Mrs. Cow's Tenor Cigar Box

I want to thank all of the builders on this site for posting all the tips and tricks on here. It helped to have such a large pool of knowledge to pull from. I used a neck kit from Mainland, and bolted it on using a furniture threaded insert. The neck was rasped and drum sanded out to match the curve of the box. I replaced the friction tuners that came with the kit with geared tuners with ebony heads after the plastic keys on the friction tuners started cracking under tension. The wood was left unfinished, and the whole uke was given a light rubdown with oil. It was a fun built, and has inspired me to attempt a from scratch build sometime in the near future.

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It's strung with low-g Hilo Strings. I put high-g Aquilas on it first and didn't like the way those strings sounded. The body's actually a little small for a tenor, so the richer sound from the Hilos really helped the tone of this Uke.

Nice Job, looks great.....Thanks for sharing.....I like Hilo's too....Have fun and Enjoy!! Happy Holidays...MM Stan..

Nice job!

I'm surprised that the tuner knobs from your Mainland kit were not good quality - after all, there's not all that much tension on the knobs.

erich@muttcrew.net said:

Nice job!

I'm surprised that the tuner knobs from your Mainland kit were not good quality - after all, there's not all that much tension on the knobs.

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I was a bit surprised myself, given the number of recommendations I got for Mainland. Oh well. I'm going to hold on to them and make new, wooden keys for them to use on my next project.

I love how that oil treatment brings out the wood color and pattern!

Great looking uke. I have a similar box that wants to be a uke, thinking the bolt on would be a good way to go. Thanks for posting.

Looking good. How does it sound?

ADD said:

Looking good. How does it sound?

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Really bright and crisp. She's just learning to play, so it'll be a little while before I have a vid to share.

how did you attach the strings? I have a similar kit and am trying to figure out the best way to attach the strings. thanks for the help.

igmu said:

how did you attach the strings? I have a similar kit and am trying to figure out the best way to attach the strings. thanks for the help.

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Just used the tie method. http://ukuleleunderground.com/2008/02/uke-minutes-5-how-to-re-string-your-ukulele/