Ukes #2-5

I have been meaning to share these for a while. These are my second through fifth completed ukes. They were christmas presents for my family


From picture 1 left to right

1-This one was for my 2 year old, I didn't want to leave him out, so I made him one from a piece of 1" sapele. a kind of semi hollow body thing. It turned out cool enough that I have an adult version in the mix.

2-This one was for my 12 year old son, who is a music fanatic. I had showed him some travel ukes on line, and he really wanted one. It turned out great and plays great, but with almost no volume. It is actually perfect in that respect, this is a kid who is playing constantly, sometimes the ears need some peace

3- This one was for my wife, although as you can see in another picture that I need to build a replacement. I learned a bit about fret hammers and ceramic bodies. I was touching up the frets and noticed one that seemed a little high. without thinking I grabbed my fretting hammer to give a tap and:biglaugh: I might string it up someday I think it will sound good (I did epoxy it back together)

4- This one was for my 9 year old daughter. My only completed tenor to date. This one turned out great. It is very loud and and with great sustain. the ceramic body on this one and the purpleheart neck make it really heavy, but the ceramic ones are not really ones to take along with you anyway. This one is my best sounding instrument yet

I'll try to get a sound clip up

Wow again not my cup of tea..
i grew up in Hawaii and i am an old guy..your ukes are different and i understand you want to be different but..i am into a traditional looking ukulele..i like nice sound and nice wood..

different designs not for me..just trying to keep it real for me..i am sure many of the UU members are going to love your design.. good luck with them

hawaii 50 said:

Wow again not my cup of tea..
i grew up in Hawaii and i am an old guy..your ukes are different and i understand you want to be different but..i am into a traditional looking ukulele..i like nice sound and nice wood..

different designs not for me..just trying to keep it real for me..i am sure many of the UU members are going to love your design.. good luck with them

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I realize that these are a departure from the traditional uke. I'm working on traditional ukes too, these have just come a bit quicker, and I think have been easier to make. I'm taking it one step at a time, and have several more in the works (although they are not koa).

Thanks though for the honest reply

AlaskaTheo said:

I realize that these are a departure from the traditional uke. I'm working on traditional ukes too, these have just come a bit quicker, and I think have been easier to make. I'm taking it one step at a time, and have several more in the works.

Thanks though for the honest reply

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Hey thanks for your honest reply..i am on here quite a bit and never saw any of your post before>> good luck with your new ukes..i am sure if you got questions there are many great and helpful luthiers on the UU

i will be watching for your future post

As an occasional potter, those are impressive. Seems like a nightmare to marry the neck & bodies!

While I'm quite enjoying traditional instruments -- and looking forward to a local wood, for me in PA, variety with a cherry arriving soon -- I'd love to get one like your #3 someday. Any chance you will be marketing these (at least on UU) sometime in the future?

Here is a brief sound clip of the three strung ukes, the last is the good one at around 1:10
http://youtu.be/FsVKXl99IN8
The first one was built for a two year old to drag around rather than for sound, I did want it to be functional so that as he grew into it, it would play. I have an adult version in the mix, with several improvements that I hope will sound much better
I’m pretty happy with the second, it plays well enough and given that it’s soundboard is so small I think that it’s ok
The last one is really the best.

Chuck- yeah, those neck joints are a little more difficult. I tried to flatten the first one I did, (the one in my avatar) but it was still tricky, I think I like the possibilities of the neck joint though, it seems like there are a lot of options to explore for a heel on these curved bodies. These bodies were drape molded inside of my soprano and tenor forms for my regular ukes, a pretty easy approach, the downside is with shrinkage they end up undersized, I haven’t yet built a form to account for the shrinkage.

Macmuse- thank you, I’m taking that as a high complement. Did you mean the smaller ceramic one, or the one in the third picture. I have versions of both in the mix now and they are getting better, eventually they will need homes, pm me if you are interested.

#1 looks like Jerry Garcia's uke!

AlaskaTheo said:

Macmuse- thank you, I’m taking that as a high complement. Did you mean the smaller ceramic one, or the one in the third picture. I have versions of both in the mix now and they are getting better, eventually they will need homes, pm me if you are interested.

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Oops... the smaller ceramic one.

Will send a pm.

edit: Just listened to the sound clip... the larger ceramic sounds pretty darned nice. Didn't know what to expect from ceramic.

nice ukes man very nice

dustartist said:

#1 looks like Jerry Garcia's uke!

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Ha Ha, yep, good eye.
In trying to come up with a uke that might take some abuse, I settled on one made from a solid piece of wood routed out a bit in the middle. Originally it was going to be more of a bluesy kind of design, but as it evolved and I ended up putting the padauk layers in it, and it started to resemble a hippie sandwich, I took it in the Rosebud/tiger direction, note the headstock too.
The next incarnation of this will depart from the Irwin look and take on a more original shape, also because it won’t be as subject to abuse, all sides will be thinned down a bit, the neck will be bolt on, and the headstock will resemble the rest of my ukes..