My Manzanita build

Dougf · Jan 9, 2012

After taking Rick Turner's class last October, I was inspired to build another ukulele completely from scratch, using wood obtained entirely from my property in the Sierra foothills. The fingerboard, bridge, headstock veneer, and back are all manzanita. The top and sides are MacNab cypress, and the neck is pacific madrone. Here are a few shots.

I milled most of the manzanita and MacNab cypress using the jointer, band saw, and thickness planer at The Crucible while taking Rick's class. The bookmatch manzanita for the back was milled by David Borson of Precision Resaw. Most of the other tools I used are shown here:

Here's a video of me bragging about it, along with a little test drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BvHJwmBno4

gyosh · Jan 9, 2012

AWESOME!!!!

Congratulations, it looks great! What size is it? Did you build your own pipe bender? That's my first project when school gets out this next summer. Hope to see it in person some day.

-Gary

vanflynn · Jan 9, 2012

Very pretty and sounds great! Thanks for sharing

23skidoo · Jan 9, 2012

Very cool, Doug! Looks and sounds incredible..... I love the contrast in wood colors and that Manzanita makes a beautiful back..... really nicely done, man, congratulations!

Dougf · Jan 9, 2012

gyosh said:
AWESOME!!!!

Congratulations, it looks great! What size is it? Did you build your own pipe bender? That's my first project when school gets out this next summer. Hope to see it in person some day.

-Gary

It's a tenor, I pretty much stole the measurements from Rick's. I made a crude bending iron using a 4 inch galvanized vent pipe with a 200 watt light bulb. It didn't work all the great, which is partly why I ended up with a pear instead of a pineapple.

vanflynn said:
Very pretty and sounds great! Thanks for sharing

Thanks, I had a blast making it, and I'm pretty proud of it (in case you couldn't tell).

23skidoo said:
Very cool, Doug! Looks and sounds incredible..... I love the contrast in wood colors and that Manzanita makes a beautiful back..... really nicely done, man, congratulations!

Thanks, I'm hoping to get a few more backs from my milled manzanita, and maybe some sides.

bbycrts · Jan 10, 2012

That is fantastic! I really like the shape - I've never been a fan of the pineapple, but I really like your pear! I had no idea madrone would be such a light color...

Thanks for sharing - it is beautiful!

808boy · Jan 10, 2012

Aloha,
Nicely done and sounds great. While I'm not a fan of unconventional shaped ukuleles, I kinda like the shape you produced. Loved the contrasting colors of the wood used.
Congrats again on a beautifully done ukulele............................BO.....................

Michael Smith · Jan 10, 2012

Thanks for showing that Doug. Can you say a little about the manzinita for your fretboard? How hard compared to ebony?

Dougf · Jan 10, 2012

bbycrts said:
That is fantastic! I really like the shape - I've never been a fan of the pineapple, but I really like your pear! I had no idea madrone would be such a light color...

Thanks for sharing - it is beautiful!

Thanks, the madrone is a great wood to work with -- easy to cut, carve, and sands down really smooth. It can be hard to find a good piece that doesn't have cracks, though.

808boy said:
Aloha,
Nicely done and sounds great. While I'm not a fan of unconventional shaped ukuleles, I kinda like the shape you produced. Loved the contrasting colors of the wood used.
Congrats again on a beautifully done ukulele............................BO.....................

The pear shape was sort of an accident. My homemade bending iron was giving me trouble, and I broke one of the sides just past the shoulder of the pineapple. So I decided to go with the pear instead.

Michael Smith said:
Thanks for showing that Doug. Can you say a little about the manzinita for your fretboard? How hard compared to ebony?

I would really like to see a Janka hardness test for manzanita. I googled it, and there's a chart that lists it, but it has confused the manzanita with madrone, since it gives the scientific name "Arbutus menziesii" for both. My guess is the manzanita would be somewhere in the 2500-3000 range.

tnfishdaddy · Jan 10, 2012

Very nice. You have every right to be proud.

