NUD: DIY baritone

tonyturley

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At about 0500 this morning I finished stringing my 7th ukulele, a 20” scale baritone from sinker Western Red Cedar and bees wing Black Walnut. Neck is Maple and Black Walnut. Gotoh UKA tuners. You can see from the last image the parentage of the ukulele neck. I used the off-cut I saved from making the guitar neck a long time ago, well over 10 years. The visual difference between the two necks is due to the orange shellac I used on the ukulele.

I’ve tried playing it some this morning, but the strings are still going out of tune fast. I do like the tone a lot, though, and it has incredible sustain. This is also the last time I use any type of Cedar; while quite beautiful, it seems to pick up dings just by looking at it the wrong way.

I’m going to take a break from instrument building for a while. I’ve worked on this instrument for months, almost daily, and at one time I had 6 projects going at once. I have other non-musical projects I need to tackle.

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Beautiful! Hope to hear a sound sample!
 
This is also the last time I use any type of Cedar; while quite beautiful, it seems to pick up dings just by looking at it the wrong way.

Given those results, I would happily live with the "dings". The instrument is beautiful!
 
Congratulations! Beautiful uke! Love the look of the friction tuners on that headstock, very old school for a baritone.
 
Gorgeous! Definitely interesting how different the two necks are between the orange and the shaping. That headstock's a cool detail.
 
Thanks everyone. It was a fun build, even if I had a couple of "oops" moments. The orange of the baritone neck is from the orange shellac I used under the Tru-Oil. The guitar neck was finished only with Formby's Tung Oil Finish, a wiping varnish. And I need to make a correction: this is my 9th uke. I forgot to count a couple that are no longer in my possession.
 
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