Introduction and uke course build progress

[dotbot]

Hi all,

I was bitten by the lutherie bug back in December and have been reading this forum regularly (obsessively) since then. In my day job I'm an astrophysicist at Mt. Stromlo Observatory in Canberra. I really appreciate reading the info here and also seeing the amazing work that people are doing. It's inspiring.

Now I have gotten around to joining and, coincidentally, am taking a 6-day uke-building course at the AGMS with Tim Spittle this week. I plan to post some pics of the process at the end of each day. Today we chose our woods, joined the back and soundboard plates, bent the sides, and glued the neck. Probably a few other things, too, but it was a long (and great!) day.

For me, the specs are:

Soundboard: King Billy pine
Back & sides: tiger myrtle
neck, fretboard, bindings: Tasmanian blackwood

raw materials

fretboard with paua

bending a side

end of day 1

The day was not without its trials but very satisfying in the end.

Thanks for looking,
Aaron

[charangohabsburg]

That sounds like you will have a great week. Building a ukulele with Tim Spittle can't be wrong for at least two reasons: meeting Tim and using beautiful timber from his pile (and as a collateral effect you'll end up with a ukulele ). Looking forward to the pictures of your next day. Thanks for taking the effort to share the insight, and welcome to the right place to do so!

[Mark McLean]

Hi Aaron
Welcome to ANZLF and I am looking forward to seeing your progress with the uke. It would be great to hear a bit about Tim's course also.
cheers
Mark

[dotbot]

Hi again,

Thanks for the welcome, Markus and Mark. Tim has been an awesome host/teacher/entertainer through these first 2 days. It's a very friendly atmosphere.

Today I worked on shaping the neck and heel blocks, which took forever, and then glued them to the sides. Cut the soundhole and channels for the rosette, which is bwb purfling. I glued them in and planed & sanded them flush with the top. Next I got to work on the location for the braces and also made and glued up a soundhole patch from some mystical Full Moon-harvested Swiss spruce that Tim brought. I also made a peghead veneer from the tiger myrtle and glued that in place. Lastly, glued kerfing to the sides.

Somehow or other I didn't get around to shaping and gluing the braces like everyone else did but I'll get to that tomorrow. Until then, some pics from the day.

Cheers,
Aaron

rosette purfling glued to the soundboard

heel and neck blocks glued to the sides

spruce soundhole patch

kerfing for the back glued to the sides

status at the end of day 2

[Steve.Toscano]

This bench and the coffee cups look very familiar!!!


Looking good so far Aaron, and watch out it's addictive!

[dotbot]

Thanks Felix; this bench is getting to be quite familiar to me, too.

Today was pleasantly productive.

I spent most of the day bracing the top and back, trimming the sides to be flush with the flat top and the curved back, and trimming various things so that the sides and back can now touch. I guess you can see that the heel block has vertical grain while the neck block is horizontal. They were once neighbours in the same board. If that's the worst thing I do this week, I'll be stoked!

It was very satisfying when Tim said I could take the sides out of the big mould and put them into the little one. Tomorrow morning the box should be closed.

braced top

gluing the back braces

back and side wood touching at last

end of day 3

[dotbot]

Today we glued the top and back to the sides using a Spittlean device, which was fun. Routed the top and back flush with the sides. Then I had an intro to tapping with Tim and Strato. Very educational! And it sounds much better/louder after sanding down the KBP, which was over 3mm thick to begin. Now it's just over 2.

After that some work on the neck and fretboard. Finished the day by bending and installing the bindings. My fingers and I were quite happy to be done taping at the end of that!

gluing the body

body before tapping

back

progress on the neck

end of day 4

It's exhausting but I'm loving the experience. Our schedule each days keeps slipping a bit but we're definitely making progess as the pics show.

Aaron

[Mark McLean]

Looking very good Aaron. It takes me months to achieve a similar degree of progress with an instrument, so I think your schedule is just fine! I can imagine it must be pretty exhausting, but you are going to have a very satisfying result pretty soon.
cheers
Mark

[charangohabsburg]

Looks good Aaron, very neat work so far!

I guess you can see that the heel block has vertical grain while the neck block is horizontal. They were once neighbours in the same board. If that's the worst thing I do this week, I'll be stoked!

Well, it CAN'T get worse!!! Gluing those blocks with the grain parallel or perpendicular to the side's grain are two different religions! Forum wars have been fought about this issue, although not here on the ANZLF I believe. However, if you don't tear apart that stuff and reassemble with both blocks having the same grain orientation (it doesn't matter which one), this poor uke will suffer forever from an internal dilemma with unknown consequences. Do you really want that?

