StewMac Concert Uke Kit Bracing Issue

klr said:

On another note, the holes in the heel are drilled off center. Sigh.

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Like Bazuku says, it is not important to have them perfectly in line. Think about it... Now when you have to drill the holes in the neck block they do have to perfectly line up with the holes in the neck heel. Use dowel pins and remember, hand held drills will rotate out of line clockwise. Use forsner(?) bits if you have them.

sequoia said:

Like Bazuku says, it is not important to have them perfectly in line. Think about it... Now when you have to drill the holes in the neck block they do have to perfectly line up with the holes in the neck heel. Use dowel pins and remember, hand held drills will rotate out of line clockwise. Use forsner(?) bits if you have them.

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Good point. I have a 1/4" brad point bit. That should do it.

Btw, I wasn't too concerned with making the neck work as is, I was mainly reacting to the poor QC. The neck doesn't join the body on the 14th fret and the holes are way off center. I guess I expected a little better from Stewmac.

klr said:

I think I see what is going on. I was measuring based on the fretboard meeting the body at the 14th fret.

I placed the nut on the neck per the instructions, then the fretboard, and then measured. This moved the bridge back enough so that I can bring the x-brace/bridge plate forward about 1/16" and have the bridge plate right under the bridge and fit tightly to the x-braces.

So, do ukuleles not always have the neck meet the body at a fret like a guitar? The pics of the StewMac kit do not.

If that is the case, the plans need revised to show the proper placement of the baces and bridge plate.

Or I still haven't figured out what I'm doing wrong.

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Again , don't worry about this yet.
There is usually a bit of 'wiggle room' with nut placement.
If you are willing to do a bit of fiddling, try the following :

Don't glue the fret board to neck.
Close the box.
Prepare the neck to body joint to get a neat fit to the body.
Install the dowels, as already discussed, no glue yet, it will come apart easily.
Temporarily clamp the neck to body, no glue... (longish F-clamp with padding).
Slide the fret board up the neck until the 14th fret slot is over the neck-body join (if that is what the plan recommends).
Firmly tape the fret board to the neck in this position, so that it can not move.
Place the saddle into the bridge slot.
Position the bridge so that the saddle string departure point is the distance from the string departure point of the nut to the mid point of the 12th fret slot multiplied X 2 plus ~ 2.0mm (or any other recommended/desired figure) for compensation.
Check the centre alignment of the fret board to bridge/saddle using two 24”steel rulers.
Adjust, and re-check your measurements..
Securely tape the bridge to the body at this location.
Ascertain that the bridge position is over the bridge plate. It should be.
Measure the distance from the nut string departure to the saddle string departure.
This should now be the given scale length. But it may be a little longer if SM has not included a compensation factor.
If you wish to double check this go to an online fret calculator, follow the instructions for the measured scale length minus the compensation factor, then check the progressive figure for the 12th fret. If all is well this should be the same as your 0-12 measurement.

Now, this is where the 'fudging' begins.
If the nut is a little higher up the neck than you expect, you should be able to re-profile the transition area with a small half round file and paper, without any ill effect. The aesthetics of the appearance is up to you.
I do this with necks and fret boards that I buy in (lazy, yes, I know) as some of them are made to approximate, but not always strictly standard, scale lengths. Not checking this is a mistake that you only make once.
Always check for the correct measurement of the first fret spacing as some factory manufactured fret boards have provision for an optional zero fret (with no mention of it in the specs) and have to be adjusted if that is not in your plans. These always look a bit odd, but sometimes not odd enough to ring alarm bells. Again, a mistake that you will only make once.

klr said:

... my opinion may not be worth much given my lack of experience.

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To the contrary, your inexperience is just the reason that new builders will be interested in your opinion. The SM kits are very popular and there are numerous threads regarding small problems encountered during the first experiences of building. New builders get more encouragement from hearing of other new builders' successes, than from any one else.

bazuku - Thanks for the detailed instructions and encouragement. I have the rim ready to glue the back on, so I'm going to glue the back on and then fit the neck to the body as you recommend and see how things measure up.

Update:
I've sent pics to Stewmac about the short neck and bridge plate/bracing issue but haven't received a response yet. In the meantime, I glued the back on the rim. All the pieces fit fine and the quality seems acceptable for a beginner's kit.



I have thinned the soundboard about .010". It was .090" and seemed really stiff. From what I've read here it seems like I could go thinner still...?

In other news, I bought a tenor kit from ebay for $26.01 shipped with tax. Curiosity got the best of me and I wanted to see how it compared to Stewmac's plywood kit and I wanted to figure out the neck angle/setup before finishing the Stewmac kit. I was impressed with most of it, but couldn't see the plywood top sounding acceptable. So I cut off the top and cut a new one from some lutz spruce I have in my guitar top stash.

At this point I have two boats ready to accept their tops. The kerfed lining is a little rough but should be fine.



The ebay cheapo has a better neck that actually joins the body at the 14th fret and a rosewood fretboard.

I heard back from Stewmac today. Their "tech team" decided that the neck meeting "slightly shy" of the 14th fret won't cause any issues. I guess looking like a hack built your uke isn't an issue to them.

