'Sows Ear' into a 'Silk Purse'? Mahalo Makeover Thread

ChaosToo · Mar 7, 2013

OK - so my first Uke was a lovely Christmas gift from my wife - but with a couple more now in the house to play, I now get the chance to indulge in my love of 'tinkering'!

I hope the real luthiers will forgive me - but I thought I'd share my attempts with you all.

Silk Purse out of a Sow's Ear? Or just a slightly more shiny Sow's Ear? Who knows - but here goes!

How the uke looked 'out of the box'

And here's what we have today!

ChaosToo · Mar 7, 2013

Headstock label removed

Holes left after cheap and nasty electronics removed!

Cheap saddle and nut to be replaced by cheap bone nut and saddle sourced from China! (Don't worry - I now know that nut slots should be cut with 'slightly' more precision than those you see on the left of this piccy!

)

vanflynn · Mar 7, 2013

What fun. What type of pickup are you installing?

Good luck and don't forget the whammy bar!

ChaosToo · Mar 7, 2013

Just to give an example of my 'tinkering' - here's something completely different!

From this :

To this :

:shaka:

ChaosToo · Mar 7, 2013

vanflynn said:
What fun. What type of pickup are you installing?

Good luck and don't forget the whammy bar!

I toyed with the idea of fitting another pickup, but now I have my electro/acoustic tenor, I'll probably not bother......if I do, it'll be a double piezo mounted under the bridge, rather than the braid type under the saddle.

But no whammy bar....

tobinsuke · Mar 7, 2013

Looks like you're having fun... cool. Is there a "before" sound sample we might be able to hear alongside an "after" sample when it's all said and done?

ChaosToo · Mar 7, 2013

tobinsuke said:
Looks like you're having fun... cool. Is there a "before" sound sample we might be able to hear alongside an "after" sample when it's all said and done?

Sorry - no sound samples. I will only be adding a bit of veneer to the sides which shouldn't change the sound much. It's a laminate Mahalo after all - and whilst its a nice little Uke as a starter, I don't think anything will make it sound 'better'.

But it will hopefully look nicer!

tobinsuke · Mar 7, 2013

Fair enough. I was more thinking about the pickup. I started on a Mahalo as well. Didn't have the heart to tinker with it, though. I think we all like to believe we got the magical "1 out of 5".... Until you play another one, that is. Ha ha. Have fun.

ChaosToo · Mar 10, 2013

OK, so I've now sourced the veneer - it's a nicely figured piece of 0.6mm Sycamore which will certainly be enough for the sides and then some! I plan on re-facing the front of the headstock too, and the chap I've bought it from is including a piece of Walnut for me to make a headstock inlay out of.

There should also be enough left over to think about making a matched covering for the back of the uke, although I'm a little worried that increasing the thickness of the back too much might negatively affect the sound?

What I plan to do is reduce the thickness of the back by at least one layer of veneer (it's obviously a laminate), so that should negate that a fair bit - although I'd be very grateful for some expert input on that front.

I've also been looking at replacing the bridge and saddle whilst I'm at it.....

I'm going to go for the 'Leader' gold friction pegs with amber buttons in keeping with the 'gold and brown' overall colour theme.

Anyway - pics to follow once all the stuff arrives......

ChaosToo · Mar 14, 2013

In between night shifts, I've managed to do a bit of rough prep :

There's some rub through on the back, but the sides and back are going to be refaced anyway, so I'll probably take the back down even thinner (through the top layer of veneer) so I don't add too much to the overall thickness.

I think I'll also remove the bridge and replace it with something a little nicer.

ChaosToo · Mar 14, 2013

I've gently re-profiled the headstock and smoothed down the neck. The back of the headstock has the holes from the nasty open geared tuners, and as I plan on fitting friction tuners, I'll be re-facing both sides of the headstock.

ChaosToo · Mar 14, 2013

And my wood arrived today! There's a big piece of Sycamore (32"x10"), a nice piece of what looks like Mahgoany (12"x12") (that I wasn't expecting) and a lovely bit of burr Walnut (10"x6"). It's all 0.6mm thick so some of it'll need a touch of thinning down to make it a bit more plyable for the sides and to not impact on the overall thickness too much.

The plan is to re-face the back and sides of the Uke and the headstock in the Sycamore with a Walnut inlay on the headstock ..... but the Mahogany might find it's way into the mix somehow (or I might save it for another one!)

ChaosToo · Mar 18, 2013

Having spent a couple of days making my garage into a tiny workshop, I've finally got round to doing some more on the uke.

I made a mould! For a first attempt, it has the potential to be useable! The idea is to use it when I glue the side veneer on - held in place by a couple of sash clamps - although I might need to double it up in thickness......

With the back piece between the pieces of glass to flatten it perfectly, I've started to mould the side piece into shape. I've done it 'dry' and I'll leave it a few days to see if it holds it's shape.....

ChaosToo · Mar 31, 2013

So this proving a lot trickier than I thought! After numerous 'dry runs' to find a way of securely clamping the veneer onto the sides, I've come to the conclusion that without a bespoke jig, the best way to do it is in sections.

So I've tacked the veneer to the end of the uke for now and will be working my way around, glueing a section at a time.

It all looks a bit 'pikey', but it should come out OK.

By the way - the tape around the waste is just 'low tac' masking tape - I haven't gone totally ghetto and used sellotape!

ChaosToo · Apr 8, 2013

Been doing a fair bit over the past few days - some of it good, some of it not so good. If nothing else, it's been a learning curve .....

Inlaying is going OK - but the burr walnut tends to shatter into tiny pieces when cut, so I'm having to piece it together bit by (very tiny) bit! The headstock has been veneered in the matching Sycamore veneer.The design is a Capricorn glyph, which I also have on the nose of my surfboard and as a tattoo

The sides are 'on' but are far from perfect - sadly a few ripples appeared that I don't think will flatten out - but as I say, it's a learning curve....

ChaosToo · Apr 11, 2013

OK - if extreme 'improvisation' offends - I might suggest looking away now!

Not wishing to break out the router, and having nothing else suitable, I decided to make a little device to cut out the rebate for the binding - and here's what I came up with!

The more observant of you might be able to see that it's nothing more than a few coffee stirrers glued together, with single-edge razor blade screwed on!

My index finger is sore after having used it - but this is what I ended up with!

To be honest - I'm pretty flipping impressed with how it came out - actually far better than I thought it would!

And I got round to inlaying the rest of the headstock design - unlike the rebate, I'm not that happy with the result, but all done by hand and with a bit of careful filling, it might end up looking OK - at least when you don't look this close!

ChaosToo · Apr 17, 2013

So - it's getting there! Seeing as the rebate for the top binding went so well - I did a bit more! And fitted in the burr walnut binding ......

ChaosToo · Apr 17, 2013

There are a couple of bits need tidying up, but it's now pretty much ready for the final finishing!

vanflynn · Apr 17, 2013

This is so much fun to watch, thanks for posting! Are you going to replace the bridge?

ChaosToo · Apr 17, 2013

Thanks for the kind words! I think I might leave the bridge this time - although I tend to be impulsive, so once I get a bit of free time again, I might just order a new bridge along with the new tuning pegs ...

'Sows Ear' into a 'Silk Purse'? Mahalo Makeover Thread

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