Trimming a head stock?

robinfowler

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Silly question?

I have a kala travel uke. It has a longish headstock. Could I trim the top off the head stock? Or would this cause the head to break or ruin the sound. Just want to make it a bit shorter for travel.
 
I'm NOT a luthier so take everything I say with the tiniest grain of salt, but I am a woodworker. As far as I can tell, the biggest risk you'd run is trimming too close to the tuners and not having enough wood to support the north side of the tuner holes. Seriously, you would want to leave more then you think you would need. How much you need to leave I don't know. But, you'd be surprised how easily little bits of unsupported end grain can break out. With that in mind, I'm not sure if you would want to trim enough off to make it workwhile.

As far as sound, theoretically changing the weight of the instrument could make a difference, bit its such a small amount that in reality it won't make any difference. Might want to post this to the luthier forum for better advice.
 
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Old Martin Backpacker had your idea (see the photo below). New ones have logo space on the top. Mahogany is easy to trim, maple is hard, according to my local guitar tech.



Personally I would not either. A gentleman saw Martin logo on the head stock in my guitar and talked to me yesterday. Logo has brought us conversation.
 
Two thoughts. First, are you trimming headstock to make it shorter in length for travel. If so, heed the advice above about enough wood to hold tuners. You could also get a concert version or do what I did and get a Tiny Tenor.

I played a liked the Kala travel Uke. But, I found the top heaven at headstock. If that is your thinking, buy the new Graphtech plastic planetary tuners. They will reduce your weight. This was my second though when reading the headline.

Reason the got a Tiny Tenor was travel with tenor scale in concert size and not loose tenor sound. TT do this and are fantastic. I got solid top/laminate to replace a Fluke tenor and it’s great. But, I like it so much, I’d like an all solid wood Tiny Tenor

Personally, I would NOT cut head stock. Change to graphtech tuners. Get a good gig bag and travel around all over the place.

Good luck.
 
Thank for everyones comments.

I bought this in Hawaii when there so not as expensive as buying in Australia.

I have already fitted lightweight friction tuners - that make it feel more balanced to play.

This is a dedicated travel Uke so the idea is to trim headstock to make easier to fit in hand luggage.

From the pics you can see there is a lot of space at the top - a good 40mm (1.5").

So how much could I safely trim off???
 
I have never taken any off an uke headstock but I have taken wood off an electric guitar headstock in the past without issue more than once. Just make sure you leave enough to safely hold the tuning machines, as stated above. Of course there is always some risk involved, but it may be well worth it to you. I think it would be hard for anyone here to give an exact number. Just keep in mind you can always take some more off, but you can't add any back on.
 
So how much could I safely trim off???

I wouldn't take off more than half, if it were mine. The Tiny Tenor and XS Soprano have small headstocks, especially in the center, but the bit above the tuners is extended. There is considerable pressure on those tuners.

Romero Headstock.jpg
 
I would first make sure you can install Graphtech Ratio tuners down the road. I have no experience in shortening a standard headstock, although I did mod an inline tuner headstock. I’d figure out what the max ukulele length you can use, not the max you can remove from the headstock. If it comes down to having a uke on a trip or not having one, I’d remove no more than the logo.

John
 
I've once installed 6 strings on my concert ukulele. You can fill original holes with putty and make new holes (see the photo below). We can get putty in DIY stores. In my 6 string case, I had holes in logo location.

 
Why not also post your question on the Forum: Ukulele Building / Luthier's Lounge of this website. There are Luthier - Builders who regularly post to there.
 
Hi, robinfowler!

We need cone (A in the photo below), putty (B) and taper reamer (C). My taper reamer is 3-12mm size. We just make starter by cone on the back of the head stock and hole it from back side. Holes can be located over wood and putty. We just need to be careful about the interfere of strings (red arrow). If the holes of 2nd and 3rd strings are too outside, strings my interfere.

 
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Silly question?

I have a kala travel uke. It has a longish headstock. Could I trim the top off the head stock? Or would this cause the head to break or ruin the sound. Just want to make it a bit shorter for travel.

It honestly doesn't look like you have much extra room for safely removing the tuners. As another poster said, maybe just get a shorter uke or a tiny tenor. Those have the big sound and are shorter.
 
FYI, a concert Flea uke is pretty short, it fits in my Kaces soprano gigbag just fine, and that goes easily into my backpack, has a great sound and is my go-to travel uke.
 
Thank for everyones comments.

I bought this in Hawaii when there so not as expensive as buying in Australia.

I have already fitted lightweight friction tuners - that make it feel more balanced to play.

This is a dedicated travel Uke so the idea is to trim headstock to make easier to fit in hand luggage.

From the pics you can see there is a lot of space at the top - a good 40mm (1.5").

So how much could I safely trim off???

I would feel safe cutting a line right under where it says "Brand" in your photo.
 
The Kala travel uke is already pretty short - just over 21", I believe. This should fit into any 21" carry on, though corner to corner. This is my deff of a travel uke.

However, if you insist, it does look to me that the pointy ends could easily be rounded over. That should get you down to 21, I think. Maybe even shorter.

Do you have what they call the quasi-closed style of tuner? I believe the Kaka does. These only have 1 screw and I think they are closer to the tuner than other styles. If so, you might get away with trimming maybe as much as 1/2" more, but maybe stay safe at 1/4". No guarantees - just how it looks to me. Others here have commented the opposite.

A spindle sander might be a good way of proceeding, that is, if you do proceed... Draw a line and sand to it. Keep it square and you might get away with just finishing the sanded edges.
 
Hi All,

I already travel with the Kala (soprano) and it does fit in my hand luggage. BUT I have an obsession for the smallest travel Uke with a full sop scale. Kala was the best balance of quality and size I could find.

Following yahalele's advice I could maybe save another 1.5" off the total length. So a sub 19" uke with full sop scale.

I have already fitted small Waverly friction tuners (in pics) which needed a smaller hole than the Kala already had for the geared tuners - so re-drilling the holes appeals to get these tuners fitted better. I used the washers from the geared tuners to extend the Waverly's and cover the holes - they do work fine and hold tune.

I am still considering but moving the tuners down the head stock is sounding good.
 
Hi All,

I already travel with the Kala (soprano) and it does fit in my hand luggage. BUT I have an obsession for the smallest travel Uke with a full sop scale. Kala was the best balance of quality and size I could find.

Following yahalele's advice I could maybe save another 1.5" off the total length. So a sub 19" uke with full sop scale.

I have already fitted small Waverly friction tuners (in pics) which needed a smaller hole than the Kala already had for the geared tuners - so re-drilling the holes appeals to get these tuners fitted better. I used the washers from the geared tuners to extend the Waverly's and cover the holes - they do work fine and hold tune.

I am still considering but moving the tuners down the head stock is sounding good.

You should probably check in at the luthier's lounge before following yahalele's advice unless you don't mind ruining your uke. They have experience with scale and fitting of tuners. I am sure yahalele has none and was merely giving you an opinion.
 
Moving the tuners should knock a couple cm off easily. I modded a Kala-15S to 8 strings by filling the old holes with dowels and redrilling. IIRC 3/8" dowels fit perfectly to fill the old holes, and I just camouflaged them with a paint pen For better cosmetics you could strip the whole head of paj. I may have had to switch to friction tuners to fit more compactly than the native geared machine heads. With just the near four tuners you could remove 3-4 cm from the end.

fullsizeoutput_12.jpg
 
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