Building A StewMac Premium Solid Wood Tenor Ukulele

sequoia

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I've been curious about the new high end solid wood ukulele kits from StewMac, so I bought the "koa" one. I'll be posting here as the process goes along. The kit arrived today. Some impressions and photos.

Fresh out of the box:

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The Taiwanese Koa (Acacia confusa) is nice looking wood, but doesn't, to my eye at least, look much like Hawaiian Koa (Acacia koa). The back as well as the front are two jointed plates and they are joined well with no visible seams. The back has some sap wood in the center which I find attractive.

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The sides are a little less figured and there are strange round burn marks. Should sand out.

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Blocks, bracing pieces well machined and ready to go with a little TLC and sandpaper. The neck is well done mostly (two piece) and will respond to TLC. The problem is that the kit is advertised as having an ebony fretboard, ebony peghead veneer, and ebony bridge. However all three are obviously E.I. Rosewood. Not a problem really for me, but not as advertised.

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Building weather is horrible at the moment (monsoonal rains) so this could take a little while. Stay tuned.
 
The fretboard looks like Macassar ebony, which is a pretty good choice for a fretboard. The ad copy specifies Diospyros celebica, so SM seems to have gotten it right.
 
The fretboard looks like Macassar ebony, which is a pretty good choice for a fretboard. The ad copy specifies Diospyros celebica, so SM seems to have gotten it right.

Yes, you are right. I was thinking Diospyros crassifora (Gaboon ebony) for some reason. Yes, it is "macassar ebony" Diospyros celebica which I find rather attractive. More attractive really than the jet black of Gaboon ebony. I've never worked with macassar ebony so should be interesting. Really hard (3,200 Janka). Picture and links from the Wood Database below for those interested:

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https://www.wood-database.com/macassar-ebony/
 
Well I've finally got around to completing the StewMac kit. I started it in January and just now got around to finishing it. Sorry, but I've been very, very busy with other projects. Below will be pictures and comments as it went along. It turned out rather nicely if I say so myself.

First of all, I ditched the "Formosan koa" top and substituted a torrified Sitka spruce top. Then I adopted a vertical bracing method modeled on Bob Taylors new 'v' bracing system adapting it to ukulele scale. Also cut in a MOP rosette instead of the BWBW plastic rosette supplied.

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Next I bound the fretboard in cocobolo and switched out the dots to MOP with a little bling at the 10th fret.

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Pics of gluing on the top:

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Tomorrow the neck attachment system with dowels.
 

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Fitting the neck. The instructions say that the predrilled holes are 1/4 inch. The are actually drilled with a 6mm bit and are smaller. I drilled them out to 1/4 and used dowel pins to get my holes drilled in the body to match up perfectly. The instructions say to use a ruler to find where the matching holes will be. This is nearly impossible to get right and they should recommend dowel pins which are readily available in any hardware store.

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Below is the uke with the neck glued on and everything sanded out to 320 and masked off including the bridge position (more about that later).

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Finished with shellac (not French polished but "California" polished which is way easier.)

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Set-up: The instructions were a little vague on this oh so important step. Also the nut came very oversized (35k or 8.9mm) and had to be shaved way down. There was a problem with the supplied saddle too as it was too thin for the slot and was very sloppy and tended to slant towards the nut and make very poor contact with the bridge. Not good. I ended up making my own bone saddle.

The scale length was a little odd and measured out to 8 15/16 inches at the 12th fret giving an overall length of 16 30/32. 3/32 was added for intonation compensation giving an overall scale length of 17 1/32. String action was set at .030 at the 1st fret and .110 at the 12th for an approximate slope of 1:4.

uke final set up 1.jpg uke final set up 2.jpg
 
Finished Uke: Overall a pretty good kit for someone with a modicum of wood working experience and limited tools. More complex than their cheaper, simpler kit line but certainly almost anyone could put the thing together and get a nice uke out it. The parts were well made and accurate and the wood was nice if nothing special. The supplied tuners were cheap but serviceable. The price is too high in my opinion, but that's StewMac for you. I returned the too thin saddle and customer service was excellent (as always) and they sent me a free bone saddle blank at no charge. My biggest complaint was with the instructions on locating the bridge position. There was no compensation added to the calculation which would result in bad intonation. They need to address this issue.

I highly customized the kit so can't really say how it would sound with the supplied "koa" top. It sounds just fine with the Sitka spruce top I substituted. The new bracing system I used seems to be holding up (no bridge rotation yet but we shall see over time) and sounds quite a bit different than the standard 3 strut fan bracing I've always used. Clear separation and great volume. I am sold on this bracing system and will use it from now on. It really works.

What the uke is supposed to look like completed.

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What I turned out by doing a spruce top, adding a little bling to the fretboard, binding the top and fretboard, including a tail graft and cutting in a shell rosette.

final uke 2.jpg final uke 12.jpg uke final 10.jpg uke final 11.jpg
 
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It looks great. I'm considering a kit. I would love to see/hear the uke being played. Thanks for sharing this gives me encouragement to go ahead.
 
That is a nice looking build. I've looked at those kits, but the cost does seem high to me. I've also considered buying one of their laminated Walnut kits and substituting a nice bear claw Sitka top set that I have, but I'm not certain that would make much difference in the sound of the instrument.
 
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