to seeing how your work progresses.

Bob
 
Yes, that's right Bob. I don't have a router, or any power tools for that. Cutting the binding channel entirely by hand with a chisel seemed daunting to me, regarding the required accuracy. The idea with the offset lining is to use binding material that has the same thickness as the sides and then scrape everything to a flush fit. I have no idea if this will work well or not at all, but will give it a go when the binding material arrives.

Jan
 
You don't have to put binding on an uke. Plenty of classic ukes have no binding at all and have survived for a hundred years. Basically if you ask me, binding is mostly bling and an opportunity to really screw things up. Still, I do it cause I like the bling. Don't feel like you have to do binding.
 
The glue is a standard type PVA wood glue, white color, dries clear, easy to scrape off the wood surface for clean up. Brand I'm using is Selley's. Might not be the best choice, advice appreciated ...
 
The binding was a conscious choice. I also don't like bling in ukes, but a simple binding without purfling and without rosette seemed appropriate for this one, as the woods are very straight-grained. It adds a bit of contrast, lines out the body shape and gives your eyes a grip, if that makes sense ...
I chose simple white ABS because I also have white fret dots, white bone bridge and saddle, and white Gotoh friction tuners to go with it. Ties it up a bit, hopefully, into a coherent whole. Also white is not too strong a contrast with the wood colors, as for example ebony would be in my case.
 
I meant to say white bone saddle and nut ... bridge is rosewood.
 
Most builders use Titebond for general wood to wood gluing. So long as the brand you use states that it's meant for wood, you should be OK.

Bob
 
"Where there's a will, there's a way." It's always good to see someone having a go at making an instrument even if they are limited in workshop space or tools.

As Bob says, many on this forum use Titebond, the original sort which comes in the Red Top bottle seems to be what's preferred.

Don't expect your first instrument to look or sound fantastic, but I hope making it gives you some satisfaction. Many of us get bitten by the bug and spend our time trying to make that perfect uke.
 
Yes, that's right Bob. I don't have a router, or any power tools for that. Cutting the binding channel entirely by hand with a chisel seemed daunting to me, regarding the required accuracy. The idea with the offset lining is to use binding material that has the same thickness as the sides and then scrape everything to a flush fit. I have no idea if this will work well or not at all, but will give it a go when the binding material arrives.

Jan

I thought about this approach quite a bit this morning, because it sounded like a good idea and something that I would try if it would eliminate the routing operation. But then I realized that I have no idea how you would make the top fit snuggly inside of the binding. I'm curious to see how it all works out. Good luck!
 
I'm curious about this, too. Cutting the top to fit inside the binding would be a real challenge. Maybe I'm missing something here?

Bob
 
I think you have it backwards. The binding is cut and fit into the top and sides and not the top fit into the binding. That really would be difficult if not impossible... Personally on my first uke I would skip the binding step. As Robbie O'Brian said in one of his videos: A really good build can be ruined by a sloppy binding job. If you insist, go slow and nibble with sharp router. Use a file to even out any imperfections. And remember: sawdust and glue is your friend.
 
I thought of that, too, but then the binding would not show on the top, would it?

Bob
 
Maybe this helps:

binding concept.jpg

Side, top and lining are already in place, as you can see in one of the previous images. I still need to trim the edge of the top back a little though to make a flat surface to accept the binding (top sticks out a little sideways at the moment). That's the plan.
 
So you cut the binding channel before you glued the top on and then you trim back the top to be flush with the binding channel? Interesting way to do it I suppose and that will work, but why not just glue on the top and then cut the channel in a single operation? There are many ways to skin an uke...
 
Is that forming the binding channel by creating the step with the lining? If that is what is meant then it makes perfect sense, especially if you haven't got any power tools. I've been using that method for around 5 years,
 
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