Do you do your own work on your Uke?

Tudorp

Big guy with a lil' uke..
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Recently, I have gotten into restoration, and repair of my own Uke (non professional) . I think it is not only fun, but satisfying improving your own instrument, and hearing the different tones you have caused it to take on.

I have recently restored my 1930s Banjo Uke. It has gone from a troublesome, hard to play and toy sounding to a pleasure to play. I have now found myself playing it more than my Mahogany Uke. I shaved down, and installed a new bone nut, and maple/ebony/bone bridge. Lowered the action to make it easier to play. Along with Jasper Happy's (From England) strings, it greatly improved the sound, as well as playability. Polishing the frets made them much smoother on my fingers as well. I also removed the vintage friction tuners that were suffering, and retired them, and replaced them with a decent set of geared tuners. I now made a resonator from 5/8" thick Sapele. That was a HUGE improvement on the sustain, and tone of my Banjo Uke. It is a great pleasure to play the old gal now... The most delicate part I think was carefully, and slowly sanding down the nut and bridge being sure to keep them level. Taking them down enough to bring the action to a more playable level, but not too much to loose your sound quality.

Anyway.. It is fun, and like said, VERY satisfying to hear it and play it now, knowing it was because of my own hands...
 
I have replaced both the nut and saddle on my KPK soprano and Stagg Concert ukulele. The KPK does sound better and I think it looks cooler with the bone instead of the rosewood that was there. My stagg still sounds like crap but that is because the bridge is comming off and I think it is warped or something. I am probably going to try and replace that sometime soon, Mainland has a bridge that is the same size. So it will really only be a remove and replace, but it should sound better when it is done.
 
There is something very satisfying about "doing it yourself". You learn a lot about the instrument and what makes it tick. Look out, though, the next step is making the whole thing yourself. (Don't ask me how I know this)
 
Know what ya mean. I been eyeballing a "kit" Ukulele.. Not sure if I am ready to try that though.
 
I been eyeballing a "kit" Ukulele.. Not sure if I am ready to try that though.

I have been too. I think I could do it. The only reson I hesitate is lack of space to do work. I live in small apartment. What little work I have done has been out on my baclony, but I don't think I want to build a uke on my balcony. I think I could build the kit outside, except the finish, but would feel better with an indoor place to do it.
 
I got the tools, and I will do it eventually, but the kit I am looking at is about $150-$200. Not sure if I am ready to ruin that much on a weekend, hahha.. Im sure I can do it. The only part that I am intimidated by is getting the frets good and level. I have a band saw, scroll saw, and a table disk sander which I think are important to build one. I'm confident on the whole thing except the fretting..
 
I have done all my own work so far, adjusting action on several ukes, fixed a small crack, changed tuners. For something major I would get some help but I enjoy learning along the way.
 
I just bought a bone nut and saddle to replace the plastic ones on my (nine-year-old) daughter's soprano. They cost next to nothing, so it's no big deal if I ruin them, and I thought it might be a fun little project for the two of us.

The nut looks like it will fit just fine, it is even notched, but it will need to be filed, shaped a tiny bit and polished.

The saddle is the correct length but it is twice the width, and will need some work.

I do not yet have any tools.

I would appreciate some advice on what to use to sand down saddle to the proper width, to shape it, and to polish it, and anything else you could offer.

If anyone can direct me to another thread or link to a tutorial that would be great too.

Thanks.

-BBert.
 
Short answer: no. I'm the girl who couldn't cut with scissors in a straight line, so not good with making the things with the hands. :)

My big brother-in-law was a carpenter, taught by an old pro from childhood on throughout his life. His day job was running a group home for special needs people, but he could also make anything. He was a guitar player too, so if I had discovered uke when he was still with us, I'd have to get two kits, because he'd want one to play for himself.

My husband has some of that skill too, he just didn't hone it like his brother did. He just finished his first pipe, using not much in the way of tools, and made something really nice.

Sometimes those things must run in families, because the making things gene ended with my grandpas. In the meantime, if Anders can't fix it, it's luthier time!
 
I like tinkering with the basic stuff like installing a UST pickup, mucking with the action but I'm definitely not educated enough to be doing much more than that on the uke.

I'm used to being around tools. Did a few full basement renos including the mill work, cabinetry, electrical and plumbing. It helped having friends in these various fields to show me the ropes but since I was 5 I've had a hammer and a saw in my hand. The drawback to this is that I'm everyone's "best" friend when it comes to their home repairs 'cause I only charge 'em grub and beer after the work's done. lol
 
I've been doing my own set ups for a long time. I started tinkering with repairs a few years ago, and was just about to start honing my fretting skills when some things hit the fan...and my tinkering got put on the back burner.

I've recently started fixing small things on instruments not mine. Cracks, separated seams, easy stuff like that. I have a guitar that needs a neck reset, and once I get a better work bench I'm going to tackle that and see how it goes. What else would you do with a guitar you found on the side of the road with a warped neck? Try to fix it of course!
 
I don't work on any of my instruments - still have bad memories of taking the binding off of a guitar to take the back off so I could "fix that buzz" when I was around 14... The guitar I learned to play on, a very nice one that I don't recall any details about - well, other than hiding the pieces in the attic crawl space so my parents wouldn't find out what I'd done...

No, when I needed work done on my ukuleles, I sent them off to some guy in Michigan that I didn't know a whole lot about, except that he seemed to be a pretty decent sort, did a lot for kids, and said yes when I asked him if he'd be interested in working on my stuff - with no strings attached.

Well, there were strings, but...I meant that if the instruments got ruined, it wasn't his fault, and that he had no responsibility for any problems.

You know what that guy did????


