Nuke Build

[Dave White]

Having finished Sam Price's guitar and having been pestered to make one by my four daughters who think they are cool, it's time for me to make my first uke. It's a bit like going from Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to Quantum Mechanics in search of the De Faoite Theory of Everything - well it is about string theory and membranes

As with all of my instruments this will be slightly off the beaten path so apologies to any traditionalists out there right from the start. I'm going to use my "building model" to see how it translates as I have done for everything else so it will have a floating fretboard and internal carbon fibre flying-buttress braces. It's going to be made from "bits and scraps" that I have in my workshop and will also be a "speed build" as I want it finished in time for Christmas when the girls will be home. It's a concert sized uke with 374.65mm scale length (14.75") with a 12 fret body join. The top, back sides and neck will be from a 75mmx75mmx610mm block of Ropala Lacewood that I got years ago from my local wood store for a few pounds. The rest I'll determine as I go along and pick up bits and bobs from around the workshop. This was started on Thursday (4th December 2008).

First I made a working form from some old faced chipboard off-cut and dowelling rods:



Then I cut five slices from the Lacewood block - two for sides and the other three to make a four piece top and back. The slices were thicknessed and then the surface scraped. The top and back pieces were cut and glued up using hot hide glue:



Then I had the rare luxury of some bending time on a hot pipe rather than making a mini-me Fox Bender:



Here's the bent sides in the form:



Then I made some "mini-me" neck and tail blocks - the neck block in Sapele and the tail block in lime. The neck will be mortice and tennon attached with a single bolt:




Next the rosette channel is routed:



And the rosette checked for fit - it's a simple double ring of bwb purfling:



It's a very tight fit so unfortunately I'm forced to use superglue - my second most hated glue after epoxy. Here's the rosette after sanding/scraping:



Next I glued the sides to the Lime endblock using fish glue:



That's enough for today, time to do something useful and go and make the pizza

[joel]

That lacewood is a nice looking wood.

It's always good to see a pictorial report of a build. Thanks Dave.

[Allen]

Great build thread Dave. At the speed you build, we should have this ready for strings by tea.

[PHANTOM]

nice work mate i love seeing the photos of the way others work.

[Kim]

Looks great so far Dave,

WA Sheoak sawn on the flat is often referred to as "Lace" Sheoak, or "lacewood", cut on the quarter WA Sheoak presents wonderful medularys which to me look somewhat like clouds on the horizon in the blazing red light of a hot WA sun set.

Seeing you use the African variety of lacewood as a soundboard makes me wonder why if Mahogany, Koa and Tassie Blackwood make good soundboards, why would WA Sheoak not do the same? My understanding of WA Sheoak can provide no valid argument for not using this beautiful wood in this way so thanks to you I now plan a full WA Sheoak instrument, neck included, in the near future.

Cheers

Kim

[Dave White]

Joel/Allen/Phantom - thanks.

Kim,

Thanks. I've long ago ceased to be surprised at what wood you can use to make great sounding tops (so far I've used 3 types of spruce, cedar, mahogany, khaya, sapele and maple) and just rely on what my eyes, fingers and ears tell me. The Lacewood is gorgeous - almost like a real snake's skin - and the Sheoak should be great too. If anyone is worried about using different wood for tops send some to me and I'll check it out for you


Well Sunday is a day of rest so all I did today was glue the sides to the neck block using fish glue:

[Dave White]

Ok - off we go again. Here's the glued up rim set in the form. The back will be profiled to be 70mm deep at the tail and 50mm deep at the neck:



I found a mahogany trimming from a neck block and am using it to make reverse-kerfed linings. The strip is thicknessed to around 3.6mm and squared up. I then use a roundover bit in my laminate trimmer and then cut off each strip (around 9mm deep):



I then use my "template" to mark the kerf positions on each strip:



And cut the kerfs with this simple jig on my bandsaw:



Voila - here are four reverse-kerfed lining strips:



