#015 - Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

Well, she's finished.  Just gotta keep adjusting the tuning every so often as the new strings break in.  Here's the specs:

• Figured African Mahogany top and back
• Bookmatched Mahogany sides
• Mahogany neck (i'd like to call it one piece, but it has an extension for the heel)
• 13.625" scale Bolivian Rosewood fretboard with mother of pearl position markers, 15 frets
• Rosewood bridge
• Overall length - 20"
• Body Length - 9"
• Upper bout - 4.5"
• Lower Bout - 6"
• Waist - 3.25"
• Gloss finish
• Cream 1/4" x .060" bindings

Took a ton of pics to try and show the grain and figuring.  When you tilt it around, it really looks holographic.

Frank's Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

Almost done, I got the whole thing glued up before heading off to the Pegboy show last weekend, and got the headstock inlaid the next day.  Past 3 days have been all about finishing.  I like doing between 5-10 coats of poly depending on how it looks.  This time I used a new method since the poly was thicker, started off super thinned out, and added more poly with each coat.  Looks pretty good, but pics dont do it justice.

Mahogany Soprano Ukulele *UPDATED*

I got woken up super early today by Regan, and couldn't get back to sleep.  She went down for a nap around 9:30 finally, so I decided to just knock out carving the neck.  Spoke to Frank yesterday, and he wanted it to be rounded, more like his Gibson, so I did my best recreating that shape from memory of how my old Les Paul and ES-335's felt.  If Regan stays asleep, or takes another nap later, I'll drill the headstock and/or start cutting the inlay for the faceplate.

The neck is wiped down with mineral spirits in all pics from cleaning, and to show the grain.

*UPDATE*

Just cut the slots for the tuners.  gonna do the inlay tomorrow

Mahogany Soprano Ukulele update

I took a week off due to both Regan and I being sick (and me throwing my back and knees out delivering a pair of 5-600 pound custom doors), and my bandsaw blade breaking while trying to cut out the neck.

I picked up a new blade yesterday, installed it this afternoon once the heat started to die down, and got it all cut out and sanded.  Ready for carving tomorrow.  The headstock faceplate hasn't been fully sanded yet, I just gave it a pass on the belt sander while I had it set up, I'll do the rest by hand.  Also added a couple perspective shots with the body at the end.