Woodcraft

Now that preliminary tapering of the neck and shaping of the heel have been done, it's time to add the "ears" to the headstock to prepare for further thinning and shaping. With overlays to be added both back and front, the glue seam will be invisible.

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Last couple of days I've been working on the peghead: shaping and thinning it to the proper dimensions, gluing and trimming the spalted Sycamore rear overlay, and using my CNC machine to cut the pocket for the logo on the front overlay. I still need to cut out the Black Walnut logo insert, which I will do before gluing the front overlay in place.

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The spalted Sycamore overlays have both been glued in place and trimmed to shape, and the tuner holes drilled. This morning I completed installation of the Black Walnut logo inlay. Next is using the CNC peghead routing template to cut the tuner slots. After that, installing the frets and final shaping of the neck to prepare it for finishing and attaching to the body.

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It's been some time since I've posted about the kiku's progress. Even though I had made a CNC cutting template, I dithered and fussed about with other projects as I considered how best to cut the peghead slots. Finally I ginned up the nerve to tackle the peghead. I used a couple of different methods to remove wood from inside the slots, finishing up the cuts with my laminate router and the 1/4" pattern bit shown in the image. I needn't have worried; the cuts came out as well as I'd hoped, and just need a small dowel wrapped in sandpaper to clean up the rounded ends of the slots. Now I can finish the neck and proceed to the finishing stage.

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Early this year I began working on a little side project, a tenor ukulele to be made from scraps and spares I had laying around the shop. I worked on it sporadically as my focus was on my main projects. Early this morning I installed the strings and it sang for the first time. It came out nicely, and has a sweet, melodic sound.

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I have a high G on my concert but for the tenor and baritone I prefer a low G. It always comes down to what type of music I am playing at the time. I usually play Baritone as there is more room on the fret board, mind you, I still use standard ukulele chords rather than guitar chords. I don't have to worry about transposing. It's just in a different key ;)
 
Same here . . . I have built several baritones, with one more built from locally harvested wood on my workbench. I've tried playing concert or soprano sizes, but they are just too small for me. A tenor is about the limit, as I came from being a long time but barely adequate guitar player.
 
Early this year I began working on a little side project, a tenor ukulele to be made from scraps and spares I had laying around the shop. I worked on it sporadically as my focus was on my main projects. Early this morning I installed the strings and it sang for the first time. It came out nicely, and has a sweet, melodic sound.

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Another beauty finished, what a pity we can't hear its sound. Amazing when you think back to the pile of wood that marked the start. :bowdown::bravo-009:
 
I took a break from my main project to do a tuner retrofit on a paddle head baritone uke I completed early last year. I never much cared for either of the friction tuners I used on the instrument, so I removed the old tuners, shaved about a millimeter from each side of the headstock, refinished, and installed a set of good planetary tuners. Much better. I also didn't much care for the unwound 4th string of the flourocarbon set I installed today, so I pulled it right off and installed an unused Savarez Alliance HT classical 5th string that I had laying around. Huge improvement over the unwound flouro D string. Those of you who play stringed instruments will understand just how much of a difference a good string makes.

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