Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I've been making a few of these mahogany pineapples lately. I managed to get a great stack of some 50 year old wood and I've been itching to use it.

This is essentially the tarted up super soprano model that we built for the 2011 Cairns Uke Festival. This one has a radius on the fret board, a CF bridge patch that was vacuum pressed into a dished work board. Back is also has a 15' radius. I did a series of 3 of these, with this one being commissioned and is off to WA in the next week.

Customer specified friction turners for this one over my usual open back geared ones. Also a Danish OIl finish over satin Mirotone. The others I built were to my usual specifications.

Nice one Allen...the bridge in particular lights my fire.

Yummy!
Do you make that binding yourself? It looks sweet.

I like the uke stand in the first picture.



























...and of course the uke itself which is a visual killer once more
(and certainly it is also sounding very well).
Nothing new under the skies of Cairns...

So congrats to this one too!

Can you tell us something about the benefits and drawbacks of a danish oil finish, please? (If there are some at all).

Cheers,

I make the bridge myself. Bridge slot cut with a jig and tilted back 7 degrees so the strings drive it into the slot rather than wanting to roll it over.

I can't see any benefit at all to the Danish oil myself other than you can do it without any specialised gear or skills and it's pretty inexpensive to do. Oh, and I suppose it's a lot more environmentally friendly. It's a heck of a lot more work and time for me than spraying it with lacquer. The feel of it is so close to using the low gloss Mirotone that I don't think most people could pick it in a blind test.

I made the uke stand a few months back so that I had something a little more photogenic rather than the black metal ones you get from the shops. Just some New Guinea Rosewood that was destined for the Pizza Oven otherwise.

Thanks for your opinions about danish oil. I imagine it still takes less time than french polish.

Allen wrote: Just some New Guinea Rosewood that was destined for the Pizza Oven otherwise.

I think I'll disguise as a pizza oven if I'll ever make it to your place!

I used danish oil on the looong neck of an irish bouzouki (qld maple) & was impressed.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1556
Looks & feels good.
And dead easy to apply.

Oh, and nice pinapple Allen - best keep Golden Circle away from it!
(I especially like the chamfer at end of the fingerboard)

Sorry, when I responded this morning I thought I saw bridge instead of binding. No to the binding. I sent the specs for this off to Micheal Gurian in Seattle and had a run of it made for me and a mate.

That end on the fret board and on the head stock sort of ties it all together for a Pineapple I think.