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Andrew Gibson
05-08-2011, 10:18 AM
I am getting ready to embark on my first attempt at instrument making. I have wanted to build a Uke for a while, just because I would like to have one around for trips to the beach and to have in the shop with I need a Little break...

I have done some research picked up some plans and a few tools should be here mid week... fingers crossed.
Going to attempt the build out of QS Cherry and Purple heart, maybe not the first choice as far as easy for a first try, but I have it laying around so why not.

Any advise you may have would not fall on deaf ears. I hope to turn this into a build thread so updates as well as questions will most likely follow.

first question. lets start at the end. Recommend a good finish, easy to apply finish. economy would be nice. I have a HF sprayer so that is an option. I was thinking of potentially trying a water based finish, I have used Minwax WB ploy, not my favorite but not a terrible finish. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Ernie Miller
05-08-2011, 10:23 PM
One of the folks building a harpsichord from my e-book is a ukelele maker. I contacted him and he'll be glad to talk with you about your uke project. He's a terrific guy and a very talented maker. Here's his website (http://pauhanaukulele.home.comcast.net/%7Epauhanaukulele/). Click on the "Business Cards" link on the right of the screen for contact info.

Hope that helps you - good luck with your project.

Ernie

John Coloccia
05-11-2011, 12:06 AM
Consider a TruOil finish. It may be just what you're looking for. I'm playing with TruOil on my necks because I LOVE the feel, and I may switch to that. I think it's some sort of modified linseed oil (modified to get it to dry a bit harder/faster than boiled linseed oil). You could investigate varnishes too. FWIW, I think you can even get TruOil in spray cans now, though I fail to see the point as it's incredibly easy and convenient to just wipe it on.

Andrew Gibson
05-11-2011, 11:46 PM
thanks guys.
John I will have to look into the truoil.
I got some work done on the uke today.
sides are bending, the neck is roughed out and I have it roughly shaped. top and back are glued up. fretboard is roughed out as well...

george wilson
05-12-2011, 7:33 AM
I finished a violin with Tru Oil years ago. It had been dried for months before I got around to stringing it up. Months later,I noticed that the Tru Oil had squished out from under the bridge's feet,all the way down to the bare wood. It was like this finish never really gets 100% dry. Had to strip the violin and put on proper varnish. I have been afraid of the stuff ever since that. I think that an instrument left in a case for some time might get the case lining welded to the Tru Oil. Pretty finish,though,but be warned,please.

Andrew Gibson
05-12-2011, 9:35 AM
Thanks George, I will make sure to do some finish samples regardless of what i use.

I checked on the sides this morning and I am not sure I am going to be happy with the results of simply cold bending. I may have needed to let the sides soak longer, or it may just be the cherry. I also had a piece of the form swell or something and it gouged one of the sides. I plan to slice a few more sides today and see if I can't make a bending pipe. If that endeavor fails I will soak a second set of sides and clamp them up tomorrow... It's nice to be able to resaw my own sides as it makes it easy to make more when I mess a set up, or to adjust the thickness.

george wilson
05-12-2011, 11:16 AM
I'll tell you what bends like a noodle: Beechwood. It gets incredibly flexible when soaked in hot water. You need to clamp wetted sides in a male and female mold tightly,or the sides will wrinkle up and down their height when they dry. This could take a very long time to dry,though. Why do you want to bend the wood wet? Best get them moist and bend them around your hot pipe till they are bent and quite dry. When I was 13,and had no one to tell me how to bend the sides,I made big messes trying to soak maple and bend it wet into the mold. Wrinkled all over the place.

When you do clamp wet wood between an inner and outer mold,any bandsaw cuts in the mold will get impressed into the softened wood.

Andrew Gibson
05-12-2011, 10:50 PM
Thanks George.
I went out back and found a piece of pipe and made my self a bending pipe. It worked quite well.

I am definitely enjoying this adventure into the world of instrument making.

