It was a Makala Dolphin... now it's a tin can reso!

So, inspired by Aaron Keim's tin can reso, I started this project several months ago and quite a few things have unfortunately held me up. So in the last couple of days I've knuckled down and had a crack at finishing the job. It still needs a couple of little things done, but this afternoon for the first time in months this ukulele sang!

While not an exhaustive step by step, hopefully my notes can shed some light on the process for anyone else wanting to go down this path... there's certainly been a few threads about it here on UU. I'm also more than happy to answer any questions or take any feedback.

So, the part I was stuck on for a while was how to secure the strings and where to get a bridge/saddle to suit. I eventually decided that recycling would be in a truer spirit, so I turned the dolphin into a jigsaw puzzle.



From that I sanded down a tailpiece, the small blemish on the right is where the dolphin's eye once was. I've filled this with a mix of pvc and sawdust... heh, I remembered at least one trick from shop class. I mounted this right on the very end of the uke's body, it screws straight into the tail block (note: this is an all wood dolphin, newer plastic dolphin owners: YMMV) and has two further screws at either side of the piece, which are partially extra holding strength, partially aesthetic but mostly to keep it all square. I've also used a thin run of Liquid Nails.

/edit: This attachment has disappeared. I'll fix it later...

I also sanded down the bridge



For the resonator, I've used a Chelsea Golden Syrup tin, these can be found in most NZ kitchens and measure around 101mm or 3.98in in diameter. I've drilled holes of various sizes up to 10mm in the half of the tin facing towards the soundhole. Actual Luthiers - correct me if I'm wrong, but the concept is that sound resonates around inside the tin, escapes from the soundholes in said tin and then work around in the parent ukulele's soundbox? Anyway, some pics



Retrospective note: I have a 100mm holesaw, but my drillpress blew up some time ago. Instead of being patient and waiting to borrow a friend's drillpress, I cut the hole using my dremel-style rotary tool. The cut is not as clean as what the holesaw would have done, so I'll fix this up with some rubber trim. If I do this again, I'll do it properly with a holesaw and drillpress.

Then it came time to string everything up. Because the tailpiece is mounted a few inches further than on a stock soprano, the soprano scale strings from the dolphin no longer fit. So I dug out some concert scale Aquila Nylgut's that I'd retired. After stringing on the A string, I was able to measure the action at the 12th fret and I could tell that I was off by just shy of 4mm - the indentation of the can's lid had dropped the level of the saddle. In the shed I found that the landlord had left a random piece of radiata pine, so I cut that up and sanded it back to make a shim. This very probably affects the sound in ways that only a Luthier can explain.



So what does it sound like? Well, the strings have taken on a "we're new" attitude and I'm breaking them in all over again. When they are in tune, the sound is raw. Really raw. It's no louder - perhaps as a result of such a thick bridge, coupled with the fact that I haven't got fancy with cones or anything like that. The sustain is phenomenal. After playing it for a while the sound was bugging me - it sounded very familiar, then I realised that it sounded a bit like Lightning Crashes by Live, so that's the progression I've chosen for my (pending) sound-sample - I certainly can't play like Aaron

So, questions, comments etc welcome

Sound sample! I screw up one of the F's, my camera loves to pick up my (it's not really that heavy) breathing and the girlfriend was making a racket in the kitchen, but you get the gist:



Here it is hanging out on the wall with my tabbing dolphin and my Kala KA-SC:

Lightning crashes... cool. Cool mod there, sounds great.