End join/No end join??

Hello folks,

Just been looking at the two uke's I have.
My Kala soprano has the sides bent in two halves and a nice bit of tortoiseshell binding as a filler piece between the two at the tail end of the instrument.( this seems normal).
Alternatively my Ohana concert appears to have the sides bent from a single piece of wood, (no join or filler piece at the tail end).
I like the smooth clean look of the latter method to be honest but just wondered if there were pro's and con's to these two schools of assembly?
Cheers
Sheepy

Single piece obviously requires longer wood. Is a fair bit more difficult to bend but not impossible. Pretty much is a hand bending job, though I've seen a few guys work out a bending form using a silicone heat blanket to complete the operation. I've built with both single piece sides and the more common method. Single is more work than it's worth in my books.

I've seen some single piece sides not use a tail block, as it was unnecessary for the glueing operation, but the block also provides some weight to the tail end of the instrument to help balance, not to mention a place to mount an end pin or jack if required.

A filler joint is normal as a way to help dress up the join, but it is possible to get a very good virtually seamless join with care and practice.

I find it hard enough to bend each side separately!

Just recently I managed a one-piece for a plywood resonator body (easy curves as it isn't figure 8). Used a hot pipe, but it's diffuclt on the last curves because you need to bend past where you want the wood to end up, and the other side presents an obstacle to doing this.

Heah, I guess the split side approach would be easier.
I'm just waiting for my C Bruno plans to arrive and then I will be getting cracking!
I have just discovered an old chest of drawers in my shed that have what look like solid mahogany fronts, I can get two tops from each and there are three of them! Nice and old and ready planed flat (obviously to thick at the moment).
I have some light English oak for the back and sides.

A single piece is easier for me to do, I bend on a hot pipe and it's faster to just bend one piece, but I don't like it, I like an end graft and matched sides so that's what I do. Much like a one peice neck would be easier... but I don't like that either, I like a stripe and that's what I do.

The beauty of two piece sides is the asthetics of two bookmatched pieces of wood. More like a fine piece of furniture. The more figured the wood the more noticable the bookmatch. One build is asthetics, the other purely utilitarian.

Sooo...........(Imagine your speaking to a child of 3 )
Two/split sides you can steam or heat the strips and then clamp and bend to a jig.
One long piece you need to bend by hand using a heating iron....If you heated by hand and bent by hand would you eventually use your jig once you had it somewhere near shape.

Sheepy

It's choose your own adventure sheepy. You can do it all by hand or do it all with jigs or anywhere in between. It's entirely uP to you. It's the magic of building your own.

Yep, it certainly will be an adventure and there will almost certainly be some magic involved if I produce a playable box!!