What's happening in your shed?

[Jerryc41]

Exciting times...

Beautiful. I can never cut those strips that bend around the top and bottom of the sides. I wind up buying them from Stew-Mac.

 

[tonyturley]

I took a break from my main project to do a tuner retrofit on a paddle head baritone uke I completed early last year. I never much cared for either of the friction tuners I used on the instrument, so I removed the old tuners, shaved about a millimeter from each side of the headstock, refinished, and installed a set of Gotoh UPT-L. Much better. I also didn't much care for the unwound 4th string of the PhD fluoro set I installed today, so I pulled it right off and installed an unused Savarez Alliance HT classical 5th string that I had laying around. Huge improvement over the unwound fluoro D string.

 

[Titchtheclown]

This little mermaid tenor uke is a cuter than I expected. The use of sunglasses as a bridge was an inspired move. Dyed the spotted gum fretboard by diluting a little oil paint in turps.
Making this uke has made me happier with a build than I have in a long time. The only thing I might do different next time is give her a uke of her own to hold and fiddle the body shape jusy a little. Bandsawn bowl pine body, spotted gum fretboard. Glow in the dark front fret dots red plastic side fret dots. Painted with acrylics outlining and highlighting with black permanent marker and gold paint pen. Glitter added to first coat of monocel varnish.

I really splashed out, scaling a new wave of uke making with a radical switching of heads and tails using the tail as a headstock and a hairpiece as a tailpiece.




Afterthought: Making the tail still asymmetric but level tipped to allow it to stand against a wall would be a practical improvement I could make without damaging the aesthetics too much.

 

[Jerryc41]

I took a break from my main project to do a tuner retrofit on a paddle head baritone uke I completed early last year. I never much cared for either of the friction tuners I used on the instrument, so I removed the old tuners, shaved about a millimeter from each side of the headstock, refinished, and installed a set of Gotoh UPT-L. Much better. I also didn't much care for the unwound 4th string of the PhD flouro set I installed today, so I pulled it right off and installed an unused Savarez Alliance HT classical 5th string that I had laying around. Huge improvement over the unwound flouro D string.

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Very nice. I like alternate headstock designs.

 

[Jerryc41]

This little mermaid tenor uke is a cuter than I expected. The use of sunglasses as a bridge was an inspired move. Dyed the spotted gum fretboard by diluting a little oil paint in turps.
Making this uke has made me happier with a build than I have in a long time. The only thing I might do different next time is give her a uke of her own to hold and fiddle the body shape jusy a little. Bandsawn bowl pine body, spotted gum fretboard. Glow in the dark front fret dots red plastic side fret dots. Painted with acrylics outlining and highlighting with black permanent marker and gold paint pen. Glitter added to first coat of monocel varnish.

I really splashed out, scaling a new wave of uke making with a radical switching of heads and tails using the tail as a headstock and a hairpiece as a tailpiece.

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Afterthought: Making the tail still asymmetric but level tipped to allow it to stand against a wall would be a practical improvement I could make without damaging the aesthetics too much.

That's great!

 

[hoji]

This little mermaid tenor uke is a cuter than I expected. The use of sunglasses as a bridge was an inspired move. Dyed the spotted gum fretboard by diluting a little oil paint in turps.
Making this uke has made me happier with a build than I have in a long time. The only thing I might do different next time is give her a uke of her own to hold and fiddle the body shape jusy a little. Bandsawn bowl pine body, spotted gum fretboard. Glow in the dark front fret dots red plastic side fret dots. Painted with acrylics outlining and highlighting with black permanent marker and gold paint pen. Glitter added to first coat of monocel varnish.

I really splashed out, scaling a new wave of uke making with a radical switching of heads and tails using the tail as a headstock and a hairpiece as a tailpiece.

View attachment 135169
View attachment 135170

Afterthought: Making the tail still asymmetric but level tipped to allow it to stand against a wall would be a practical improvement I could make without damaging the aesthetics too much.

Titch, this is the real thing. A masterpiece. I got to admit, you have me rethinking my entire approach to instrument design. I would speculate that in 100 years, it will be these works of art will be valued by humanity, and maybe not the "could have been made in a factory" things most of us are trying to make. This screams handmade, made by a human with emotions, skill, joy, and love for making music. These are the values we want to pass on to future generations, and I believe it's through these artifacts that we must do so. Thank you.

