Cairns Uke Festival Course 2011

[Allen]

Just managed to put my feet up after a very full on couple of weeks with the lead up to the "Build a ukulele in 4 days" making sure that we had absolutely everything in place, then the actual course itself. We added 2 more spots this year, so a total of 14 participants and again it sold out well before the festival. Participants came from Victoria, NSW and Queensland. Only 2 locals so very well represented by people wanting a bit of relief from the winter weather down south, and the opportunity to get some hands on experience with turning bits of wood into musical instruments.

For those of you that haven't seen the video we put together of some of the prep work that goes into making a course like this go off, here it is again.


youtu.be/

Micheal and I each had an instrument to build during the course using ours as a demo so that the group could then go on to working on their own. We got bogged down when it came to finish shaping our necks as everyone wanted a lot of supervision, but that was no problem. We'll get them finished this week.

The instrument that we decided to do this year was based on the template that Rick Turner used on his build last year. We modified it a bit and changed the scale length from soprano to a 15" concert. The students had a choice of either Spruce or WRC tops, and we had a few New Guinea Rosewood ones that we let out to ones that wanted to give them a go. The rest of the body is New Guinea Rosewood, with a Cooktown Ironwood fret board and bridge.

Some pretty simple stuff happened in the morning. Glueing the end block to the sides. The neck blank to the soundboard. A transverse brace and bridge patch to the sound board. Then we had morning smoko provided by the Cairns Woodworkers Guild. Just the start to a week of fantastic food and expanding waist lines.

We then went on to a little more complex task while glue was curing. They got to do a bit of pre-shaping on their necks, so a demo on our instruments, then going around the room and helping out where we were needed. We penciled onto the neck blanks were they would be cutting facets with the rasps, and then demoing on how a rasp works if they had trouble getting them to cut. Some of the group had prior woodworking experience, but many had none at all.

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Everyone had worked up an appetite by the end of that session, so on to lunch.

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After lunch we got the rims glued to the sound board.

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To hit our target for the day in order to progress on Tuesday we had to have the braces glued to the back, and the linings to both the top and back glued in place.


youtu.be/

Tuesday morning we got the back linings flattened. Added a builders label and got the back glued on.

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Then it was onto fret boards. We left enough wood on the sound-hole end of the fret board for them to have a little creative flair. We gave them the opportunity to use a bandsaw, disk sander and bobbin sander.

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Then it was onto adding the Gold MOP fret markers and fretting. This was a pretty frantic time as you can imagine with 14 people hammering away and we were kept so buys that I don't have any pictures of these steps.

To hit our target for the day we had to have fret boards glued to bodies, as well as peg-head overlays. So after lunch I used a flush cut laminate trimmer to trim the backs and tops flush, prior to glueing on these last 2 parts to finish off the day.

The next morning Micheal gave the class a demo on sharpening a card scraper and then showed them how to use it to clean up the edges left from the trimming process.

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Then there was the final shaping of the neck and blending in the transition to the fret board. Micheal and I had each built prototypes of these instruments prior to the class, and we each have a different shape to our neck. So those instruments were passed around for everyone to get a feel for what they might like. My style is a rather smooth "C" shape and Micheals is much more of a flattened "D" shape. It was evenly split in the class as to which style was preferred, and some just couldn't make up their mind.

Then it was onto everyones favourite......sanding. We were really under the gun, as we had to have bridges glued on before lunch time in order for them to dry enough to get the clamps off and then apply the lacquer in the afternoon. And the weather had not been very conducive to ukulele building let alone spraying all week. We managed to get that step done with our friends Bosko and Honey stopping by to provide us with a musical interlude while glue was drying.

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With the skies just barely clearing and the humidity dropping with the temperature rising and a reasonable breeze I gave a demo of spraying lacquer as a first coat on everyones instrument. Then if they wanted I let each of them spray the next coat with some help and guidance along the way. We had a talk about various finishes and pore filling techniques. Ones that they could easily do at home on the kitchen table if they wanted, along with samples that I had prepared earlier with products easily available from the local hardware shop etc. Then there was a bit of sanding with P400 on everyones instrument before another spray session where they got the opportunity to again get their hands dirty if they wanted. The final coat I sprayed on everyones as we wanted them all to look good.

That was it for the day. 14 instruments built and in finish in 3 days. Thursday was devoted entirely to installing the tuners. Grover Sta-Tite 14:1 open backs.

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Then there was making nuts, dressing frets, lessons on tying strings, and instrument set up. That took up most of the day.

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A rough picture of the 3 types of instruments.

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And this is the happy class photo.

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[charangohabsburg]

Wow, that's just incredible!

Thanks for your detailed report and taking your time also for all of us who were not there.

[Allen]

Here's a sound sample played by Scott Jorgensen on the 3 types of soundboards.


youtu.be/

[Nick]

Think I said it last year but I'll say it again, it must be very rewarding to take a load of 'greenhorns' & have them being able to take something home at the end of it that they have created themselves. Congrats to both you & Micheal (and your respective partners!!), I think the last photo sums it all up really.

[Allen]

I just got back from Kuranda where there was a BBQ and open mic at the Amphitheatre. Got to see and hear one of the class ukes up on stage for it's very first gig. I was very impressed indeed.

[Lillian]

Gentlemen, I salute you. You've done another amazing class.

I must say, I rather like the NGRW top, much more so than the WRC.

[Clancy]

Thanks for posting all that Allen.
Top work to both you and Michael
I saw the festival's record 'uke playing' attempt on the news the other night.
So close and yet ........

Interesting building procedure.
From what I understand, you glued to neck to the top, then attached the sides, then attached the linings to both the top & back of the sides.
How were the sides initially attached to the sides if there wern't any linings?
Why not attach sides to the neck, then the linings, then the top & back?

I must say, I rather like the NGRW top, much more so than the WRC.

I agree.
However I liked the spruce best but maybe that's just because I'm used to listening for a guitar sound and not a uke sound.
I'd like to know what the uke players/makers think.

[Allen]

We glued the tail block to the sides and let it dry. Then the top is glued to the neck. Transverse brace and bridge patch glued on right afterwards. Everything dries for as long as we can. About 5 hours in all. Dress the tail block / sides to that they are dead flat and will mate up well, as we aren't using bindings.

Then apply glue to the tail block and a tiny bit to the sides where they will mate up with the top. Finally a bit of glue into the slots in the neck and a bit on the sides. Slide the sides into the slots in the neck and clamp down the tail block paying careful attention that the centre lines match up with the centre line on the top.

Then glue in the linings to the top. Let sit for 20 minutes or so and pull off clamps. As the pineapple shape keeps the linings tight agains the sides if they are cut to just the right length, they are somewhat self clamping in that they don't want to come away. Then do the back linings. Leave pegs on overnight.

Hope that makes sense.

Everyone liked all the instruments for various reasons. Most of the people in the class are reasonable to quite good players. Some are bloody good. They chose the top for the characteristics that they wanted for the music or situation that they would be playing in. So Scott who plays lead wanted an instrument that cut through, while others that played solo wanted the cedar for the warmth it has. No one had heard a NGR instrument, so picked it purely on being so bloody good looking. In the recording it sounds a bit muted but will definitely turn into a cannon in a years time. As will the cedar. Just not quite as brite as the spruce.