more DIY mods to my ukulele

NukeDOC

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ive had this obsession with pickguards on ukes lately. so i decided that my kala needed some.

kudos if you can guess what i used. hint: got everything needed at home depot.

the headstock is a face plate made of the same stuff that the pickguards are made of. covered up some of the extra space left over from pulling out the other tuners for the conversion from 6 to 4 string. then filled up the spaces with wood putty. since ive done quite a bit of work to this uke, i figured i earned a new title on her. that symbol is "Bino" in alibata/baybayin (ancient filipino script). Bino is somewhat of a nickname of mine.
DSC00219.jpg


and the rest are just different views of the pickguards...
DSC00221.jpg

DSC00218.jpg


DSC00216.jpg
 
ill give it a few hours to see if anyone can guess what i used, then ill let the cat outa the bag.

i gotta warn you... it was a learning process. and even though i now feel comfortable with just kicking one out its still not easy. i started working on this at about 630pm. took a break from 830-1030pm. finished at 230am.
 
ill give it a few hours to see if anyone can guess what i used, then ill let the cat outa the bag.

i gotta warn you... it was a learning process. and even though i now feel comfortable with just kicking one out its still not easy. i started working on this at about 630pm. took a break from 830-1030pm. finished at 230am.

i could tell everyone what he used...
but ill let him...
hahaha
nice job dude!!
 
i could tell everyone what he used...
but ill let him...
hahaha
nice job dude!!

actually, unless you talked to bugoy or jonjon last night, i dont think you know. my original plan fell through because they didnt carry what i was looking for. so i had to improvise, adapt, and overcome HOOYAH! (navy thing)
 
actually, unless you talked to bugoy or jonjon last night, i dont think you know. my original plan fell through because they didnt carry what i was looking for. so i had to improvise, adapt, and overcome HOOYAH! (navy thing)

then i guess i dont know...
hahaha
 
Wow that looks nice! You should just replace the Kala sticker inside and tell people it's a custom built uke. LOL!

Is that pickguard made from some sort of hardwood floor piece?
 
Wow that looks nice! You should just replace the Kala sticker inside and tell people it's a custom built uke. LOL!

Is that pickguard made from some sort of hardwood floor piece?

ha thats what i thought it was. were the pick guard pieces formerly attached to something else? hints?? :D
 
good guess! VERY close.



nope. i was about to give a hint, but after GX, if i gave one more hint id totally give it away.

I was thinking of that wood floor laminate stuff, but since its not that I thought it might be for some kind of furniture like a table or something. Whatever you used, it looks good the way you did it!

That wood putty job looks good too.
 
ok i just wanted to make it a little fun while i gathered my thoughts on putting together how i did this.

the "wood" is not actually even wood. its linoleum. hahaha. i went to home depot looking for veneers, and they told me that they hadnt carried that in years. so i went looking around. its home depot for cryin out loud! there was bound to be SOMETHING that i could use. thats when i started walking down the TILE aisle. i looked up and saw the 12"x12" hard linoleum synthetic floor tiles in wood finish. this particular one had a design with four "bricks" of different wood grains. thats how i was able to make the headstock look different. 69cents each!

trial and error:
so at first, i just used some heavy duty scissors to carefully cut the shapes out, leaving some excess just in case. then carefully trimmed the edges to follow the contours that i wanted. peeled off the backing to expose the adhesive, and stuck em on. this was my first run. and it wasnt pretty. edges were rough. corners were sharp. and i cut myself when i strummed. back to the drawing board.

removed the first set of pick guards and used them to trace the shapes for a new set. this time i took a metal file and beveled the edges so that the ramped up from the wood, taking away any rough, sharp edges.

next was the headstock. basically same process without the edge beveling but even more time consuming because of the slots. i didnt leave them as holes because of the contact that it still would have made with the strings.

coming up with a symbol to represent my work was another thing. im pretty decent at writing in baybayin, so i decided to make one based on that, using one of my nicknames. "bino" is derived from my real name, arvin. my mom used to call me "arbinong" and that evolved into just "bino". my best friend actually started calling me that and eventually all my other friends kinda picked it up and call me that every now and then. the part that looks like an upside down heart makes the B sound. the dot on the bottom of it makes it a "bee" sound. the part that looks like a T with a squiggly shaft makes the N sound. the dot on top of it turs it into a "no" sound.

and there you have it.
 
lol i was gonna say veneers but that woulda been wrong too. i gotta say though, that pick guard looks awesome! i might try that now. but anyway, how does it feel having an addition to your uke? does it make it any heavier or have you noticed any big difference in your playing? i really wanna try this now haha
 
lol i was gonna say veneers but that woulda been wrong too. i gotta say though, that pick guard looks awesome! i might try that now. but anyway, how does it feel having an addition to your uke? does it make it any heavier or have you noticed any big difference in your playing? i really wanna try this now haha
the mods did add some weight. plastic floor tiling isnt made to be light. it has a bottom layer of very dense foam. but since the pieces are all relatively small, it didnt add too much. i can still hold it and play under my arm. but i usually play with a strap anyway so its no big deal. anything is better than the average electric guitar putting about 20 lbs of pressure on one shoulder. hehe. so im not complaining. i havent noticed any tonal changes other than a slight drop in how twangy she is... and thats a good thing.

the cool thing about that stuff i used... when i beveled it, since the top layer is just a print, the white base plasic showed through, and then the thick foam padding. so it actually looks like a three ply pickguard.
 
Wow that custom Kala is really a custom Kala now. Looks nice!
 
ive had this obsession with pickguards on ukes lately. so i decided that my kala needed some.

kudos if you can guess what i used. hint: got everything needed at home depot.

the headstock is a face plate made of the same stuff that the pickguards are made of. covered up some of the extra space left over from pulling out the other tuners for the conversion from 6 to 4 string. then filled up the spaces with wood putty. since ive done quite a bit of work to this uke, i figured i earned a new title on her. that symbol is "Bino" in alibata/baybayin (ancient filipino script). Bino is somewhat of a nickname of mine.
DSC00219.jpg


and the rest are just different views of the pickguards...
DSC00221.jpg

DSC00218.jpg


DSC00216.jpg


Nice Nuker... I was going to make koa pick guards for BJs Lanikai before I sold it too him. I made the templates and everything.....looked nice! I just never got around to locating some really thin koa or good looking wood.
 
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