tahitian ukes

kalmario · Sep 21, 2009

started a first attempt at making one of these yesterday, has anyone had a go before? looks simple enough but we will find out. starts with a solid block of wood so could be a good way for Chuck to stop burning all his scrap koa?

some links anyway,

http://tahitianukulele.blogspot.com/

http://nearlydeaf.com/?p=155

http://users.vcnet.com/rrenshaw/ukulele2.htm

anyway if it looks ok when i'm finished, i may just show you.

Cliff

Pete Howlett · Sep 21, 2009

I saw one of these recently and the neck was hopelessly warped. Cool look tho...

kalmario · Sep 21, 2009

its always a risk i agree, although they are strung with fishing line so hopefully the rimu i'm using will be strong enough.

here is a picture of a more polished model.

http://1484.bz/ochanomizu/60531/

i'm limited to hand tools, and bad ones at that, but if i had a band saw i think i could make one of these fairly quickly.

Cliff

zog · Sep 21, 2009

like the one on the japanese page

Stripped mahogany nice looking, I wonder how loud these are? Anybody heard a real one?

Pete Howlett · Sep 21, 2009

They can hold their own - it's really a banjo tho isn't it

Anyway that R & Bell model looks very nicely made. The one I saw that had a defect was bowed backwards. I saw another played in Helsinki recently and that was OK...

RonS · Sep 21, 2009

kalmario said:
started a first attempt at making one of these yesterday, has anyone had a go before? looks simple enough but we will find out. starts with a solid block of wood so could be a good way for Chuck to stop burning all his scrap koa?

some links anyway,

http://tahitianukulele.blogspot.com/

http://nearlydeaf.com/?p=155

http://users.vcnet.com/rrenshaw/ukulele2.htm

anyway if it looks ok when i'm finished, i may just show you.

Cliff

Put a pickup on it and you have an electric uke!

winboxes · Sep 21, 2009

Cliff, why Rimu? There's plenty of stock in the demo yards. Wouldn't Matai or Kauri would be a better alternative?

proteus · Sep 21, 2009

How do you intend to cut the tapered hole? That looks like the hardest part to (inexperienced) me.

kalmario · Sep 21, 2009

winboxes said:
Cliff, why Rimu? There's plenty of stock in the demo yards. Wouldn't Matai or Kauri would be a better alternative?

thats what i had left floating around the house to be honest.

drilling the hole bit will be slightly tricky but if i copy petes 3rd video and use a drill press i can hollow it out enough to bring in the blades so to speak. the biggest problem so i can see is making a neck relief out of the block ive got with out snapping it. (i've got to remove 4/5ths of it roughly), but if i do it bit by bit it should work out o.k. will try thursday when i'm not working, you may hear me yelling from there if it doesn't work though.

Cliff

tahitian ukes

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