 

[tonyturley]

Very nice. I like alternate headstock designs.

Thanks Jerry.

 

[Timbuck]

These are the last three Sopranos I'll be completing for a while...from next week I will be completing the 17 part finished Sopranos I have put into storage over the pandemic.. and I will start selling them again on eBay ...The world wide postage is improving a little but deliveries outside the UK are more expensive and can be very slow.
C8712389-F219-4E89-8AD6-7073B8EEB3EA by Ken Timms,

 

[Titchtheclown]

Titch, this is the real thing. A masterpiece. I got to admit, you have me rethinking my entire approach to instrument design. I would speculate that in 100 years, it will be these works of art will be valued by humanity, and maybe not the "could have been made in a factory" things most of us are trying to make. This screams handmade, made by a human with emotions, skill, joy, and love for making music. These are the values we want to pass on to future generations, and I believe it's through these artifacts that we must do so. Thank you.

Crikey! I just thought I was a bloke mucking about in his shed.

 

[tonyturley]

Start of a new ukulele project, even though my current project isn't quite finished. Too many ideas and too much wood to use to work on one at a time. I've tried it both ways, having as many as 6 in construction simultaneously (too many!), now I'm going to try 3 at once. I currently have enough wood for 4 or 5 more ukes.

 

[Jerryc41]

Start of a new ukulele project, even though my current project isn't quite finished. Too many ideas and too much wood to use to work on one at a time. I've tried it both ways, having as many as 6 in construction simultaneously (too many!), now I'm going to try 3 at once. I currently have enough wood for 4 or 5 more ukes.

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I love the looks of that mold. I thought I might try to make one. I see them for sale for $99 and up, but how much fun is that? There are no mistakes to try to correct.

 

[Sam.R.B]

Latest ukulele I've been working on while I'm home from school, took a lot of inspiration for the headstock from @banjopete on instagram. I was on the fence about it but I'm really loving the way it turned out.

 

[tonyturley]

I spent much of yesterday jointing, joining, and thickness sanding the Sycamore plates for the new baritone ukulele project. The top was sanded to 1.9mm and the back to 2.2mm thick. A light pencil line helps me keep track of the nearly invisible center glue joint.

 

[tonyturley]

A newly bent Sycamore baritone ukulele side cools in the mold while its mating half awaits trimming and sanding.

 

[tonyturley]

Layout work on the baritone neck. This instrument, my 12th ukulele, is going to be my first Spanish Heel neck. I've avoided this method of construction due to its difficulty . . . or at least my perception of its difficulty. The wood is 100+ year old reclaimed American Chestnut from right here in my home state. Inspired by this project: https://www.guitarmaker.com/instrument/270/the-wormy-american-chestnut-ukulele

Don't know yet what I'll do with the Chestnut off-cut, but it won't go in the bin. I'll find some use for it.

 

[tonyturley]

The beginning of a Black Walnut & American Sycamore tenor uke neck.

 

[tonyturley]

A trio of ukulele necks in various stages of construction. The one on the left is Black Walnut with a Sycamore core, and the other two are Cherry with a Black Walnut core. Going to be used for a 17” scale Grand Tenor and a pair of 19” scale long-neck tenors.

 

[lauburu]

Right handed bass for a left handed player. Based on Hofner Beatles bass. Only modifications are the knobs and the fretboard side dots have changed sides. Interesting project

 

[tonyturley]

For my most current ukulele project (a 19" scale long neck tenor) I decided to make a "kit" to organize what I need to begin construction. American Sycamore for the back & sides; salvaged old growth Redwood for the top; Cherry with a Black Walnut core for the neck; BW for the bindings, end graft, and peghead overlay; Osage Orange for the fretboard and bridge. All of these woods were harvested here in my home state except the Redwood, which came from California. The Osage Orange fretboard and bridge will deepen to a rich golden brown with exposure to UV light. I just resurfaced them this morning to remove the mill marks, and they are now under a 24/7 UV lamp.

 

[tonyturley]

A trio of ukulele necks under construction, with heel slots and peghead angles cut. Waiting for arrival of a new, finer cut band saw blade before cutting the heel shape and neck taper. Front-back: 100+ year old wormy American Chestnut, Black Walnut with a Cherry core, and Cherry With a Black Walnut core. I would have liked a narrower Cherry core in the middle neck, but I didn't have any Black Walnut left that was thick enough to get the width I wanted with a narrower core.