Advice needed for the construction of an unusual uke...

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Livetosculpt

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Finished! Advice needed for the construction of an unusual uke...

Hi everyone, I haven't had any time to keep up at UU. This has been our busiest time of the year in the chocolate business.

I've been asked to make a piece of art for an upcoming gallery show, and the theme is bowls. So I thought it would be fun to make a playable art piece.

I'm building a uke using a 12" stoneware bowl, nice piece of Koa for the top, and carving a mahogany spoon that will be fretted for the neck. I'll mill musical notes in 3D that will be "floating" in the soup like alphabet soup.

My question is, should the spoon be glued to the tone wood top, or be ever so slightly raised above it to allow the top to vibrate freely? The bridge will be attached to the top in the spoon, but will not touch the spoon.

Or I could make the whole thing electric and have a matching "soup can" amp. Any advice from the pros? See attached images. Thanks!UkeBowl#2.jpgUkeBowl#3.jpg
 
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No advice, but that's a cool idea. You'll keep us updated with pics, I hope!

Goo luck with it.
 
Intriguing! Good luck with the build. I'll keep an eye out for this thread.
 
If as you show it will be the general layout, the spoon (neck) shouldn't be attached to the top, but the bowl.
It doesn't really matter if it makes any sound or not, right? I mean, no one is really going to play it, just put it together however it seems best.
 
Actually, I do want it to sound good. I'm designing it so it can be played comfortably, and I may have someone play it at the opening. It is definitely ergonomically more of a sculpture than an instrument though. The neck will be attached to the bowl, and I'm trying to figure out how the sound will be affected if I glue the spoon to the top. It's off to the side, and a lot of the top area is free to vibrate. I have no way to test or tweak it once it's playable. I could put a pickup in it and make it electric. The fretboards on my other instruments are glued to part of the tops, some all the way to the sound hole. The only difference is the location of the bridge, which will be in the center of the spoon, and look like a musical note, but glued to the top.
 
Hi Livetosculpt,

I dont know if this will help you but have you looked at how a dulcimer is constucted...the way I see it your spoon is similar to the through neck of a dulcimer
hope this helps
 
I think the spoon could be supported by a wedge going from the edge of the bowl to say 50 mm in on the soup, I mean soundboard. From there the spoon should be elevated from the top so it doesn't buzz or muffle any sound. A small sound hole could also be hidden under the spoon, you'll need one if the bowl doesn't have it on the side. How will you attach the top? Kerfing around the inside of the bowl?

Since this is written during a bout of insomnia, I'll stop now.
 
it's supported by kerfing. I do have a neck support block under the top, the top's not yet glued in place. My only problem with raising the spoon off the top is I don't want to destroy the illusion of it being partially submersed.
 
I don't think it matters what you do with the spoon. You are using a heavy stoneware bowl for the soundbox, which will have such a negative impact on tone and volume that attaching a piece of mahogany to the soundboard will make little difference. With all due respect, I foresee very little chance that this novelty item will sound anything close to "good."
 
I don't know - why wouldn't it make noise? It'll be like a heavy rimmed drum or banjo. But if you keep the illusion of the spoon being submerged I think you'll have to live with the illusion of the whole contraption being playable.
 
Livetosculpt said:
it's supported by kerfing. I do have a neck support block under the top, the top's not yet glued in place. My only problem with raising the spoon off the top is I don't want to destroy the illusion of it being partially submersed.
Click to expand...

Keep the spoon at least 1/16 (or just a bit more) off of the soundboard and it should look submerged.
 
I think it will sound different but it will work. I'm not a luthier but have experimented. I'm currently building a hand made ceramic body ukulele. Some of my ideas for your instrument would be to put maybe 2 thin small letters under the soup spoon (have more of them throughout the soup). Perhaps have them attached with a small dot of wood or something so they don't affect the sound board too much. I'd put a letter (or two) in the middle of the spoon as the bridge (a bridge like on a banjo). Also you could put a swirl of soup throughout, like this http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=I.4644964969218228&pid=15.1, the swirl in the spoon could be cut out for the soundhole and the rest of the swirl could be done with a darker shade of stain for the rest of the "soup" so it looks cohesive. Hope this makes sense :)
 
I think more sound will be generated if the spoon is touching the bowl...and if you have a soundhole somewhere (under the handle???)

If you have a completed uke handy, (or some kinda stringed instrument) pluck a string and touch the back of the neck to the bowl and see what happens.

ps- the illusion of submersion is achieved (very well i might add) by the spoon half hidden/dipped in the koa 'soup', not by or if the spoon handle touching or not.

If you want it easily playable, I would attach something to the side to stop it slipping in the lap (ever played an Ovation in silk PJ's?), or have a strip of that cheap honeycomb kitchen non slip pad stuff- could velcro it to the lap side to keep it non permanent.
 
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Okay. This is what I think I'll do. The neck of the spoon will be attached securely to the rim of the bowl. The sound hole will be hidden by the spoon where it is attached to the neck. I'm still not sure about attaching the spoon to the top. I'll install a pickup inside and build a matching soup can amp. I've built thermo-formed rigid abs bodied ukes that have beautiful tone and much volume, and this stoneware bowl is anything but dead...it rings like a bell. I don't know if it'll act like a tone ring on a banjo or be dead. If it's dead, I'll plug it in for the show and amplify it! When it's completed I'll record it and post it.
 
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