Their response to the bracing and bridge plate issue was that "The bracing and bridge plans included are for location, and are not a scale blueprint. The brace locations are correct on the plan, and the bridge plate should be placed directly under the bridge.

As a note, bridge plates are not entirely necessary in a ukulele build, and many ukuleles omit them entirely."

Oddly enough, the instructions tell the builder to use the plans to layout the brace locations. Per the instructions:"Lay the plan over the back or top, centering it on the wood.
Transfer the plan’s centerline to the upper and lower edges
of the top and back wood.
Use a pushpin to poke small holes into the wood at the brace
ends. Connect these holes with a pencil and straightedge,
and you have the brace locations marked for gluing."

So I'm going to go ahead and build it with fan bracing, but I would think that a company that makes/sell all those fixtures and tools would be able to produce a kit with more accurate parts. Especially given that it's marketed to beginners with no woodworking experience.

klr said:

I heard back from Stewmac today. Their "tech team" decided that the neck meeting "slightly shy" of the 14th fret won't cause any issues.

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In terms of practicality, that is true.
Some traditional builders pay no attention to this detail.
A twelfth or fourteenth fret join, particularly for guitar, is usually a carefully considered player choice.
If there is enough real estate on the sound board to accommodate the bridge in the 'sweet spot' (or close), then the choice of positioning is up to the builder. The sonic qualities should not be effected too much.
Once the braces and bridge plate (that define the position of the bridge) are glued, your options are narrowed. Regardless, if you try to 'fudge' the positioning a little, it should work out for you providing that you have enough, or can make enough neck room.

I braced the top today.

Looks good. However I would not tie the fans to the lower transverse brace. Structurally stronger but sonically weaker. Others disagree. Just a thing with me. It does help prevent bridge rotation and bellying though. I'm a big fan (ha!) of isolated fan bracing. But don't change it just because I said so. There are a lot of ways to brace and you need to find a scheme that works for you.

sequoia said:

I would not tie the fans to the lower transverse brace.

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Mine are just touching. How much distance do you usually like?

That looks like it should be fuller and more mellow sounding than the 'X' bracing, which some report as being fairly bright, but until it is strung up and played, this will remain pure conjecture.
If you want to isolate the bracing more, you could consider paring down the fans to about 0.5mm high in a gentle curve, starting 10 – 12mm out from the transverse brace. This will (theoretically) unlock the fan brace ends and move the pivot point (for the lever effect) away from the transverse brace.

klr said:

Mine are just touching. How much distance do you usually like?

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Not particularly critical I think. My distance is about 3/4 inch or so. Keep in mind that this is the way I do it. None of this is written in stone. Below is a picture of a basic tenor fan bracing scheme. Note that this is a tenor and not a concert which might require a lighter touch. Also note that the braces have not been carved down yet. A lot of wood will come off there. Hope that helps.

sequoia said:

Not particularly critical I think. My distance is about 3/4 inch or so. Keep in mind that this is the way I do it. None of this is written in stone. Below is a picture of a basic tenor fan bracing scheme. Note that this is a tenor and not a concert which might require a lighter touch. Also note that the braces have not been carved down yet. A lot of wood will come off there. Hope that helps.

View attachment 123919

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Thank you for the pic, that helps. I too feel that not joining the fan braces leaves room for the top (lower bout) to move and be more lively.

Ok, I can see how stopping the braces short would allow the entire lower bout to move more like a speaker cone. Here's the tenor top I finished today. How's it look?

klr said:

How's it look?

View attachment 123924

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Looks great.

Thanks. I appreciate everyone's input.

Remember those holes in the neck that were drilled off-center? Well, they were drilled off-square too. That means that I had to drill the holes in the neck block at an angle. Long story short - I had to wallow out the holes and now I don't have a tight fit on my dowels. I think I'll be fine if I just glue the neck on with epoxy. Anyone want to talk me out of it?

Guess I could go with 5/16" dowels IF I can hit the angle right. There just isn't much material in the neck or neck block.

Unfortunately, when it comes to dowelling, good alignment is required.
For the moment do nothing until you can properly assess your options.
If you can get the joint to close neatly using dowels and epoxy that will be your easiest option. Be sure to get the neck to bridge/body alignment correct before applying epoxy. Clean up any excess epoxy really well for ease of finishing.
If you can get a screw in through the sound hole, you could improvise with a furniture bolt.
This will require filling the misaligned holes with dowels and epoxy, cutting them off flush and starting anew. A drill press is necessary to accurately drill down through the neck heel to accommodate the barrel. Again some accuracy with measurement and alignment will be needed.
I mostly have experience with these two methods for ukulele, others may have better (or easier) ideas.

klr said:

Long story short - I had to wallow out the holes and now I don't have a tight fit on my dowels. I think I'll be fine if I just glue the neck on with epoxy.

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Getting an exact angle is hard and not really necessary unless it is really far off. Just wallow a bit out to get a fit. Then fill the excess space with glue/sawdust mixture. Remember this is also a butt joint and the glued fretboard to top will further stabilize the join. It isn't going anyway. It will be fine.

That is the quick and dirty way. A cleaner way would be to drill out bigger using your 5/16th dowels and re-drill. That works too of course.