scrap wood ukulele project

what an amazingly detailed documentation of your build. thanks for sharing!!

may i ask how long it took to complete?
 
russ_buss said:
what an amazingly detailed documentation of your build. thanks for sharing!!

may i ask how long it took to complete?
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To get the bulk of the construction done, it was somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks, but a lot of that time was spent thinking about how to go about it. At that point, i hadn't spent any money on it, but I decided that I would shell out a few bucks for 3 feet of fretwire and some machineheads. I had to mail order them, so after waiting a week, i got back to work. All in, it took approximately 1 month from scrounging up wood to tuning it up. If I were just building it, and had all the materials available, it would be about 1 week to build, and 1 week for finishing, I'd guess.

Edit: lol, just looked at the dates on the pictures (gotta love the digital age). The picture of the wood was dated April 28th, the picture of it hanging with the varnish drying was May 21st, and the final picture was May 29th. So yeah, about a month.
 
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WOW again! What a great job on documenting.

If this doesn't convince the mods that a luthier section needs to be created, I don't know what will.
 
A quick Google on "online fret calculator" turns up a ton of choices. I think that Stew-Mac* probably has a good (i.e. accurate) one.

Lots more luthier info, even ukulele-specific, out on the web. Most of it in forums. The pros are exceedingly generous with their knowledge.

*Stewart-MacDonald, a luthier supply house.
 
Wow, no more scrap wood images in my head. That looks really nice! Too bad my Tokyo apartment does not have a woodshop attached to it, but documentation like yours is very useful for people planning to start such a project, thanks for the contribution.

Ah... did anyone ask how it sounds yet??? :nana:
 
UkeNinja said:
Ah... did anyone ask how it sounds yet??? :nana:
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Haha, guess i didn't mention that bit ;)

Well, i'm completely new to ukuleles, and all I had to compare it to was my Koa Pili Koko. I was pleasantly surprised with how it sounded. It had more volume, and was more "punchy". I played it for the week before I left, and when I picked up my KPK again, i was actually a little disappointed.

It wasn't as mellow sounding as the KPK, but in reality, when I was playing it, the varnish hadn't really fully hardened yet (oil based, not lacquer). One thing i noticed was the A string, on my KPK it is somewhat dead, but on this uke it really rang out without needing to put emphasis on it. So when I was playing a song which had a melody line on the A string (Aldrine's version of Zelda's Lullaby), i was really surprised at how much better it sounded.

Overall, for not paying attention to terms like "tone wood" (are any ukuleles made out of birch???) and "tap tuning", it far surpassed my expectations in sound. When I make it down that way to visit again, perhaps I'll record a few chords and post it. Perhaps I'll even be able to play a full song by then :music:

cheers,
gary
 
Wow!!! Truly truly amazing!!!!!

My hands have no finess when it comes to carpentry. I guess I did pretty well back in my highschool woodshop days, but I doubt that I could ever fly solo like that.

A number of years ago, I took the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria. I always wondered what kind of people lived on those little islands. That kind of seclusion would be bliss -- in moderation.

Beautiful job, sir. Cant wait to see those vids. Thanks for sharing.
 
Thanks so much for posting those pictures, g4ry. So glad you decided to share your process with us. Thank the lord you had the foresight to take pictures!

This is seriously so cool.
 
IamRobbyah said:
A number of years ago, I took the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria. I always wondered what kind of people lived on those little islands. That kind of seclusion would be bliss -- in moderation.
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Lol, in moderation is key. I had to take a boat to and from highschool every day. But yeah, the seclusion does make you take time to enjoy some of the simpler things in life. I doubt I could ever live there again permanently, but I do enjoy "getting away from life", time to time.

Glad everyone enjoyed the pics, I'll be sure to take my camera along for the next random project!

//gary
 
g4ry,

You did some fine work and you've inspired me to build my own ukulele when I have some free time. I don't know much about woodworking, but your pictures compel me to at least give it a shot.

Not only am I impressed with the final product, I'm impressed with the ingenuity it took to build some of the tools from scratch--a set of clamps from a broomstick? Nice. :)

Nice work!
 
awesome! it's always inspiring to see works like these from scratch. i would have to wait till after this fall semester of school to start making my own uke. i don't have much time right now and seeing pictures like yours makes me want to do it even more lol
 
Wow! You got a sweet uke there!
That link you posted with all the pics is going to help me alot becuase I'm gonna do a similar project in school. Thanks!:worship:
 
That is an exceptional first build. Very impressive!
 
Wow that came out nice! :bowdown: I'm glad you had the foresight to take pics of the process. This is really motivating me to give it a shot -- with a kit first of course.... ;)
 
this gets me thinking about all these silly furnishings around the house (tables, bookshelves and the like). The kitchen table, for example, would probably net about 4 tenors . . . . hmm . . .
 
NotoriousMOK said:
this gets me thinking about all these silly furnishings around the house (tables, bookshelves and the like). The kitchen table, for example, would probably net about 4 tenors . . . . hmm . . .
Click to expand...

Ha! That does it -- you've officially changed the way I look at ALL things made of some kind of wood! :D
 
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