Day 2: Part 2 & Day 3...whew!

This is the neck carving composit that I couldn't post yesterday. It' straightforward if you read from left to right ! Note the sequence -

1. Image 1 shows careful marking out. These datum lines are important of you want the neck to look crisp. I see lots of necks that look as though they are formed from plasticine!
2. Image 2 shows the back of the nut end profiled. This is the best way to tackle the neck volute. You then carve into this radius using a knife.
3. Image 3 shows this. All in all this has taken about 3 minutes...
4. Image 4 shows what happens when you use a draw knife. There will be sanding next!

This is day 3:

It all started off quite well. I decide to continue for a bit in the garden before going to the workshop and met posty who had a letter from Parcel Force. After parting with £66 I collected a box of sapele and KOA. The KOA was very disappointing. Sold as high figure I managed to get a concert, soprano and tenor from the scraps (it was propeller shaped) and will barely get a couple of guitar back out of the rest... The sapele is nice pomelle. I need to wait for the rest of it as this is destined for a guitar maker friend. I also bought a whole buch of midly figured sapele that will go to make 'Mahogany' ukes.

So into the workshop and ready to inlay snowflakes on a bound fretboard only to find I had run out - I was sure I had a stash since I keep my abalone and pearl separate but no... so a phone call to Mike Reid and just managed to get the last of his 4mm 'cut squares' as they are known in the trade. All well and good... so I ambark on the Vita Uke going to a friend who is opening a bazzar type shop in St Ives. Lots of frustrating fiddling about with the binding and by 2.00pm I had had enough so I thought... let's build a uke in a day!"

ElectricUke

This project was two sketches on some paper 2 days ago! What I want to do is build nice looking drop top electric ukulel that will perform in high volume settings. I want it to retail for around £185. I have a nice mainland concert shape and that was the starting point.

Using my cedar neck blanks (I have 100 or so cut and prepared) I glued three together to form the body. I built the routing template using 12mm ply and this is the result. The holes are 12mmm and I used the Forstener bit to hog away most the cavity waste before pattern routing it. Takes about 10 minutes to finish the lot off. As this is a prototype I hand cut the profile but I will jig this out tomorrow for pattern routing.

As you can see, practically every clamp in the workshop is used to glue on the pomelle sapele drop top!

It's now 10.24pm and the neck and body are glued up with the neck flushed ready for the fingerboard. Headplate veneer is glued on and the 19 fret fretboard shaped. This little beauty will be finished tomorrow... and I still have 2 1/2 tons of soil to barrow into the back garden and carry up 20 feet to the top terrace!

No ukes for sale yet...

Just testing this to see if it works... Here is a sample of what will be on offer in 6 weeks time. This is a fabulous AAA grade Koa Ditson style ukulele. It has a one piece bookmatched front and back, cedar neck, rosewood fingerboard, bone nut and saddle, black binding and abalone soundhole. This is a high spec instrument made in our workshops from only the finest materials.


Price in US dollars: $885
Price in GB sterling: £450
Price in Japanese Yen: 105,320