Stuntman
Well-known member
Over the last week I engaged in some woodwork, having signed up to an intensive 6day (extended to 6.5) uke building course with Tim Spittle (of Australian Tonewoods) through the Australian Guitar Making School located at Toronto.
A very hands on course, with demos and advice as required/requested - with very little prepared (fret board slotted and the timber pre thicknessed - everything else we did). 10-11 hours days with not a lot of time sitting around as there was always a little task to complete whilst glue was drying on one part or another.
A couple finished the build. Some have a bit more work to do. I have to glue a heel cap and fit the tuners and its ready for a test stringing prior to finish sanding and a protective finish applied (which was not part of this course) - grateful for any advice here.
Diverse group of 6 of us building ukes. From retired engineers, a man of the cloth (from Penrith), school teachers and an physicist studying the age of light (amongst other things) from Canberra. Needless to say the conversations during the build were entertaining and almost always educational.
Some had a couple of guitars under their belts already, others had not previously picked up hand tools at all. I hadn't built an instrument before but have a background in model building. We all came out with a pretty good end product.
I guess the build is probably a little unconventional in terms of having completed the build before some of the finishing steps, but it provided an end product in the short time we had.
Most of the others built a 12fret to the body tenor. I built mine as a 14 fret to the body tenor and differed with a string through the bridge (rather than a tie on). It has back and sides from bookmatched Tasmanian blackwood from a large tree that fell naturally and apparently had ferns, etc growing in the centre. Its very dark and chocolatey with nice figure through it. Top is bookmatched Swiss spruce. Bindings are Tasmanian curly blackwood (of a different shade to the body). Neck is Queensland maple, fretboard is curly blackwood and the headplate veneer is Silver Wattle. Fretboard dots are Paua Shell. Heel cap will be Silver wattle.
Other timbers Tim had with him that the others built with included Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle, Silver Wattle and a small amount of King Billy pine for tops.
I learnt a lot over the week from Tim and the others in th group and look forward to another build sometime in the future.
A very hands on course, with demos and advice as required/requested - with very little prepared (fret board slotted and the timber pre thicknessed - everything else we did). 10-11 hours days with not a lot of time sitting around as there was always a little task to complete whilst glue was drying on one part or another.
A couple finished the build. Some have a bit more work to do. I have to glue a heel cap and fit the tuners and its ready for a test stringing prior to finish sanding and a protective finish applied (which was not part of this course) - grateful for any advice here.
Diverse group of 6 of us building ukes. From retired engineers, a man of the cloth (from Penrith), school teachers and an physicist studying the age of light (amongst other things) from Canberra. Needless to say the conversations during the build were entertaining and almost always educational.
Some had a couple of guitars under their belts already, others had not previously picked up hand tools at all. I hadn't built an instrument before but have a background in model building. We all came out with a pretty good end product.
I guess the build is probably a little unconventional in terms of having completed the build before some of the finishing steps, but it provided an end product in the short time we had.
Most of the others built a 12fret to the body tenor. I built mine as a 14 fret to the body tenor and differed with a string through the bridge (rather than a tie on). It has back and sides from bookmatched Tasmanian blackwood from a large tree that fell naturally and apparently had ferns, etc growing in the centre. Its very dark and chocolatey with nice figure through it. Top is bookmatched Swiss spruce. Bindings are Tasmanian curly blackwood (of a different shade to the body). Neck is Queensland maple, fretboard is curly blackwood and the headplate veneer is Silver Wattle. Fretboard dots are Paua Shell. Heel cap will be Silver wattle.
Other timbers Tim had with him that the others built with included Tasmanian Tiger Myrtle, Silver Wattle and a small amount of King Billy pine for tops.
I learnt a lot over the week from Tim and the others in th group and look forward to another build sometime in the future.
Last edited: