Tim Nicol - Soprano Ukulele number 2

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:35 pm

Here are the pics of my second soprano Ukulele. Feel free to ask anything.

Cheers

Tim Nicol

Hippety Hop · Post by **Hippety Hop** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:00 pm

Very nice uke Tim. Well done.

I'd like to know what woods you've used. The finish, and how it was applied. How you stuck the neck on, and some info about the bracing, sound hole patch, bridge patch, etc.

And also about the neck binding under the fretboard. That's a new one on me.

Do the string knots tuck under the bridge or go through inside?

Cheers Hip.

Mark McLean · Post by **Mark McLean** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:28 pm

Yeah, it looks really cool the way that the binding on the body continues along the neck in a continuous line, and then onto the headstock. Nice touch.

The finish looks sweet also - is it oil?

Well done Tim

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 3:15 pm

Thanx guys.

The Timbers are:

Blackwood - sides and back I think

Ebony - Fret board and Sadle

Birds eye maple - bindings

Red wood? - sound board and head stock (Still unsure of this timber)

Malaysian Nyatoh - Neck

Pine - braces - standard soprano bracing plus two fan brace and no sound hole patch.

Strings - Aquila standard hi

Nut and Bridge - White corian

Finish - PPG Classicwood 244 single pack precatalysed modified N/C lacquer 30% gloss sprayed.

Machine heads - Gotoh mini's

Fret wire, ebony, strings and dots - Hana lima

Sting knots do tuck under

Neck is doweled and glued to the body (made a slight error here aligning the neck but has worked out fine).

The neck binding is somthing that has stuck from my first build. I also wanted to add the same materials as the sound board to the head so I had to come up with a way of continuing the lines which i think has worked out ok.

Talk more soon

Cheers

Tim

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Fri Jun 12, 2009 5:35 pm

Looks bloody great Tim.A bit low to the floor for a soprano but great anyway.The standard is remaining high on this forum which is a bugger as I can't get to post anymore of mine.Cheers.

hilo_kawika · Post by **hilo_kawika** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:18 am

Very nice work. Clean and very attractive.

I would make two comments:

There doesn't appear to be any soundhole backing patch to prevent cracks in the soundhole in the future.

The bridge looks to be ~ three times the size of a regular soprano. This will definitely have an adverse effect on tone and volume.

aloha,

Dave Hurd
http://www.ukuleles.com

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:06 am

Sweet looking uke Tim. That sure is one sweet blackwood set you have on this.

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Sat Jun 13, 2009 12:01 pm

hilo_kawika wrote:Very nice work. Clean and very attractive.

I would make two comments:

There doesn't appear to be any soundhole backing patch to prevent cracks in the soundhole in the future.

The bridge looks to be ~ three times the size of a regular soprano. This will definitely have an adverse effect on tone and volume.

aloha,

Dave Hurd
http://www.ukuleles.com

Thanks Dave

Yes i was concered about the bridge but hasnt effected the tone. this #2 uke sounds better than my first.

Now you have me worried about the sound hole, next one i will reinforce. I have 6 weeks to make an identical with the changes and then send it to NewZealand as a gift.

Cheers

Tim

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:13 pm

Hey people.

I need some help.

I need advice on how to continue the frets past fret 12 on a soprano uke? this is so I can continue the fret board all the way to the sound hole.

Currently I have been stopping at fret twelve and making the fret board fall short.

Is it as simple as adding in the amount of frets i require and then recalculating the scale on the scale calculator?

hilo_kawika · Post by **hilo_kawika** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:35 pm

yes.

aloha,

Dave Hurd

Hippety Hop · Post by **Hippety Hop** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:39 pm

Stewart - MacDonald's fret calculator

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:55 pm

hilo_kawika wrote:yes.

aloha,

Dave Hurd

Hippety Hop wrote:Stewart - MacDonald's fret calculator

Thanks guys

Thats the calculator I used and just played around with the number of frets and now i understand.

Cheers

Tim

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 12:59 pm

At this length the join in the rosette (yes I'm finally doing one)

will be covered.

Hippety Hop · Post by **Hippety Hop** » Mon Jun 22, 2009 10:07 pm

That's the way Tim. You'll note their "non-compensated bridge position" shows 348mm for a 346mm scale length.

So far I haven't experimented with the bridge position. Just stuck them at 348mm on trust, but I'll admit I'm not completely happy with their intonation.

Cheers Hip.

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:56 am

"Can of Worms" that intonation of ukes.Such a short scale length and lovely stretchy strings . Seems that tiny errors are magnified.Getting the action nice and low to make them easier to fret is about all you can do.Cheers.

