Tahitian ukulele build

[apereira]

Hi, my name's Antonio. I'm Portuguese, and in 1995 and 1997, I went to Polynesia on a trip and bought a ukulele. In my spare time, I like to build guitars, and last month I thought about building a Tahitian ukulele with some cedar shelves that I found on the street. The body is made of three pieces of cedar glued together. The neck is made of several pieces of cedar, and the middle one is a piece of wood called 'tola' (in Portuguese); I don't know the name in English. Contrary to the typical ukulele, I made an ebony scale. The soundboard is made of spruce, 3 mm thick, which I have in the shop from a previous build. The nut is made of carbon fiber rod, and the bridge is made from the top part carbon glued to maple. Compared with the one that I bought, it's not as loud... I don't know if the problem is the bridge design. I've also rounded the soundhole...

Thanks in advance.

 

[sequoia]

I know nothing about building Tahitian style ukuleles so can't help you on technical issues, but it looks like a nice effort and an attractive instrument.

 

[apereira]

I know nothing about building Tahitian style ukuleles so can't help you on technical issues, but it looks like a nice effort and an attractive instrument.

Thanks

 

[hoji]

It looks great. Nice work.

As for the lack of volume, I suspect that the hollowed out area should be bigger to get more air. Also, the sounboard might be too thick. On Hawaiian ukes we often go to the 1.5 to 2 mm range, although these use a pull bridge and have bracing to keep stiffness. Here, with a push bridge, it might also need a thinner top with some kind of bracing, but I am also not familiar with these types of instruments so your dimensions may be right.

I think this would make a nice amplified instrument, maybe a piezeo disk pickup stuck under where the bridge is.

 

[apereira]

It looks great. Nice work.

As for the lack of volume, I suspect that the hollowed out area should be bigger to get more air. Also, the sounboard might be too thick. On Hawaiian ukes we often go to the 1.5 to 2 mm range, although these use a pull bridge and have bracing to keep stiffness. Here, with a push bridge, it might also need a thinner top with some kind of bracing, but I am also not familiar with these types of instruments so your dimensions may be right.

I think this would make a nice amplified instrument, maybe a piezeo disk pickup stuck under where the bridge is.

Thanks Hoji, Regarding the hole, when I opened it using a router, I used a straight bit, but later I saw that someone had done the same but with a round bit, so I rounded the corner of the hole with wood filler. Since I hadn't bought the tuners when I made the hole, I couldn't test the sound. So, to avoid having to undo it, I haven't glued the soundboard yet. As for the soundboard, I added a bracing which I later removed to confirm the sound quality.
When I removed the bracing from the soundboard, I ended up having to sand it to remove all the imperfections, which ultimately reduced its thickness. I also think it's better to restore the angle of the sound hole in order to increase the volume box. I tried various woods for the soundboard, but in the end, I ended up using a leftover piece of spruce that I had used to make a soundboard for a carbon fiber lap steel guitar, which ensured good sound quality.

 

[Titchtheclown]

I have my sound boards for Tahitian ukes ukes at 2mm or under. The only bracing is an ultra thin bridge patch that extends almost edge to edge. Yours looks far nicer than mine do. The only ones apart from the ones I've made that I've seen in person were in Vanuatu where they are a lot less fancy.
As for the hollowed out bit I think there are two ways of thinking about it. Firstly as a sound box/helmholz resonator. Secondly as a sound reflector, where the shape is designed to reflect soundwaves back towards the soundboard. This is why they tend to be conical or dish shaped rather than squared off at the bottom with a router. I tend to shape my dish using an angle grinder with a 4 inch/100mm wood shaping head so get a slight bit of dishing rather than a straight cone. I'm not sure what ideal shape one could aim for, flat cone, spherical segment, parabolic, expanded version of the curves with a rotated curve around the soundhole, but I don't think it makes too much difference in the end.

 

[apereira]

I have my sound boards for Tahitian ukes ukes at 2mm or under. The only bracing is an ultra thin bridge patch that extends almost edge to edge. Yours looks far nicer than mine do. The only ones apart from the ones I've made that I've seen in person were in Vanuatu where they are a lot less fancy.
As for the hollowed out bit I think there are two ways of thinking about it. Firstly as a sound box/helmholz resonator. Secondly as a sound reflector, where the shape is designed to reflect soundwaves back towards the soundboard. This is why they tend to be conical or dish shaped rather than squared off at the bottom with a router. I tend to shape my dish using an angle grinder with a 4 inch/100mm wood shaping head so get a slight bit of dishing rather than a straight cone. I'm not sure what ideal shape one could aim for, flat cone, spherical segment, parabolic, expanded version of the curves with a rotated curve around the soundhole, but I don't think it makes too much difference in the end.

Hello Titchtheclown, sorry for only replying now... I intentionally haven't glued the soundboard yet so that I can choose or adjust it according to the type of sound I obtained. I've been reducing the thickness a bit more, and it has improved slightly. Tomorrow, I will reduce it a bit more and see the result. For now, the sound is louder than the ukulele I bought in MOOREA, and I'm quite satisfied with the outcome. Thank you.

 

[ploverwing]

I finally got onto a computer (rather than mobile) to look at these pics. Wow. That is incredible! What a gorgeous instrument.