He took two unplayable instruments, and made them into very nice, very playable ukuleles, and I had to twist his arm to take any payment for doing it! How's THAT for a friend????


...And he is my friend - I met him here on UU.

He goes by "Tudorp".


-Kurt​
 
Your too kind my brudda. I got to admit, when I cracked out one of them and played it, the 1st thought was "Oh S^&$T, what have I gotten myself into? " lol.. The other, I had some experience on... I was glad I was able to help ya out with those..

I don't work on any of my instruments - still have bad memories of taking the binding off of a guitar to take the back off so I could "fix that buzz" when I was around 14... The guitar I learned to play on, a very nice one that I don't recall any details about - well, other than hiding the pieces in the attic crawl space so my parents wouldn't find out what I'd done...

No, when I needed work done on my ukuleles, I sent them off to some guy in Michigan that I didn't know a whole lot about, except that he seemed to be a pretty decent sort, did a lot for kids, and said yes when I asked him if he'd be interested in working on my stuff - with no strings attached.

Well, there were strings, but...I meant that if the instruments got ruined, it wasn't his fault, and that he had no responsibility for any problems.

You know what that guy did????


He took two unplayable instruments, and made them into very nice, very playable ukuleles, and I had to twist his arm to take any payment for doing it! How's THAT for a friend????


...And he is my friend - I met him here on UU.

He goes by "Tudorp".


-Kurt​
 
As I get more and more into ukes, I'm finding that I enjoy learning about repairing/building them more than I do learning to play. So much so, that I took a uke building class taught by Rick Turner and built my own pineapple tenor. I'm currently working on a couple of ukes I bought on the cheap and trying to see if I can get them sounding a little better. The most satisfaction I get however is from doing a little set-up work on my student's cheapies (I'm a high school teacher) and then seeing the amazement on their faces when they hear and feel the difference a little set-up work can do.

-Gary
 
...I been eyeballing a "kit" Ukulele.. Not sure if I am ready to try that though.....

Go for it Tudorp!! You can do it, easy!! Make sure you take plenty of pics so we can follow the journey - then a video at the end, playing it! Cool!

I have bought a tunable timber Tambourine & getting a soprano neck, fretboard & wire & tuners, nut, bridge & tailpiece from Mike at Mainland ...... and will attempt to put it all together to create an open-backed banjo uke! That's the plan, anyway!! If it comes off, I may put up some pics & vid of it! If it doesn't, ....... I promise not to mention it ever again! :rolleyes:

So, I shall be trying to insert fret wires, honing them down level - may need some advice there ...... I have one of those 'diamond' 400grit 'bricks' that may do the job - just have to work out how to 'round them'! Plenty of time for that - the bits should be on their way already!

Good luck - grab that kit & start making!!

Cheerio

Roberta
 
...I been eyeballing a "kit" Ukulele.. Not sure if I am ready to try that though.....

Go for it Tudorp!! You can do it, easy!! Make sure you take plenty of pics so we can follow the journey - then a video at the end, playing it! Cool!

I have bought a tunable timber Tambourine & getting a soprano neck, fretboard & wire & tuners, nut, bridge & tailpiece from Mike at Mainland ...... and will attempt to put it all together to create an open-backed banjo uke! That's the plan, anyway!! If it comes off, I may put up some pics & vid of it! If it doesn't, ....... I promise not to mention it ever again! :rolleyes:

So, I shall be trying to insert fret wires, honing them down level - may need some advice there ...... I have one of those 'diamond' 400grit 'bricks' that may do the job - just have to work out how to 'round them'! Plenty of time for that - the bits should be on their way already!

Good luck - grab that kit & start making!!

Cheerio

Roberta


Roberta, you gotta look at the date!!! I think he's moved on from the kits...LOL
 
Yep. This is an old dead thread that got risen the other day. I never did go for the kit, I just jumped in with both feet, and building from scratch these days, including fretboard, and custom scale set ups etc. I just figured the kits took the most fun part of the builds and did that part for ya, so I figured why should they have all the fun, lol.. The cool part is finding cool woods to do build them from..
 
Yep. This is an old dead thread that got risen the other day. I never did go for the kit, I just jumped in with both feet, and building from scratch these days, including fretboard, and custom scale set ups etc. I just figured the kits took the most fun part of the builds and did that part for ya, so I figured why should they have all the fun, lol.. The cool part is finding cool woods to do build them from..
Look how far you have come T since you started this thread! Ever think you be building "bugs" that people covet ?? I saw first hand the work you did for Kurts epiphone.. amazing to play 'the neglected twin' side by side with the one you worked on.. :)
 
Yep. It's only been a little over a year. When I am passionate about something, I dive in full blown. Not sure if that is a good thing, because sometimes, by the time I realize I shouldn't have, I'm in too deep to back out, hahhah.. Not uke related but on other things, I have destroyed warrantees just minutes after getting something at times, lol..

That said, in my auto hobby years ago, me and a buddy built a mud racer 4x4 out of an economy car (this was back in the early 90s). We bought the car brand new, tore if completely appart and built a 800 horse power 4X4 mud drag car out of it. Trailered it about a block away from the dealership we bought the original car from, drove it into the lot and complained that it was making a weird noise and we needed them to look at it under the manufacture warrantee.. It was a specticle, and after they picked their jaws off the floor and realized we were joking, it was a huge distruption because everyone in the dealership from the back office to the mechanics were out admiring what they sold us 6 months before, lol.. Needless to say, they informed us we voided the warrantee and there was nothing they could do.. hehheh.. But, story of my life I reckon.. ;)


Look how far you have come T since you started this thread! Ever think you be building "bugs" that people covet ?? I saw first hand the work you did for Kurts epiphone.. amazing to play 'the neglected twin' side by side with the one you worked on.. :)
 
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