Painting a ukulele

fherieb

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im in the process of painting this uke for my girlfriends b-day. im almost done and happy with it so far.
the uke is a $40 hilo.

100_2947.jpg

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ill post more pics when im done.
 
Hope you'll put some finish on it (clearcoat of some sort) otherwise the paint will just fade away as soon asa you play it (IF you intend to play it again wich I guess is the case since you have a pack of brand new Matin strings right next to it).
 
thanks.
haha yup. i bought some clearcoat. hopefully i do a good job applying that
 
As long as you do it in even thin layers, wait until it dries, use fine steel wool to clean out any imperfections, and finally repeat at least 3 times, you should be fine and it will look b*d *ss for a uke.
 
i've always wanted to do something like this but i was wondering, wouldn't the clearcoat affect the sound quality in some way? if so, what other alternatives are there to preserve the paint with minimal change to the sound?
 
wouldn't the clearcoat affect the sound quality in some way? if so, what other alternatives are there to preserve the paint with minimal change to the sound?

Well, yes it would affect the sound (not in a good way) but if you want to paint a uke, get a really cheap uke 1st or simply do it on one that you don't use anymore(and that you don't care for anymore either). I personally sanded down my 1st uke
This model: http://www.djmmusic.com/mmDJM/Images/2019-AI.jpg
then I varnished it, had to put at least 3 coats of cristal clearcoat on it. The bare wood simply absorbs the sound and you need to get really "hard" clearcoat in order to have it sound somewhat reasonable.

For what is of the sound lf the instument, it was already bad so I could not care less for what change to the sound change it made.
 
If you want to add some graphics without doing an entire paint job, consider water-slide decals. Here is a Fluke I'm working on, with some agave-motif decals I added (waiting for when I change the strings to add a rosette):
fluke_all_01.jpg


fluke_face_02.jpg
 
If you want to add some graphics without doing an entire paint job, consider water-slide decals. Here is a Fluke I'm working on, with some agave-motif decals I added (waiting for when I change the strings to add a rosette):
fluke_all_01.jpg


fluke_face_02.jpg

Change those strings, Ian. I never liked the sound of those on that uke!
 
Nice paint job, btw. I wish I was "artisticimally articulatelated", so I could do something like this. I think I would of left the white binding though.
 
The ukulele looks great but as others said what do you have against Jayson?
refromUkuleleUndergroundForums-vi.jpg
 
hahah thanks.
uhhh jayson is my little brother. that poster is just there in my room that people like to draw on, yeah so i have no control of whatever someone writes on it. haha most likely my other brother wrote that.
 
That giraffe pattern looks awesome.
 
Change those strings, Ian. I never liked the sound of those on that uke!
They're okay to my ears - they came with the uke - but what would you recommend? My other Fluke (concert) has GHS and I find them a little too light. Aquilas? Worths? I'm open to suggestion...
 
im assuming you are putting those martin strings on the hilo? if so, they actually made my hilo come to life.
 
oh wow, this is what I've been wanting to do. That looks really awesome! I think I'm going to try that when I have time. :)
 
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