A concert uke: not the usual Indian unboxing story

I get the impression that the USA is awash with old cedar cigar boxes and that many would be music makers have used them to knock up some kind of instrument. Here in the UK we have neither the supply of boxes nor the tradition of such instruments.

With this in mind, I set to with an old Indian jewellery box to make a concert scale uke. The box 10”x 6” approx. was heavy with 10mm sides and top in a rosewood type wood. The solution was to split the box, only the decorated lid being used as the back for this instrument. It was not square and was warped so needed truing up.

New butt and neck ends were made in 10mm walnut with sides 3.5mm attached with corner lap joints. This true and square assembly was glued to the lid.

A top was made in mahogany 1.6mm thick with a simple rosette made of 2 strips of walnut veneer. Homemade strips of maple/walnut/maple were used to decorate the top.

A modified Chinese neck was tenoned to the box and a Chinese fretboard was used.

I have made this over the last 5 days spending about 25 hrs in total.

One of the photos show how the jewellery box uke compares with a concert scale soprano bodied uke. The jewellery box uke sounds less like a soprano than this instrument, it's less bright and a little warmer. Its loud with good sustain so I’m happy with the result. The other half of the box will get similar treatment.

In the UK 26th Dec. is known as "Boxing Day". It seemed like an appropriate day to post this build!

Neat! Lovely piece of upcycling. Any sound files?

Very cool, I love the carving.
There was a "Build your own cigar box uke" workshop here lately. 4 of my friends are sporting their own now.

One of the nicest box ukuleles I'm seen.

Truely a beautiful and unique ukulele.

Thanks for the positive comments.

My last 3 ukes have been non standard ukes made by recycling objects. I like the challenge of making something a little different and deciding how to achieve my goals. It has become addictive and I see potential sound boxes everywhere: there are currently 2 more projects on the go. I hope by posting these builds others might be encouraged to take the plunge. As a hobby, making a uke doesn't have to require expensive materials (I don't need to tell jcalkin) or lots of specialist tools!

Looks great! Would love to hear it.

This reminds me, one day I want to build a kabosy! It's a traditional box-shaped instrument from Madagascar. Ever tried one of those?

Dusepo said:

Looks great! Would love to hear it.

This reminds me, one day I want to build a kabosy!

Click to expand...

A little known fact about the kabosy, is that the fret wire is made from Unobtainium, or sometimes the even rarer Madagascan Eludium.
This means that there is never enough fret wire available at any given time to do a complete fret job.

bazuku said:

A little known fact about the kabosy, is that the fret wire is made from Unobtainium, or sometimes the even rarer Madagascan Eludium.
This means that there is never enough fret wire available at any given time to do a complete fret job.

Click to expand...

Lol, it's for playing in certain keys like a dulcimer. Partial frets like this were also used on some renaissance citterns.
Anyway, enough threadjacking great work anyway!

Here's the concert uke made from the lower half of the jewelry box.

The bottom was nailed in place so the heads were ground off, the bottom removed and then glued back. The nail holes were filled.

The box depth was increased from 45 to 65 mm using recycled mahogany. As before the soundboard was made from mahogany with a patch and a single central brace.

This time the neck joins at the 14th fret and again uses a loose/floating tenon.

Its lighter than the previous instrument, strung with Living Waters high G and sounds very similar.