Next I made a cross grain soundhole patch from a side offcut. I couldn't be arsed to use the go bar deck so rigged up this clamping setup. I drilled a hole in the centre of an mdf backing board to take the pin for my soundhole/rosette cutting jig and drilled the same sized hole in the correct place in the patch. The pin goes through the patch and top and into the mdf board to hold the piece in place while it is glued and clamped with fish glue. When the clamps are in place the pin is removed:



Now for some more "improvisation" - the soundhole cutting jig I use with my laminate trimmer was at it's smallest setting to route the rosette channel. So to cut out the soundhole I had to make another jig. This replaces the bottom plate of my Makita laminate trimmer and has a hole drilled for the pivot pin so that using a 2.5mm router bit it gives me a 30mm radius soundhole:



Here's the jig in action:



And the result:



Next I marked out the main bridge positions on the top. I want to use an adapted version of my ladder bracing system and this part is the soundhole patch with a ladder brace at the bottom, small A frame braces on each side that are "locked" into the neck block and a ladder brace at the top of the patch that straddles the A frame braces. Talking this through with my good friend and mentor Colin Symonds, I decided to slant the bottom soundhole ladder brace similar to a 1780 London made guitar that Colin restored a few years back, thus opening up the bass side:



I also like the idea of fan braces in the lower bout area as I have seen in David Hurd's designs but want to keep the top domed. So I have sketched out 5 fan braces (very small an light ones honest ) that converge on the centre of the soundhole with the three middle one passing between each strings together with an equally spaced outer pair going under the bridge wings. A ladder brace with suitably radiused bottom will go in front of the bridge straddling the fan braces:



For a bridge plate I'm using strips of 0.6mm Lacewood veneer that I have lying around, one cut with the grain of the top and one perpendicular:



Out with the fish glue and the first veneer is positioned:



Followed by the second:



And then they are clamped up:



I think that that's enough for today. Time to cook and get ready to watch Liverpool play PSV Eindhoven in The European Cup.

[Stephen Kinnaird]

Thanks for the pics, Dave.
It's like looking over your shoulder and watching you work.
Great stuff, mate!

Steve

[Dave White]

Steve- I'm glad you are enjoying it.

After sleeping and pondering on it, taking the clamps off and listening to the top, I've come to the conclusion that interesting though the 5 fan braces might be, they're not needed tonally for this top. Instead I'll leave the marks of them on the top as five graphite Lay Lines to transmit the sound. So next I glued on the bottom two ladder braces in the gobar deck using hot hide lue. The braces are all off-cuts and ones that went "wrong" on other instruments and - I think - are Lutz. The bottoms are already profiled, and their current shapes are in no way related to how they will look after shaping:





Next come the A frame braces:



And the utb that straddles the A frame braces:



Then the back braces are glued on - these are, I think, Euro spruce off-cuts:

[jeffhigh]

Should be a great looking uke Dave.
I am a little concerned that you are overbracing it though.
I would get rid of the brace in front of the bridge patch.
I have only built tenors so far but I use a smaller bridge patch than that and three 5mm square fans.
I would think on a concert you would be fine just with that bridge patch.

[Dave White]

Jeff - Thanks. The braces are going to be profiled way smaller and it may be that the ladder brace in front of the bridgeplate will all but disappear. I'll let the top tell me. It's like watching someone post pictures of building their first guitar and I'm always screaming out overbraced, overbraced!! I'm sure this uke is too.

Ok - what next. I trim the edges of the top braces to fit the sides and route the neckblock for the A frame braces. I can then mark on the outside of the sides where the braces are for routing the pockets in the linings later:



Then I shape the sides to take the back's taper and curvature and do the same thing:



Then I check the fit of top and back like this - looks a bit more like a uke :



Then I fit the first reverse-kerfed lining using fish glue. I had to wet it and bend it on the hot pipe. You can see the white marks for the brace positions on the sides.