[56nortondomy]

Well, it CAN'T get worse!!! Gluing those blocks with the grain parallel or perpendicular to the side's grain are two different religions! Forum wars have been fought about this issue, although not here on the ANZLF I believe. However, if you don't tear apart that stuff and reassemble with both blocks having the same grain orientation (it doesn't matter which one), this poor uke will suffer forever from an internal dilemma with unknown consequences. Do you really want that?

I think you might just be the forum stirrer Markus
Nice work Aaron
Wayne

[J.F. Custom]

Hi Aaron.

Looking good and thanks for the effort of posting your journey - you're in for a ride!

I have to comment on the bracing - that's an unusual design for a uke, certainly not 'traditional'. Given you are relatively new to the craft, I'm guessing it is not your creation but perhaps Tim's pattern? Interesting. It's sort of like a 'simplified' falcate but not, for want of a better description. Is that also carbon fibre on those braces?

It is also clearly not a spanish neck joint on the one you're building, so what sort of neck joint is to be executed for the class? Mortise and tenon? Dovetail? Bolt on? Perhaps just glued? Curious as to which method has been chosen for a class process, considering varying skill levels and time restraints.

You are covering more of the build processes than some other courses I've seen, so that's going to serve you well in the long run. To be fair, it is also a couple of days longer than other courses and can therefore include more. It's all quite a balancing act for the instructors and each individual instructor seems to come up with their own schedule.

Good luck with the rest of your build/s...

Cheers,

Jeremy.

[dotbot]

Thanks for the comments, guys! I hope the internal conflict I accidentally created will lead to a more spirited instrument.

It has been a full 5 days so far and Tim has kindly offered us his Sunday morning so we're really aiming for 6.5 days. I think we're doing just about everything. The fretboard was already slotted and the bridge already shaped. That's about it!

We're gluing the neck to the body with epoxy; we'll see how that goes for me tomorrow. Two of the guys did it today; one was easy and the other was harder but both were successful in the end. We're mostly going off of the Hana Lima plan but the bracing pattern is very different. I'll ask for the source of it tomorrow. It is indeed CF on the top braces.

This morning I scraped and sanded the body. Not that I know anything about it but I'm really happy with the tap tone at this point.

After that, I added a CF rod, installed frets, finished shaping the neck, and installed the tuners.

scraped and sanded

CF rod in the neck

end of day 5

[dotbot]

Today was great! A couple people strung up their ukes and started on the intonation process. They sound fantastic: clear and good volume.

We also found a fascinating geological record of the AGMS.

We reckon their may be fossilized body parts in there among the strata.

I started the day be hollowing out the pocket for the neck to join the body and then joining them with epoxy (kindly supplied by Wade). Then cleaned up and glued the fretboard to the neck. While that was drying I drilled holes in the bridge and rough shaped the nut and saddle. Lastly, glued on the bridge.

We'll have a few hours on Sunday morning with Tim before we all head home. Should be plenty of time to string up and work on the intonation.

Cheers,
Aaron

[ozwood]

We also found a fascinating geological record of the AGMS.

We will need our resident geologist to take a look and report on that, I suspect I may have contributed to that I can't remember the last time my class cleared it out .... oop's.

Nice work on the uke, looks great, as Jeremy pointed out you certainly have covered the full build and been supplied a grade materials, and I apologies for the condition of your instructor This morning... my bad.

Cheers,

[kiwigeo]

We will need our resident geologist to take a look and report on that....

Age of that deposit would most likely be Late Ukelelean...

[lucpet]

AGMS?
Can you expand on this acronym please

Thanks

[ozwood]

Australian Guitar Making School

http://www.australianguitarmakingschool.com.au/

Cheers,

[lucpet]

Thanks

[dotbot]

All good things must pass, and so it is for the Ukulelean period. Only one photo today, of the "finished" but not finished instrument.

This morning I cleaned up some glue that squeezed out from under the bridge and put a coat of shellac on the top to protect it from fate (as much as possible).

Done! For now.

Dressed the frets and got to string it up (Worth brown, low G) and play for 10 minutes before I had to catch a train. I'll be dealing with the last few things that need attention (action is too high, neck is still too thick) before putting a finish on it. I'll post final pics when it's really done.

My uke sounds like the other two I mentioned yesterday: clean and lots of volume. The volume surprised me, to be honest. Must be the top secret bracing pattern? Tim declined to say where that came from...

I'd like to thank my classmates and especially Prof. Spittle for the great working environment we had this week. It was everything I had hoped it would be.

Thanks also to everyone for reading and commenting.

Cheers,
Aaron

[56nortondomy]

Sounds like you had an enjoyable productive week Aaron, well done.
Wayne

[Stuntman]

I'll chime in, having also attended this uke building course and say what a great experience it was. Building an instrument has been on the list for some time, and the intensive 6/6.5 day course was just what I was looking for. I learnt (and have no doubt forgotten) a great deal along the journey from Mr. Spittle.

Shawn