Building a HP-1 replica

J

James.fr

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Hi,

I am new to UU, so hello to everybody who will read my post.

I am an amateur luthier and I want to build myself a HP-1 Kamaka replica (pineapple).

I started to make some plans based on official information and photographs, but I find some issues because the official dimensions (mainly scale length and overall size) are not in the same proportions of the ones I find on photos.

Do you know someone who would own a HP-1 and who would be kind enough to check for me some dimensions on his ukulele ?
(mainly scale length and overall size)

Thanks in advance.
 
Hi James....The only info I can find is 17/16" nut width... 13 9/16" scale length..20 1/8" overall length..16 frets and 12 frets to body...There are loads of pic's of the HP 1 in Koa and Mahogany on the web, maybe you can find a decent photo and use a scale rule on the fret board and calculate the body size from that.
 
dimensions issue

Thanks for that, PMTimbuck.

That is exactly what I am doing.

But there must be a problem somewhere. If I enlarge the photos to match the scale length of 13 9/16" that is 34.45 cm, then the overall size is larger than the documented 20 1/8" (51.12 cm).
It should be 53 cm according to the photos.

That's why I suspect that one of those two dimensions may be wrong.

JM
 
Photographic distortion. Scaling things up from a photo is notoriously unreliable.

John Colter.
 
I just measured my 2018 Kamaka HP-1 and it doesn't match the numbers on the Kamaka site. I'm sure they made some adjustments over the years. Here's what I came up with:

Nut Width: 1 3/8" (1 1/6" from G slot to A slot)
Scale: 13 5/8" (edge of nut to edge of saddle)
Total Length: 21 1/8" (to the point on the headstock)
Body Length: 9 1/2"
Body Width: 6 5/8" (widest point)
Depth: 2 7/16"

Maybe someone else can confirm (or correct) these.
 
Thanks A LOT !!!!

Your measures confirm what I supposed, and the total length you measured fits very well my plan.
The main difference between the advertised dimensions and the real size is indeed this overall size which is one inch longer in fact.
Maybe a typo ?

If you can also measure the body depth at heel, I think that I will have all I need ti finish my plan.

Thanks again,

Jean-Marc
 
Body depth at the heel is 2 3/16”.
Good luck with your project!
 
Thanks again. I really appreciate your help.
may I ask for some last additional measures ?

I would like to check :

From the back of the body to the back of the bridge
Bridge size : length width height
From the back of the body to the saddle
Height of the saddle from the body table
From the back of the body to the soudhole
Diameter of the soundhole
From the back of the body to the last fret (16th)
Fingerboard length and height
Fingerboard width at the soudhole end

Also could you confirm that the fingerboard is flat and parallel to the body table ?

Best regards
Jean-Marc
 
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