[Dave White]

The rest of the reverse-kerfed linings are glued in with fish glue:





Then notches are cut in the linings for the spruce side braces and these are glued in using hot-hide glue:




The side braces for the carbon-fibre flying buttress braces are made from lime and glued in using hot hide glue:



The carbon-fibre flying buttress braces (off-cuts from other builds) are fitted and glued in. This time I'm trying fish glue rather than epoxy. I'm sure this is all over-kill for a concert ukulele but it's fun making a mini-me De Faoite :



Meanwhile the scarfe joint is cut from the Lacewood neck blank and glued using fish glue:




Here's the headstock after sanding flush and the reverse with the volute sanded. I bough a small warped board of Rio Rosewood years ago for bridge plates but have managed to get a fingerboard and bindings cut from it for this uke. The fingerboards piece is on the neck in the first picture. It's around 5.5mm thick which should be fine. I also have four left over 2mm MoP side dots in the odds and sods box which is lucky as they will do the 5,7,10 and 12 fret side dot markers :

[matthew]

Dave I'm enjoying watching this. I love lacewood.

I'm fascinated by yr flying buttresses. What happens, though, if once the instrument is assembled and a few years down the track, one develops a rattle or buzz? How do you deal with that eventuality? I would have thought that with fish glue, one sharp knock and you've got a potential rattle. Epoxy would stick better I suppose.

I'll be interested to hear how the lacewood performs as a soundboard, too.

[Dave White]

Matthew,

I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Hey it's a uke so if it rattles no one would notice

Having got that joke out of the way - the cf flying buttress braces are a tight fit in the slots in the neck block and side braces, and have wooden fillers glued in to the slots to snug it all up. So I'm not sure they'd have anywhere to loosen given a sharp knock. The top pair are under compression so you probably wouldn't need glue at all here. It's a question of the fish glue holding the rods in the bottom pair to counteract the tension of the string pull on the neck flattening the longitudinal back arc over time. Given the 30lbs or so of string pull the cf braces themselves are probably overkill but as the neck will be free-floating and I have nothing else to do with the cf off-cuts I thought what the hell.

[Dave White]

The back braces are profiled, the notches routed in the linings and the back glued on using fish glue. I'm running out of brown tape and need to keep the little I have for binding so - as it's a Nuke - I used some hazard tape :

[Lillian]

Dave, I love watching you work.

[matthew]

Just a clarification

Is that Lacewood hard or soft? Kim's post above compared it with lace sheoak, which as far as I know is pretty damn hard. But to me it looks like our Silky Oak, which is on the soft side. Both are known as lacewood in the UK/USA.

Whic one have you got there?

[Dave White]

Just a clarification

Is that Lacewood hard or soft? Kim's post above compared it with lace sheoak, which as far as I know is pretty damn hard. But to me it looks like our Silky Oak, which is on the soft side. Both are known as lacewood in the UK/USA.

Whic one have you got there?

Matthew,

It's Ropala Lacewood. It's similar "hardness" to mahogany or sapele. The hobbithouse website has this nugget:


"Roupala brasiliense (also reported as Roopola brasillensis) of the family Proteaceae [the same family as Australian silky oak], which is from South America and is properly called South American lacewood or Brazilian lacewood. It is also called leopardwood, but it is NOT the wood that is normally meant by the name "leopardwood" (more on that below)"

[Kim]

Just a clarification

Is that Lacewood hard or soft? Kim's post above compared it with lace sheoak, which as far as I know is pretty damn hard.

Sorry for the misunderstanding Matthew,

I have never actually held any African or Brazilian Lacewood however the similarities both visually and in name between them triggered my consideration of the possibility of using WA Sheoak for a top.

It posed to me a question, if Tassie Blackwood, which lists at 640kg m3, and Koa had been used successfully for soundboards, why couldn't WA Sheoak, which lists at a reasonably close 720kg m3 and rings like a bell also work?

