1st uke build.....help......please

[68matts]

Hi there everyone, I'm both new to the forum and luthiery in general. I have built a couple of guitars now, the first one with Chris Wynne at Montsalvat in Melbourne and the other is a work in progress here in my shed. I've also started a couple of tenor ukes and having no plans for them i've just been making it up as I go along. So before I glue the top on I thought it would be wise to ask the good people of the forum to criticize my work so far, mainly to see if my bracing is either to big/small, in the wrong place etc. ( I know it would have been wiser to ask before I made mistakes but....). I'm hoping that some photo's will upload but will have to wait and see ( computers aren't my thing.) The Back and top for this one is cooba, the sides are tassie oak ( broke the cooba sides bending them.. doh...) Has anyone one used cooba for a sound board before or is this another question I should have asked first...... Anyway thanks for now Matt

[kiwigeo]

Welcome to the forum Matt.

I'm not a uke expert so Ill leave comments on your bracing to others on the forum who are uke builders.

Cheers Martin

[Allen]

Welcome to the forum. And good on you being brave enough asking for a critique.

Without the benefit of being able to flex the wood and tap the top, it's a bit hard to say, but here's my observations.

Tail block is massive. Not the end of the world, but next time could be 1/2 that thick. Mine are about the same thickness as the linings where they meet up. Before the top goes on I would bevel the edge back to the width of the linings so to free the top up. Giving you one continuous width to glue the top on. Other wise you will almost certainly see the tail block foot print telegraph through the top.

Next time your centre back brace might get moved just a bit further north so it's closer to the middle of the waist. You look to have built the back to be stiff and reflective rather than light and responsive. Both can work, but keep in mind what your design goals are when building your next. Ukes usually are built to be responsive from the back.

The top looks to be fairly thick. On my tenors they will be 1.6 to no more than 1.8mm on a hardwood or spruce top. Western Red Cedar will be 2.0mm

I think your fan braces could really stand to taper off more towards the lower transverse brace. That's a lot of brace material there locking up that part of the soundboard. They look to be around 6mm wide. That's good. Your transverse braces can also be that wide. Your's look to be around 10mm. Too big for a tenor uke in my opinion.

Your braces on either side of the sound hole are overkill.

Bridge patch looks to be too deep for my liking. Width might be ok. In fact the bridge patch might just about be enough bracing on it's own. It certainly would be on a concert.

Ukes are actually bloody tough things to build well. It's hard to make them light enough to give good volume and response. Especially when you are thinking from a steel string building perspective. You want to try and get all of that top working for you. There will be approximately 50 pounds of string tension on a top that is just a fraction the size of a guitar.

Good luck and be sure to post some more pictures of your progress.

[68matts]

Thanks Allen that's exactly the type of feedback I was after. I had a bit of time today so I sanded the crap out of the top and got it down to 1.6/ 1.7 most of the way around. Couldn't do much about the foot print of the transverse braces but I took a fair bit of mass off them, also took a bit more of the fan braces and a heap of the sound hole braces. Just have to bevel the tail block and wait for dryer weather to glue it up and see what happens.

And thanks for the welcome Martin

Matt

[ProfChris]

This is why every good uke maker has made lots of ukes!

I think the trick is to build lighter each time until one folds up on you (not got there yet), and then in future stop just before you reach that point.

Allen is much more knowledgeable than me, but for what it's worth I'd have said the same.

[68matts]

Thought I'd post a couple of progress pics, just waiting for the tuners to come so I can sort out where to drill the holes then it's final sanding and finishing time.
Was also wondering which strings most people use for ukes and where they get them?
Anyway better get back to work.
Matt

[mhammond]

The angled ends on the butt wedge are something I've never seen before. Very well done! May I steal that for my instruments?

Again, Super!

Mikey

http://www.hammondguitars.com

[68matts]

Thanks for that Mikey
I wasn't sure what to do with that stripe but I'm pretty happy with the way it came out
and stealing ideas is part of the fun of forums like these so please knock yourself out.
Cheers

[Allen]

Strings are a pretty personal thing, but some instruments really work better with one brand / type than another. No picking it until you've built lots and lots of them to know what's probably going to work, and even then sometimes your favourite just sounds like a dog on the new instrument. That's why I've got about 1/2 dozen brands on the shelf, and in those brands there are variations of composition.

You will hear a lot of people go on about Aquilla's, and they do have a bewildering selection for ukuleles. Seems that their marketing department has really been doing it's job. But I've had that many sets that have been bad I wouldn't recommend them to anyone. As well, a few really top notch Hawaiian builders commented on the Ukulele Underground that Aquillas make an ordinary ukulele sound good, but make a good ukulele sound ordinary. That pretty much sums up my experience with them.

My favourite strings for tenors are D'Addario J71's followed by Wurth high tension clear fluorocarbon. Neither seem to be readily available in music shops. I get all my strings out of the USA at a fraction of the price landed on my door than the locals want. Elderly instruments is a good place to start. This however is only a good option if you are going to be buying quite a few sets, as the postage sort of screws you if you are only buying one set.

The other option is to check out eBay as I've seen some people importing them and selling. Not as good as direct from the USA, but not bad if you only want to try a set or two.

The binding and end graft look great btw.

[Allen]

How tall is that bridge? It looks something like 8 - 9mm? Have you checked what the action is going to be like?