Moore Bettah Ukuleles · Jan 10, 2012

Terrific job on all counts Doug; the building and the playing. I love that you've kept it all local. Very nice.

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters · Jan 10, 2012

Supercool! Looks great and sounds sweet. Thanks for sharing, Doug!

saltytri · Jan 10, 2012

Sometimes homemade ukes get so far off the beaten path that they are strange. Yours manages the trick of being both different and elegant. Well done!

tigersister · Jan 10, 2012

It's beautiful. I love the look and sound of it. Very nicely done!

Liam Ryan · Jan 10, 2012

Well I think the teardrop shape is more fetching than a pineapple anyhow. Nice cypress too. The local suppliers are full of Cypress but it's all from very small trees and full of knots and splits. The one piece I've used was beautiful to work and smelt great. And that Manzanita...........wow.

BR Ukuleles · Jan 10, 2012

Really Nice....and just from taking Ricks class. He's an inspirational instructor but it takes an eager student to really take the plunge on their own. Way to go. It's a great looking and sounding instrument.

Dougf · Jan 10, 2012

tnfishdaddy said:
Very nice. You have every right to be proud.

Thanks. Of course, I have to give Rick a lot of credit for this one too, since I pretty much copied the one we made in class.

Moore Bettah Ukuleles said:
Terrific job on all counts Doug; the building and the playing. I love that you've kept it all local. Very nice.

Thanks, Chuck. I'm hoping the manzanita will prove itself over time at least as a good fingerboard wood. Very hard and dense, but also very prone to cracks.

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters said:
Supercool! Looks great and sounds sweet. Thanks for sharing, Doug!

Thanks, Ralf.

saltytri said:
Sometimes homemade ukes get so far off the beaten path that they are strange. Yours manages the trick of being both different and elegant. Well done!

Thanks, this one is a bit off the beaten path, some by design, some by accident.

tigersister said:
It's beautiful. I love the look and sound of it. Very nicely done!

Thanks, Tigersister. I feel very fortunate that even though I made tons of mistakes, none of them were severe enough to ruin it.

liam_fnq said:
Well I think the teardrop shape is more fetching than a pineapple anyhow. Nice cypress too. The local suppliers are full of Cypress but it's all from very small trees and full of knots and splits. The one piece I've used was beautiful to work and smelt great. And that Manzanita...........wow.

Thanks Liam. As I said in previous posts, the teardrop was more due to mistake recovery than design, but hey, whatever works!

Allen said:
Really Nice....and just from taking Ricks class. He's an inspirational instructor but it takes an eager student to really take the plunge on their own. Way to go. It's a great looking and sounding instrument.

Thanks, I learned a lot in Rick's class, but if I have learned anything from all the mistakes I made on this one, I think I learned even more trying to do it myself!

Gmoney · Jan 10, 2012

So very cool! That's another vote for attending one of Rick's classes at the Crucible. I was really close to going to that October class myself - perhaps I'll shoot for the Fall.

Great job w/your uke! I love the pear shape as well - a bigger version of an old Favilla "teardrop" soprano. Thanks for sharing & especially because it encourages others of us who are on the edge about wanting to do the same. And great sound as well! Too cool!

ksquine · Jan 10, 2012

Very nice uke. I definitely need to use more chainsaw in my building

Dougf · Jan 11, 2012

Gmoney said:
So very cool! That's another vote for attending one of Rick's classes at the Crucible. I was really close to going to that October class myself - perhaps I'll shoot for the Fall.

Great job w/your uke! I love the pear shape as well - a bigger version of an old Favilla "teardrop" soprano. Thanks for sharing & especially because it encourages others of us who are on the edge about wanting to do the same. And great sound as well! Too cool!

Thanks, and yes, I highly recommend Rick's class.

ksquine said:
Very nice uke. I definitely need to use more chainsaw in my building

The chainsaw is an indispensable tool for harvesting the raw wood, but I also used it to help carve out my neck blank from a piece of firewood. Except for my drill, so far it's my only power tool. But that may change.

Here are a few more shots of the uke in progress:

My Manzanita build

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