I think this is very doable because as I have suggested here before, the figures one finds quoted in these books and on web pages of the various authorities within forestry, can only be a generalisation of the properties of those species listed. They must focused upon the needs of industries which deal in 100's of m3's annually or they would hardly sell a copy. These industries are not interested in wider variations of properties within species, that would only confuse the issue and make calculations impossible, they only require a 'base' point, and these resources provide that very well.

On the other hand, given the very small amount of wood that goes into building an instrument, we in this craft have the luxury of being very selective. We have and should exercise this opportunity allowing us to assess each board upon it's own merit. In fact it is my opinion that good assessment skills of raw material should be one of the basic skills we should all concentrate on if we are to move forward in this craft.

That said I feel very confident, given the amount of WA Sheoak I have handled, that with patience and careful selection, I will come across a board of WA Sheoak with a density of around 600kg m3. I imagine that such wood should work just fine for a soundboard. At the other end of the scale is Bull Oak or Beef Wood, which both resemble quartered WA Sheoak, but weigh in at a hefty 1050kg m3. Great for the fretboard on an all WA Sheoak guitar no? Turn up some pins and tuner buttons of the same and this could make for a a very unique looking, and dare I say sounding instrument.

Back to the main point of this thread, great work thus far Dave, I am really looking forward to the sound clip on this one. Tiptoe through the Tulips?:D

Cheers

Kim

[sebastiaan56]

I love the heresy guys! Sheoak for a soundboard, why not? Monkey Pod is supposed to be good as well. For that matter why not Mahogony etc, I guess the trick would be thicknessing to get to the stiffness required to sound well. I think the piece in question would have to go booiinnggggggg but aside from that why should species matter?

OK, now I have heretics remorse, many centuries of instrument builders cant be wrong...

Dave, apologies for the hijack, this thread is a print out and keep, thx!

[Kim]

OK, now I have heretics remorse, many centuries of instrument builders cant be wrong...

No right or wrong Seb, it's just builders of the past have not had the opportunity or need to explore the woods that are available to us today. I am quite sure had Torres arrived in Van Diemen's Land on a convict ship with a bunch of other loaf liberators he would have gladly built with Kingbilly Pine and Tassie Myrtle.

Cheers

Kim

[Dave White]

Guys,

No worries about hi-jacking unless you are from Somalia Threads go lots of meandering ways and that's where interesting stuff usually happens.

Sometimes I think you can over think and "database" things. Learn to trust your own fingers, ears and eyes and be prepared to try things. I still read that maple is a disaster as a topwood but I have a really sweet maple topped travel guitar that was the third instrument I ever made. The tone lies largely in what the maker does and what the player does.

Kim - if I'm true to my national heritage and county of birth then it's more likely to be a version of George Formby's "When I'm Cleaning Windows" or "My Little Stick of Blackpool Rock"

[Dave White]

OK - so this morning I took my best shot at voicing the top - although a stethescope to hear what was going on would have helped - signed the top and closed up the box with fish glue and using hazard tape:

[ozziebluesman]

Looks great Dave! Lacewood is plentiful here in North Queensland. I have a few nice piece's that would do for a concert uke. I will be interested in how your 's turns out. I believe Lacewood is used sucessfully as a body wood for electric bass guitars. I have never seen it used on an acoustic instrument.

When you braced the top and back I noticed you just raised the edges slighty with some top offcuts. Did you put a slight radius on the brace itself?

I'm working on a concert uke too but I haven't finished my radius dishes yet. I thought your method would do the trick as I want to try and finish the uke for my daughter's Christmas present.

Cheers

Alan

[Dave White]

Alan,

The braces were offcuts of brace lengths that were radiused to 10-13' on other builds. Do you mean the pieces of cork that I use to shape the top/backs when gluing braces on in the go-bar deck? This is the method I have always used (taken from Jim Williams book) and I don't use radius dishes at all - bad things that make your instruments ball shaped

Let's see some pics!!