Planning my first Uke

Hi all

I've built a few acoustic guitars before (not for a few years though) but I've recently become hooked on playing the uke and now I'm keen to try my hand at building one (well a few tbh). Going to make it a joint project with my 8 yr old daughter as well which should be fun.

I'm trying to spend as little cash on the project as possible and fortunately I have a multitude of tools leftover from the guitar building. Sold my bending iron a while back so I'm going to have to build one of those but never mind.

My plan is to build a soprano in the style of Martin ukuleles. I may add binding and some MOP soundhole inlay so it won't be a Style O but that's the body shape I'm after. I found Timbuck's very helpful sketch of the body profile in the archives of this forum so I'm sorted there.

But what I really wanted to ask (and feel free to refuse and advise that I spend the cash on proper plans) is whether anyone would show/tell me what the bracing pattern and brace dimensions are for the top and back of a Martin uke. Also the dimensions of the sides. And the width of the neck at the body join and the nut.

Oh and one other question - are uke braces scalloped in the same way as guitar braces?

Many thanks

Gerry
Scotland

Try: http://www.lmii.com/CartTwo/thirdproducts.asp?CategoryName=Plans,+Other&NameProdHeader=Ukulele+Plans

John

http://www.grellier.fr/plans/Soprano_ukulele/Soprano_ukulele_en.pdf

I'm pretty sure these are Martin Soprano plans. They also have a version in French if you are so inclined.

camface said:

http://www.grellier.fr/plans/Soprano_ukulele/Soprano_ukulele_en.pdf

I'm pretty sure these are Martin Soprano plans. They also have a version in French if you are so inclined.

Click to expand...

Looks spot on to me at first glance. Thanks for the link, now I have something to compare to my own drawings.

Superb! Or should that be superbe?!

Just what I needed. No finger braces at all in those plans - I guess a soprano uke doesn't take much bracing to hold it together. Am I not looking at it properly or is the width of the fingerboard at the body/neck junction missing from the plan? And no scalloping either.

Many thanks

Gerry

Hopefully Timbuck sees this thread and can offer some further help. He seems to have perfected the Style 0, although he won't admit that it's perfect.