Chronicling the adventure of making a Concert Ukulele
While it's probably overkill, I use a furniture bolt and brass threaded insert nut to create a solid neck/body connection. The tenon is about 1/2" wide while the insert needs a 3/8" hole. Nice tight [...]
The day I've been waiting for has finally arrived. I made a neck mortise and tenon jig awhile back that should, in theory, create a perfectly aligned joint while also compensating for any body front/top errors (e.g., [...]
No surprise but I had to make another jig today. I use a nice setup from Stew-Mac to route the binding channels along the ukulele body. Because the ukulele is arched, you need to "float" [...]
It's Saturday so it's YAJ (yet another jig) day! My back glue up jigs are too large for this little concert so I quickly made a nice jig. It's funny how many jigs you need [...]
After marking up the neck dimensions, it's time to get this neck into shape! First I rough shape the heel curve using a sled and the table saw. I "nibble" away the heel using the [...]
Scalloping and tapering the soundboard braces is a balance between weight and strength. Take off too much and you may end up with a cracked soundboard over time. Too little and the ukulele might feel heavy in [...]
Today I created holes. By far the most challenging hole was the sound port. After making a number of sound port sizes via powerpoint, I had to decide how to make it. I tried using [...]
Another productive day in the shop. Pulled the soundboard out of the go-bar deck and scalloped the tone bars. It's a balance between strength and sound quality. I like to taper the ends till they [...]
Nice full day in the shop!. Focused on finishing the soundboard. First, thickness sanded the top to about 0.070" (1.75mm) and added a registration dowel to make top to body alignment easier. I made a [...]
Adding the rosette to an instrument marks, to me, the beginning of putting the raw components together to make an ukulele. Top and bottom joined and thicknessed, sides bent with kerfing added, and the neck [...]
