Soundhole patch on a tenor?

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Dave Higham

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I'm going to inlay a rosette on a tenor I'm building. Should I reinforce the area with a patch and if so, how thick should it be? If the front finishes at around 0.080" (2mm) and the abalone is around 0.060" (1.5mm) that only leaves about 0.020 of wood behind it. The Hana Lima 'Ia plan shows a patch but, looking at the photos on some of the pros' websites or videos it looks as if some don't bother. It's a spruce front.
 
I always put something underneath it. The time I did not I tore out a hunk of the soundboard pressing the inlay in place.

Brad
 
You don't need a patch. We inlay the rosette before taking the top to final thickness. That way there's plenty of support during that operation. Once the rosette is glued in, it provides plenty of support. Some folks advocate patches, but they are (in theory) there to prevent splitting of the wood around the soundhold (standard practice on guitars). We've built over 200 ukes and never had one split in that area. By the way, we take the top thickness down to 0.065"--the best way to get good volume is thinner plate with more bracing. There's a *big* volume difference between ukes with a top plate of 0.080" vs. 0.065".
 
myamoe said:
You don't need a patch...
Click to expand...

That might be the case if the front is not yet thicknessed and the material Dave is starting with is thick enough to go with that process - you should ask Dave if that is the case before you tell him whether or not he needs a patch for this instrument.
 
Thanks for your answers everyone. I didn't expect you all to agree (you know what they say about getting luthiers to agree and herding cats!). The front did start out very thick. 7mm Adirondack spruce, but it's down to a little over2mm now (it's really frustrating sending 5mm of it up the dust extractor; in a perfect world that would be 2 more fronts).
I'll inlay the rosette now and then the back could do with a little more sanding and scraping, but I'm not sure I dare go as thin as 0.065".
If I do put a patch on it, should it be cross grain or parallel to the front? The rosette grafts on classics go with the grain but, I know, that's guitars not ukulele.
 
The last time I did it, the top braces supported the top and bottom part of the rosette, and I used four pieces of spruce 1mm x 10mm in a hexagonal pattern for the rest. The grain ran lengthwise in the pieces.
Brad
 
I wanted to avoid having to use a patch there so as not to add more weight to the top, so I went with a rub-on dry transfer decal. It also lets me do things with the design that I could not possibly do without resorting to laser cutting parts which would jack costs up too high.

Also, there are considerations when you are building for resale through music stores that custom direct sale builders don't have to deal with so much. If I have to do a warranty job on a uke, all of my profit flies out the window and it turns into a money loser.
 
There's a *big* volume difference between ukes with a top plate of 0.080" vs. 0.065".[/QUOTE]



THAT is one of THE most helpful and important bits of information I've ever read on this site. Thank you MYAMOE!
 
Cateye said:
There's a *big* volume difference between ukes with a top plate of 0.080" vs. 0.065".
Click to expand...





I take my tops down to .0625" = 1/16" with no soundhole patch ..I cut the slot down .040" deep on a turntable via my milling machine..press in the ready made up rosette with a flat board behind....glue it in, then scrape down flush with the surface..then back on the milling machine and cut out the soundhole..I've had no problems so far.
 
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