Building from scratch

Mobben

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The first three weeks of April I was unemployed, which basically resulted in a great amount of spare time. I decided that I might as well spend the time on something, so I started building a ukulele from scratch. I started with some pieces of birch and a round saw.
I printed the free blueprints from http://www.grellier.fr/plans/Soprano_ukulele/Soprano_ukulele_fr.pdf and started the ”learning by doing” process. I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome so far although there are many flaws all over :)
I just received the fretwire, tuners, material for nut and bridge and the Hana Lima construction manual the other day. Which cost me alot because of Danish VAT and extra fees, but Hana Lima's service was super, they even sent me extra fretwire :)
In this album you can see the ukulele: http://picasaweb.google.dk/jacobmc/UkuleleProject#
It is all birch, because it was what I had :) and then I stained the fretboard and the bridge too a darker colour.
I'm really looking forward to hearing it, but even if it sounds horrible, I'll be proud (hopefully) :D
 
Well done! better than my first attempt all those years ago.
Hehe thanks :) But it's probably because I haven't taken any close-ups :p

Great! I've been thinking of birch, now I'm positive I'll give it a go! A sweet looking uke.

All the best / Sven (Sweden)
I can only wish you the best of luck :) I don't really know if birch is good for ukulele building, but it was what I had so it's what I used :)

Nice looking uke! I notice that an English language version of the plans also is available on the same site: http://www.grellier.fr/plans/Soprano_ukulele/Soprano_ukulele_en.pdf.
Thanks.. That would probably make it easier for me to read :)
 
So cool! A smart looking uke you've made. So how does it sound?
 
So cool! A smart looking uke you've made. So how does it sound?

I still need to give it some oil or something before I complete it.. But I'll post a video when it's done :)
 
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Mob, looks very nice dude. Hey try Tru-Oil for the finish. It's cheap and super easy to apply with your fingers and looks great. Make sure you use a filler for the pores with any finish you chose to apply though or you will be appling many, many coats to try and fill up those pores....e.lo...
 
She's pretty! :)

Thanks alot :)

Mob, looks very nice dude. Hey try Tru-Oil for the finish. It's cheap and super easy to apply with your fingers and looks great. Make sure you use a filler for the pores with any finish you chose to apply though or you will be appling many, many coats to try and fill up those pores....e.lo...

I've given it some lacquer, which probably isn't the best finish but it's shiny now :)

And I just made a quick little video so you can hear it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo4l-L_ydfE

:music:
 
Mobben:

Just watched/listened to your video...WOW! That little uke sounds great! Nice job.
 
Mobben:

Just watched/listened to your video...WOW! That little uke sounds great! Nice job.

Thank you very much.. At first I was quite disappointed with the sound, but after some adjusting it turned out pretty good :cheers:
 
Birch is probably not your best wood. Nevertheless you seemed to get something out of it. I have a massur birch/spruce build to do next month. Should be interesting filling all those tiny holes...
 
Mob, looks very nice dude. Hey try Tru-Oil for the finish. It's cheap and super easy to apply with your fingers and looks great. Make sure you use a filler for the pores with any finish you chose to apply though or you will be appling many, many coats to try and fill up those pores....e.lo...

If it's easy to apply it is surely easy to come off as well. Tru-Oil is great for beginners and a good alternative to spray finishes if you lack equipment but it just doesn't hold up to wear. On the upside, it's easy to touch up when it does wear through. I'd use it only as a last resort. Even the off-the-rack rattle cans (Deft, Watco, etc--lacquer or poly urethane) are easy to apply, hold up better and have enough solids in them to do a good job filing the grain. If you can spray nitro, that's one of the most durable finishes you can apply and with a little practice anyone can do it with good results.
It's hard to get a soprano to sound good without some practice. I think you did a great job and I applaud your resourcefulness.
 
Thank you all for your kind words and the advise. One of the reasons I did this project was that I got fired from work (hit by the financial crises :) ) and where unemployed for a little under a month. So I had quite a lot of spare time and making a ukulele seamed like an interesting project to use some of it on. I didn't want to sure money on expensive wood, so I just took what we had laying around :)

I started working again but sprained my angle some days ago, so I got myself spare time again. Maybe I'll be making a tenor this time :)
 
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