[68matts]

Thanks Allen, I think your right about the Aquilla's they seem to be the ones you read about the most, but then again after all the mistakes I've made with this uke maybe they will make an ordinary uke sound good.
As for the action, I snuck home from work for an extended "lunch break" one day and in my haste to get back to work before anyone realised I glued the back where the top should be and I could only flatten out the top so far before I ran out of lining material, so the top has a fairly large curve front to back. I could have/should have fixed it properly but after all the braces were already oversized etc. I decided to just use it essentially as a practice instrument. So yes the action should be fine ( I think ).
Lesson one Don't skive off from work to build ukes (Unless your pretty sure you won't get caught)
Lesson two DON'T RUSH


Have patience grasshopper

[John Maddison]

Aquila vs. Worth ... try to pick the difference:



youtu.be/

OR


youtu.be/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

... My favourite strings for tenors are D'Addario J71's followed by Wurth high tension clear fluorocarbon.

Allen: I've become a convert to Low-G strings on a uke; I find they give a much warmer & more mellow sound. After ten builds I've settled on using Aquila strings but must admit am yet to try Worths ... out of curiosity have you come across any stand-out Low-G brands, or do you stick with fitting high-G's?

Good work there Matt with your first build, and welcome to the 'Magnificent Obsession of Uke Building' - a very stylish and inspirational baby you have there .

Cheers

[ProfChris]

I've never had a problem with Aquila Nylguts on my sopranos, but I rarely play tenor (though i don't hear tenor players complaining of bad strings much).

You have to find strings which suit you and your uke. I'd say there are two basic divides:

a. Do you want the traditional plunk of a uke, or something more like a small guitar? The former means re-entrant tuning, the latter low G.

b. 20s pop or sweet (modern) Hawaiian sounds? Nylgut or real gut for the former, flourocarbon or good nylon for the latter.

For tenor you can go either way on both options. Sopranos are more limited as low G just goes "thunk" and nylon strings (even good ones like D'Addario) feel either stiff and dead, or floppy and twangy. So for these it's Nylgut or flourocarbon.

If you find Aquilas note that Nylgut is not the same as Bionylon (this is straight nylon, like D'Addarios).

But this is just a starting point - you might find the uke doesn't like your first choice of strings.

[John Maddison]

... i don't hear tenor players complaining of bad strings ... you have to find strings which suit you and your uke. ... you might find the uke doesn't like your first choice of strings.

All very good and salient points, Chris ... a further consideration is that one needs to allow the wood(s) in any new build to settle in over time, as you would experience with larger-bodied instruments. Almost every uke I've built has sounded fairly 'tinny' (or tight) when first strung up but each one has mellowed out after several months of playing. This could be a function of intital string choice, but I'm now also leaning towards the train-of-thought that tonewood needs time to reach an optimal 'steady-state' of resonance.

[Allen]

The Wurth high tension clears with a low G are pretty nice on my instruments. I've also got some Hilo brand with a wound 3rd and 4th I have on a couple instruments for those people that really like a guitar sound. They aren't my favourite for ukes to sound like ukes, but everyone has their own tastes, and you can pick the guitar players out of the crowd when they play those instruments and like them over the others.

Dirk from South Coast Ukeleles has sent us some low G sets that do not have a wound low G. I've yet to try them, but they get good reviews.

[ProfChris]

Strings are hard to find in Australia if my Google search is accurate. However, you can get both Worth (note sp for future searches) and Orcas fluorocarbon strings here: http://www.guitarfactory.net/Folk/Ukule ... sories.htm. Prices seem similar to the UK.

But if you think your top is a bit on the thick side, Aquila Nylguts will drive it more than most strings.

[68matts]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I had some aquila's delivered yesterday that I got off ebay so I'll throw them on to get started and let it all settle for a few months then start experimenting.
Cheers

[needsmorecowbel]

What is the required width of a board for a tenor uke? I have some small boards that could be used for this purpose to perhaps build my courage before building a larger acoustic haha.
Stu.

Also how do i add my name in the forum signature? I typed it into the signature section but it didn't gel

[Allen]

My tenor fret boards taper from 36mm at the nut to 48 at the sound hole end.

You might need to disable BBCode. You also have to hit the submit button at the bottom of the form. If that doesn't do the trick, I'm at a loss.

[ProfChris]

What is the required width of a board for a tenor uke? I have some small boards that could be used for this purpose to perhaps build my courage before building a larger acoustic haha.

Alan's given you the fretboard dimensions. For top and back the lower bout would be 8 to 9 inches across (200-230 mm). Depends on the body shape you choose. You can bookmatch or slip match smaller boards.

___________

Chris Reed

[Allen]

Duh....Thanks Chris.....I must have been drinking when I replied to that.

[needsmorecowbel]

Testing Signature...hmmm not working

[John Maddison]

The link to this video arrived in my in-box from the Ukulele Underground tonight. A timely addition to the discussion on this thread.


youtu.be/


The Forum on UU includes a section titled Ukulele Building / Luthier's Lounge; it's a great resource.

[68matts]

Thanks for that John
It gives a pretty good overview, so once the ukes finished and settled in I can get an idea of what might work best.
Cheers

[John Maddison]

Goodo Matt, and I'd encourage you to visit the link to the Ukulele Underground's Luthier's Lounge in my previous post ... there are a number of ANZLF members who contribute their expertise to the database of knowledge about uke building that includes Allen Mc, Liam in FNQ and Rick Turner.