A myrtle tenor I just finished.

finkdaddy

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Here is a myrtle wood tenor I just finished for a store in California. It's all solid myrtle with a mahogany neck. This is the first low-g uke I've made and the thickness really threw me off. I wound up having to remove the first bridge and replace it with a thicker one to keep the g-string from buzzing on the frets. Other than that, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I will post a sound clip once the strings have stretched for a couple of days.
Thanks to all of you for your advice and inspiration!
~Fred
IMAG0618.jpgIMAG0619.jpgIMAG0620.jpgIMAG0621.jpgIMAG0622.jpg
 
Oh yeah, it has a MiSi! I forgot to add that. It was also my first time installing one of those.
Thanks for the kind words. :)
 
Very nice!
 
That looks amazingly like Tasmanian black heart sassafrass.

And did you replace the entire bridge or just the saddle?

Mis-use of the language of lutherie is rampant here at the Luthier's Lounge. And shouldn't that be "Luthiers'" being plural?
 
I replaced the entire bridge, not just the saddle. It's a long and sordid tale.
There were many small mistakes that stacked up to create one big problem.
I think the fretboard is a little to thick and once the neck was attached to the body, I realized that there was a tiny bit of angle in the fretboard in relation to the body. So, as a result, I just couldn't get the saddle tall enough to make the strings clear the frets, especially with the low-g strings.
I used a hot metal shim to remove the old bridge and put on the newer, thicker one.
The result is that all the fret buzz is gone, and it even plays and sounds pretty nice. Although I think it doesn't have the high end punch that a proper uke should.

If anyone has any ideas on what I could do at this point to bring down that bridge without lowering the strings, I would be much obliged.

Thanks for all the kind words!

~F
 
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Nice one Fred! The brown on the top looks like a couple of the peaks of Catalonia's sacred mountain Montserrat.
 
I replaced the entire bridge, not just the saddle. It's a long and sordid tale.
There were many small mistakes that stacked up to create one big problem.
I think the fretboard is a little to thick and once the neck was attached to the body, I realized that there was a tiny bit of angle in the fretboard in relation to the body. So, as a result, I just couldn't get the saddle tall enough to make the strings clear the frets, especially with the low-g strings.
I used a hot metal shim to remove the old bridge and put on the newer, thicker one.
The result is that all the fret buzz is gone, and it even plays and sounds pretty nice. Although I think it doesn't have the high end punch that a proper uke should.

If anyone has any ideas on what I could do at this point to bring down that bridge without lowering the strings, I would be much obliged.

Thanks for all the kind words!

~F

No bindings..............I'd be slipping the neck.
 
Nice- reminds me of a set of Oregon Myrtle I have awaiting tenor glory...

myrtle.jpg
 
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