Andrew Gibson
05-13-2011, 5:33 PM
I have been making steady progress i believe... took this pic before I glued on the top.

John Coloccia
05-13-2011, 6:04 PM
Do you play the ukulele?

You're making great progress! :)

Andrew Gibson
05-13-2011, 8:13 PM
Nope don't play. I have had the desire to learn to play the uke for a few years now, but wanted to learn on one I made. I have always been interested in instruments and have wanted to make them more then play them. I took Piano lesions as a Kid and Guitar as a teen, but never really got into it. for some reason the idea of a uke just sounds fun, and I have really been enjoying this build.
Here is a pic as it sits tonight.

Ooh the label says
Sideways Eight
Because Gibson was Taken
Andrew Gibson
No.1

Caspar Hauser
05-13-2011, 8:33 PM
I took Piano lesions as a Kid and Guitar as a teen, but never really got into it.

I'm not surprised! :eek:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmAeijj5cM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Andrew Gibson
05-14-2011, 8:54 AM
I'm not surprised! :eek:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfmAeijj5cM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Haha, Half the time I swear the spell check makes my spelling worse.

That video was quite amusing.

Andrew Gibson
05-16-2011, 6:21 PM
Some more progress has been made... basically all that is left is the binding and to glue on the fretboard and the bridge. I couldn't resist so I strung it up to see how it sounds. I was fairly pleased, it sounded like a ukulele. I really want to put finish on it but I know I need to wait till after the binding is done, and I am waiting for the bit to come... worst thing is I am going out of town in Wednesday for a week, so I will have to wait till I get back to finish it up.

I followed the planes I had for a compensating bridge so hopefully the intonation is good... though I don't think I would be able to tell the difference either way.

james l williamson
05-21-2011, 12:54 PM
I just did my second one,(I am 70) and love it! I found LOTS of help on the net, and would share if you want. What is the bout size's you used? And using Tru-oil is great, and does dry, just wax after to seal!! I play, found a group here that helped me and a teacher who is great.
Jim

Andrew Gibson
05-28-2011, 7:59 PM
Finished up the ukulele today. Definitely not perfect but I am very happy with it and it sounds quite nice... Now I need to start learning songs. My biggest mistake is that the 2 sides are not mirror images of each other and it is noticeable from the back.

Anyway here are the pics of the finished product.
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/IMAG0084.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/IMAG0083.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/IMAG0082.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/IMAG0080.jpg
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/handyandy3459/IMAG0085.jpg

george wilson
06-04-2011, 6:28 PM
I just did some quick handles for ceramic kitchen knives,and put Tru Oil on them. Every time they get a bit of water on them,they seem to get a sticky feel. I only put on 1 thinly stretched coat. Handles are bloodwood,which I had scraps of.

Tim Mahoney
06-08-2011, 12:42 AM
Look into French polish as a finish. I'm using shellac for my first acoustic build and so far after the spit coats I really like the look and I'm no where close to having it finished. I looked into the Truoil but too many cons for me. I use an oil/varnish mix on my hard body electrics including the neck and like the look and feel on those. The oil doesn't effect the sound on an electric.

Kevin Lucas
06-14-2011, 7:36 AM
Andrew,

Looking nice so far! How thick are the top and sides? I have a little soprano uke and am having a lot of fun with it, The chords are fairly easy and fun to play.

Andrew Gibson
06-17-2011, 12:30 PM
Hi kevin. The sides are around 3/32" and the top and back around 1/8" finished up a Concert sized Uke a few days ago. the sides are about 1/16 and the top and back about 3/32"
I will post picks and a video of how they sound here shortly.

Andrew Gibson
06-17-2011, 1:54 PM
Well number 2 is done as well. I thought I would post a pic and a video showing a how they sound.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/video/video.php?v=560368376849&oid=198581590153443&comments

Rick Markham
07-05-2011, 4:30 AM
It's beautiful Andrew!

