Woodcraft

My latest tenor ukulele is taking shape.

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I was down in the shop very early this morning working on jointing the top and back plates and gluing the Redwood top plates for my 6-string baritone scale kiku (insomnia and I are old acquaintances). If my count is correct, this is my 14th instrument overall, 4th baritone scale instrument, and 11th uke or uke-based instrument. The 20” scale neck profile comes from a free set of plans I downloaded for an Oaktown Strings baritone ukulele. One of the images shows the fretboard drawing and a Rosewood neck profile template I used for one of my previous baritone ukes. I’m going to widen the neck to have a 1 7/8” nut. One pic shows my body drawings and body mold.

I picked up some spalted Sycamore this week for the end graft, bindings, soundport ring, and rosette . I previously thickness sanded all the plates down to .125” for gluing; once the glue is set, I’ll sand the Redwood down to .100” before installing the rosette, and the Walnut down to .085”. I’m planning to string this one eaDGBE (strings 5 and 6 tuned an octave higher). Haven’t decided yet if I will install a pickup. I'm just OK as a player, but I sure do love building these things.

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No sawdust generated over the past couple of days, but I have spent some time creating mock-ups of the peghead and neck layout in order to ensure proper alignment, check string spacing, and determine bridge location. Pre-planning like this is vital to ensuring parts go in the right place and the instrument plays in tune. The Rosewood bridge is a reject from a previous project that I was using to check the bridge location; the dark wood is Gaboon Ebony for the fretboard and bridge.

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The weather was beautiful here today, so I threw open the garage and spent much of the morning and afternoon making sawdust - with proper safety gear and dust collection. My latest project is off to a nice start. I completed the thickness sanding on the Walnut sides & back, thicknessed the Ebony fretboard and cut the slots, and thicknessed some pieces of spalted Sycamore for the headstock overlay and rosette. I'm ready to begin bending the Walnut sides.

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I explained once to a friend what spalting was, how that happens to a tree, and he still brings it up as an example of the bizarre un-asked-for trivia I sometimes subject other people to.
I do the same. I tell people my head is full of random bits of semi-useful minutia. I once won a game of Trivial Pursuit because I knew the final answer, which the other last guy standing was sure was an unanswerable question. It was James Clavel's novel "King Rat".

Back to the woodworking, I had a very productive day in the shop. Made some Rosewood bindings, cut the channels, and bent/glued the bindings on the smaller tenor uke body. On the kiku project, I made a segmented rosette from the quartersawn spalted Sycamore, and cut / thickness sanded a set of bindings from the same wood. Good place to stop for the day.

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The glue residue cleaned up nicely, and I've started working out the bracing scheme. I just glued a circular reinforcing patch made of thin cross-grained Ash around the rosette area on the inside. I'll cut out the sound hole once the glue has cured. The neck join will be at the 14th, with only 16 frets. I'm planning to add an inlay to the unfretted area near the sound hole.

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Pretty good progress on the kiku neck today. I'll let the glue cure overnight before proceeding with any further shaping.

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Comparing a fully scraped and sanded scarf joint to the mating half that has been rough cut with a hand saw.

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Neck pieces ready to glue.

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I wonder if I can fit another clamp in there?


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The clamps are removed after 2 hours.

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The glue residue has been scraped from the joints, and the basic shape of the neck drawn using a template made from the neck plans. A good place to stop for the night.
 
We have music. The steel string baritone ukulele is finished. It definitely has quite a different tone from other baritone ukuleles I’ve played. It was the most difficult project I’ve done to date; when I designed the layout, I included several features that I’ve never done in a construction. There were definitely some challenges to overcome, but I’m pleased with how it turned out.

I’m not planning on doing any more tandem builds. I know of guys who regularly have multiple instruments under construction, but I think I’m better focusing on one at a time. Next build is going to be a small scale guitar which will include a soundboard made from old growth Red Spruce harvested here in the mountains of WV over 30 years ago. But first, I’m going to take some time off from building to work on some other projects.

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A master wood worker, as opposed to a hobbyist!
I love your patience and care, (that I so sorely lack, in my own wood "mangling").
 
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