Tom's Ukulele.

So I've been up for 44 hours straight, I apologize if I stop making sense or go off on irrelevant tangents.  I got the last couple coats of finish on over the weekend.  Got a 6" polisher/buffer at harbor freight on saturday, but didn't get to that until today.  So here it is all finished. 

Specs:

• Bookmatched Black Walnut front/back/sides
• Brazilian Ebony fretboard and bridge
• Camel bone nut and saddle
• Black walnut two piece neck
• Banjo style friction tuning pegs
• Mother of pearl inlays
• Ivoroid synthetic ivory bindings
• Overall length 20"
• 2 1/8" deep
• 6 1/4" wide at lower bout
• 40mm width at the nut, 55mm at the heel
•  350mm scale length

I'm too tired to tune it up right now.  Gonna take a nap and do that in the morning.  Next up will be a special custom for my best customer, Lou Shields.

Tom's Ukulele, finishing

So this week has been all about finishing.  Instead of using shellac on this one, I was advised to go with wipe on polyurethane to get used to the method.  There isn't really much to fuck up, I don't have to mix it, and there's very little sanding involved.  I've got about 4 coats on right now, and will probably do one more before polishing it with some super fine grit compound to smooth out the uneven spots.  Right now it's hanging up on a little jig I made on the workbench drying.

It came out a little darker than I expected.  The Poly had a very slight blonde tint to it that I guess darkened up the wood a little.  It did kinda make the binding look like real ivory though, so thats pretty cool.  I'm hoping to have this done by Sunday.

Tom's Ukulele, Almost there

So I think when I left off, I had the neck clamped and glued.  I ended up attaching the bridge the same night.  Tonight I did all the touchups with home made wood putty, some sanding, and stained the back/sides/neck.  I only have one pic right now, I'm in the proccess of shellacing it and can't flip it over until it's dry.

Tom's Ukulele update

So on Monday I injured my ribs while skating, and had to put off working for a few days.  I was feeling good enough to work today, and hadn't showered, so I figured this would be a good opportunity.

I was working fast and steady, so I don't have as many pics this time around.  I cut out the headstock and finished shaping the area where the break angle occurs.  I also drilled the tonuer holes, and added the decal.

After that I worked on cleaning up a couple spots where I had some saw marks by making a filler from sawdust and woodglue.  While that was setting, I did the same with the body and sanded the whole thing smooth. 

Once the neck putty was dry, I sanded that all off and drilled the dowels I'm using instead of a dovetail.  I'm pretty pleased with how that turned out, although my brad point drill bit went a little deep and I had to go back over it with the putty. 

I had to wait a bit for my drill to charge, but I painted up the dowels, back of fretboard, and underside of the heel with titebond and clamped it up.  Should be solid as a rock in an hour or two.

Tomorrow the bridge goes on.

National NPR Single Cone Resonator

So I've been waiting about a week for my dremel base to arrive, only to find out my mom never put in the order.  Looks like the Uke is on hold a couple days.

In the meantime, Lou recently bought a National NPR single cone resonator to compliment his tricone.  He's been playing a lot of open mics and jams lately, and one of them is electric only and his soundhole pickup just wasn't cutting it.  He bought the best powered piezo pickup on the market for his new National, and asked me to install it.

I only took a few pics, there's not all that much to it.  Just several tedious steps (such as drilling through steel to mount the input jack). 

Here's the mounted preamp:

This would have been much easier if I had a smaller drill/power screwdriver.  I'll have to look into getting one that isn't 15 pounds.  It was also kinda tricky wiring the rca jack, there wasn't a ton of wire to work with. 

New biscuit bridge with piezo:

The biscuit was supplied with the kit, as the pickup is mounted in a routed channel underneath.  Once I got the slots cut, I stuck the cone back in, and strung her back up.  Plugged it into my Hiwatt, and thankfully it works first try. 

I would've recorded a sample to post with this blog, but the neck is gigantic by my standards and I can't get used to the wider string spread.  So I saved myself the embarrassment, and you readers the potential deafness and skipped it.  Also, note the Lou Shields Live album in the background.  You can order copies from him at atomicpossumrecords.com

Tom's Ukulele, Body Bindings

So I finally made it to Chicago today to pick up my box from Specimen.  My sister wanted to go to the high school All-American baseball game, so I took that opportunity to go get my stuff. 

When we got home, I got everything set up in the garage, made my little jig up to hold the body in place, and routed the channels for the binding.

I had all my tape laid out and ready to go, so I got out the heatgun and went to work.  I forgot how much of a pain this part is.  You really have to work fast.  My thumbs are also a bit raw from it, but oh well.  I got the top strip molded and glued in, and I let it sit for about an hour before taking the tape off.

After I was confident that it had fully set, I went to work on the back.  I accidentally spilled a little glue on the back, but that will sand out when I level it all out tomorrow.  There were also a couple bubbles from where I didn't work fast enough, but those will also be taken care of before I seal the whole thing.

I had used a clamp on the back to make sure the ends stayed together.  I had to go back and touch up the top after it popped out of the tape, so I made sure this time it would stay.  After that set for awhile, and I did as many touchups as I could with clamps, I took it all off, and here's where I'm at now:

I'll sand off the glue spots, and touch up where needed in the morning.  I'll also try to complete all the sanding/levelling/flushing and get some pics up of that sometime before monday.

Tom's Ukulele, Neck shaping

After stuffing myself full of a Pop's beef sammich, I went back out into the garage and shaped the neck.  I alternated between cabinet makers rasps, and a round and half round file.  After sanding and hitting it with some 0000 steel wool, I'm happy with the shape, but see a few spots that need additional sanding.  Some of that I'll have to wait until after cutting the headstock to do.  As soon as the tuners arrive in the mail, I'll take care of all that.  Aside from that, its all ready to join up as soon as I can get to the city to pick up my bindings that are sitting in the back room at Specimen.

For now, here's some pics.