Wendy's Box uke

J

jcalkin

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This uke is dedicated to Dave's Double, the best fast food burger in town. Ten inch square box made of 5mm birch ply. 17" scale, 16 frets clear of the body. The top is thinned to .060", which leaves one layer of wood plus the birch skin. Mahogany neck, Honduras rosewood fretboard and head cap. Ebony bridge.

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Good proportions, looks well made and I'll bet it sounds pleasing, too. What do the folk at the burger bar think?
 
They haven't seen it. Its amazing but not surprising how satisfying it sounds. I made it as a project for the Outlaw Lutherie page of my website. Its designed to show people that they don't have to follow the long road to lutherie, that with a few tools and determination they can make their own stringed instruments that are sonically satisfying, fun to have around, and are expendable enough to go places that I would never take one of my high buck instruments. Its also a philosophical statement, a thumb to the nose at all the conventional people who are afraid to be different. The folks over at Cigar Box Nation will likely appreciate Wendy more than many of the viewers here.
 
I've made probably half a dozen cigar box ukes and am always surprised how good they sound for what they are.
Yours is pretty durn kool!!
 
resoman said:
I've made probably half a dozen cigar box ukes and am always surprised how good they sound for what they are.
Yours is pretty durn kool!!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Terry. But if they don't sound as good as conventional ukes they are failures. I'd stack Wendy against any other tenor without apologies.
 
The other day I was talking to a couple that have one of my CB ukes and I remarked "why should I go to all the trouble of building a "proper" uke when the CB's sound this good".
They do have two of my "proper" ukes tho, LOL
 
resoman said:
The other day I was talking to a couple that have one of my CB ukes and I remarked "why should I go to all the trouble of building a "proper" uke when the CB's sound this good".
They do have two of my "proper" ukes tho, LOL
Click to expand...

The only people who know that are players of cigar box instruments. I bought a carton of cigar boxes, but I'm not generally a fan of their graphics. In the end I decided to build my own boxes just to maintain complete control over each build. Once set up to build conventional ukes they are no harder than box ukes, at least if all the nifty trim is also skipped. But the setting up part is a huge challenge to novice woodworkers. I want them to know that they have other satisfactory choices.
 
I tend to steer clear of too many value statements about sounds of different ukuleles. I will say however that they do sound different and sometimes something that sounds like a cross between a duck's fart and a dog dragging it's chain over a bit of corrugated iron is just the sound you are looking for. Not always but.
I don't think you could get a sound as sharp clear and bell like as I get from my shortbread tin sopranino ukes without using a resonator cone. Not a sound easily reproduced using wood.
 
I think most of us have a mental tonal range for a given type of instrument that we would consider ideal. That range likely varies a bit from player to player. What would be the point of collecting a bunch of ukes that all sounded the same? So when comparing ukes A and B its possible to say, "I prefer uke A, but I could gladly live with either of them." After all, the easiest way to change the sound of a given instrument is to hand it to another player. Or change the room. Or the mic. Or the strings. Or the recording machine. So there is lots of room to quibble, and just as much room to say, "Yup, that's a good one." As long as my instruments fall in the last catagory I'm pretty happy. There's no reason a comparison should turn into a sonic gun fight.
 
jcalkin said:
Its designed to show people that they don't have to follow the long road to lutherie, that with a few tools and determination they can make their own stringed instruments that are sonically satisfying, fun to have around, and are expendable enough to go places that I would never take one of my high buck instruments. Its also a philosophical statement, a thumb to the nose at all the conventional people who are afraid to be different. The folks over at Cigar Box Nation will likely appreciate Wendy more than many of the viewers here.
Click to expand...

I love it! Thanks for posting. And I appreciate your sentiment above. I've been a woodworking hobbyist all my life. I've never made a stringed instrument but I'm in the process of making several experimental ukes. I'm doing it for fun and approaching it more as a woodworker than a luthier. And it goes without saying that I never would have considered trying it if it weren't for all of the great luthiers and builders here sharing their knowledge and experience.
 
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