Russell Sansom
07-08-2011, 3:59 AM
Congrats on your build. I followed the thread from old to new and was formulating this response that you should realize that you can't possibly make a great-sounding instrument the first time out. The design cycle is really long --- weeks at the shortest, unless you can pump out a uke every few days --- so the iterations take a while. Plus, it's REALLY hard to keep everything constant and just change one or two things so see what variables change what characteristics of your instrument.
So, it's evolution, slow and rocky. After half a dozen you'll converge on a good sound.

Then I see that you've made a second one. Congrats on you persistence. I have a couple comments.
1) Your bridges are way too big / heavy. To understand this, play any old violin, then set some convenient weight...say half the weight of a golf ball ... atop the bridge and play again. The volume drops tremendously.

2) Instruments like this really want to be thin, thin, thin, to sound great. Thin instruments self destruct faster than fat, heavy instruments. People starting out always make their instruments too heavy. Find the other end of the spectrum...where you really want to be for the good sound ... by making an absurdly thin top with thin sides. Enjoy it for a few days until the top punches in. The finest sounding harpsichord I ever made was a little octave spinet that folded like a potato chip at the end of 6 months.

3) I can not find a way to get good intonation out of this uke size. The fore-shortened nylon just isn't very linear up and down the scale. The next size up is about the shortest you can go with nylon and still hold pitch all over the fret board.

4) It's a great learning instrument. I highly suggest you pick up some uke TABS and go for it. I've found them all over the internet. The art-deco era uke music is fantastic stuff with imaginative passing notes between chords and plenty of work for your left hand. Tablature makes a LOT more sense than sheet music for a uke. And...a bonus in case you didn't know this...the same chords work on the 4 highest strings of a guitar ( though the pitch value, thus the name of the chord, is different ), so some of the chords on the uke will be identical on the guitar.

Andrew Gibson
07-17-2011, 5:24 PM
Thanks Russel, I just noticed your post. I definitely was thinking my bridges were heavy, but I just followed the plans I had. I actually have at least 3 or 4 more ukes in the plans... I acquired this weekend some really wonderful wood... some red eucalyptus, some Cuban mahogany, and some rosewood. All local treet that were destoned for the dump. My plans are to saw some up into instrument blanks and let it dry for a while then try a few more builds. I am working on a blog post about the sawing so keep an eye out if your interested in that kind of stuff.

Andrew Gibson
07-24-2011, 11:04 PM
I guess this will be the final update in this thread as far as I have now built 2 ukes...
I sold uke #2, and #3 has been commissioned. He wants another Concert out of cherry, just like #2.

I also have a pic of some of that Eucliptus that I was able to saw up today. I needed to make sure I had enough thickness before I resawed some Monkey Pod that I acquired this weekend. Wood porn coming up
202966202967202968

Kevin Craig
11-01-2011, 12:14 PM
Where did you get your plans from. I think I might want to try one of these. :)

Karl Wicklund
11-03-2011, 3:42 PM
Certainly, I don't want to put my bits of novice experience up against George's years of expertise, but I know of quite a few people who've had nothing but good things to say about Tru-oil. I worked alongside a self-taught old-timer for a few years. Frank used the stuff consistantly, and to my knowledge, never had a problem with it not hardening. I've played on hsi guitars here and there and a half-dozen of them were pushing fifteen or twenty years old. The finish seemed fine on these and on Tru-oil instruments built by a few other luthiers of my acquaintance. I've talked to others, though, who've had the same concerns as George.

I've used Tru-oil on my few instruments, and like the feel. Maybe I'm just biased from working with Frank, and he's not infallible. (I do know that at least a few of his instruments contain a drywall screw hidden in the guts...)

john brenton
11-04-2011, 11:51 AM
I just watched the video, and those are very good sounding ukeleles. I don't know why, but it seems that a good sounding uke is very hard to find. There is always something that sounds bad. But yours sounded great. The lows and the highs blend very well.