Allen · Post by **Allen** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 5:46 pm

Isn't it part of their charm? Being just a little out of tune, but playing them like you just don't give a damn!

Localele · Post by **Localele** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 6:59 pm

That's it Allen. Pick it up and play it as if it is in perfect tune and dare anyone to claim it isn't.They do it with guitars all the time.You tune the guitar ,hand to a guitar hero who immediately reaches for the tuners to adjust with their perfect right ear.
I think that's the real reason we keep going.The quest for a guitar that sounds tuned to everyone.Cheers.

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 8:20 pm

well i play em like i stole em

Rick Turner · Post by **Rick Turner** » Tue Jun 23, 2009 11:15 pm

One more comment...not a criticism...the consensus among uke players is that the best sounding of the Martins are the "lesser" ones...the 1s and 2s where the fingerboard stops short just above the neck block. Ditto for the traditional Hawaiian ukes. Why? More useful vibrating top. If your clients aren't going to play up there over the top, you can make better sounding ukes by not damping the top with what will be an unused part of the fingerboard.

I do agree with David re. the size of the bridge.

Also, I think that you may be safe with no soundhole reinforcement with no rosette inlaid into the top. This is why I use a rub-on decal as a rosette even on my high end ukes. There's no structural compromise to the top with it. You could use very thin reinforcement, too, or even do it with carbon fiber.

hilo_kawika · Post by **hilo_kawika** » Wed Jun 24, 2009 6:52 am

Localele wrote:"Can of Worms" that intonation of ukes.Such a short scale length and lovely stretchy strings . Seems that tiny errors are magnified.Getting the action nice and low to make them easier to fret is about all you can do.Cheers.

Actually, that's not quite true. Because string stiffness increases as string length decreases, the shorter the scale length the more important it is to carefully intonate each string. That is, soprano ukuleles require more intonation care at the saddle than do concerts, than do tenors as I show here:

http://www.ukuleles.com/Technology/compensate.html

And, no, Martin never compensated the strings on any of their ukuleles and as a result none of them ever quite note out. And this in spite of the fact that in the mid 1920's the ukulele was their most popular selling instrument with numbers peaking at a little over 14,000 per year. Then again in the early 1950's the numbers peaked at nearly 12,000 per year. Still no compensation. They never even compensated the tiple which actually needs a saddle more than 1/4" wide for proper compensation. Why? Probably no one ever complained and if they did, sales were good so who at Martin cared? Remember that these were the guys who thought it was ok to use ebony in stead of steel to reinforce the necks of their guitars...

Early Hawaiian ukuleles did have a sweet sound probably because of their extremely light construction and the use of gut strings. By today's standards, the internal construction of the majority of the early brands was quite wretched until the early to mid 1920's when increased competition from the Mainland (Martin, Lyon & Healy come to mind) boosted standards of some locally made instruments somewhat.

In any case, all sizes of ukuleles CAN be made to play in tune - at least from an intonation standpoint - if just a little more time is taken at the end of the building process.

aloha,

Dave Hurd
http://www.ukuleles.com

Gaby · Post by **Gaby** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:50 pm

Hi guys,

It's interesting to read all your comments, not being a luthier, but just a player that loves ukes, and sells a few each day.

To be honest, I am not sure about this soundhole reinforcement...So far, the best ukes I played have been the lightest.

Also, it seems that some people are obsessive when it comes to intonation and ukes, unfortunately. Half the time (if not more than that), the players who complain press the strings out of tune themselves anyway and blame the uke.

However, if you are in pursuit of perfect intonation, you may want to have a look at the compensated bone saddles that Kiwaya uses on their ukes. Their ukes are modelled on the old Martins, but the middle two strings are compensated slightly, which I believe does make a difference (not that I care too much myself, but some do).

I agree with Hilo_kawika though, those old ukes were extremely light, as are those of my favourite contemporary makers. But also, bear in mind that these little ukes have been played for 80 years!

Joe Sustaire · Post by **Joe Sustaire** » Fri Jul 17, 2009 10:11 pm

Beautiful uke Tim!!!
Nice clean work, and this is a great thread, I'm learning a lot!

Thanks,
Joe

obmit · Post by **obmit** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 12:21 am

Joe Sustaire wrote:Beautiful uke Tim!!!
Nice clean work, and this is a great thread, I'm learning a lot!

Thanks,
Joe

Thanks joe

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Tim Nicol - Soprano Ukulele number 2

Tim Nicol - Soprano Ukulele number 2

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