Spanish heel

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thistle3585

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I'm fairly new to ukes but not to building instruments. Anyone build using a spanish heel? Any pro's or cons for using this on a tenor uke? Would the neck joint affect the "perceived value" of an instrument one way or another?

andrew
 
My Kala is made with a Spanish heel. From what I understand of Uke/Guitar construction, it's a much more solid construction method which is the primary reason I bought this particular model.

If it affects the perceived value at all, I would imagine the value would go up, not down.
 
Spanish heels are used almost exclusively on classical guitars, which have been made for decades. I'm not going to use one on my first uke, but I definately will tackle it on my second. The Cumpiano book on guitar building is a good source for this I believe.
 
There are advantages with building bolt on if you will route for binding. Also sanding the body is a bit easier without the neck. Apart from that spanish heels are easy and fun! Check my blog, I build tenors with sp heel and sopranos bolt on.

www.argapa.blogspot.com

Good luck!

Sven
 
Thanks I appreciate it. I've done a bit of research on the spanish heel and noticed several places where it says the sides are "wedged" into the heel versus being glued into the heel. Any thoughts on securing the sides? Also, I do not have a saw blade thin enough to match the sides, so I thought about cutting it using my existing blade and shimming the difference. Is there a problem with that approach. Finally, will this method work on a uke with a cutaway?

Andrew
 
Depends of course on the cutaway style. Will you have a "round" one the side will meet the heel at a right angle and it should be a normal spanish heel. A sharper cutaway (florentine??) would maybe be different.

If your slots are wide I suggest you glue the shims - don't have everything loose. I've cut the slots with japanese saws, two cuts close together. Clean up with needle files or a hacksaw blade with some of the set ground down. I got by without shims. But I put a drop of glue in there.

The main advantage with building this way I think is the feeling of assembly once the rather complicated neck is carved. And bolt ons can be a hassle to get straight and clean...
 
Sven, those ukes look fantastic! do you have any sound clips of them?
 
William King builds ukes using the Spanish method. He has documented some of his building methods in his journal. William's ukes are held in extremely high regard by people who have played them, including me.
 
Wow! look at the neck joint. It's SO tight!! King makes some amazing looking ukes.
 
I like the spanish heel myself... It seems to be more sturdy IMO...
 
thistle3585 said:
Thanks I appreciate it. I've done a bit of research on the spanish heel and noticed several places where it says the sides are "wedged" into the heel versus being glued into the heel. Any thoughts on securing the sides? Also, I do not have a saw blade thin enough to match the sides, so I thought about cutting it using my existing blade and shimming the difference. Is there a problem with that approach. Finally, will this method work on a uke with a cutaway?

Andrew
Click to expand...

Wedges & stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHWmnDCBOl0
 
The Spanish Heel..is very similar to the dovetail method if it is used like I demonstrated in a slideshow last year, where i built a uke using techniques from
old man Nunes in 1917. Here it is again...just click on the pic.
 
Timbuck said:
The Spanish Heel..is very similar to the dovetail method if it is used like I demonstrated in a slideshow last year, where i built a uke using techniques from
old man Nunes in 1917. Here it is again...just click on the pic.
Click to expand...

I don't see how that is considered to be a spanish heel. It just looks like a different process in gluing up a dovetail joint. I understand the "neck block" of the spanish heel to be an extension of the neck and not a separate entity.

From a historical perspective, does anyone know how the spanish heel design made its way into ukulele building? Is it a "traditional" ukulele neck design?
 
Petah - thanks. The few soundclips I have are pretty lo-fi and suffer from my playing. But more are on their way, Youtube or boxnet or something. I'll let ppl know.

Again thanks, you made my day!
 
"From a historical perspective, does anyone know how the spanish heel design made its way into ukulele building? Is it a "traditional"


The first Ukulele makers inherited the construction techniques from the Portuguese school of guitar making, which in its turn was influenced by the renaissance-baroque guitar making tradition which already had 300 years of history before Nunes, with the fingerboard flush with the soundboard low action, gut strings, etc its easier to utilze a "spanish" neck when the soundboard and fingerboard are flush, far quicker, I am sure you have seen the 1919 video!!

you can also still see the influence of the original Spanish Vihuela/baroque guitar and Portuguese guitars all over South America, re-entrant tunings, courses (like taro-patch ukes) charangos, cuatros, tiples and more though these have evolved over hundreds of years to available local materials.
 
Hi Pete, I have just been busy in my shed working through a backlog of Lyre and harp orders!! (not ukulele, but its only 3 months until I get to work on them again....uketopia!!) Glad to see you here, anyway I noticed your absence on the Fuddy duddy forum...
 
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