After six or so ukulele's in a row, I was pleased to have this come through. Keeps me on my toes
The request was for a thinline in essence, but with the freedom to modify as I wished and a few specific requests. This is what I came up with.
I modified the standard Tele shape to round out/lower the horn and cutaway, as I've done before. I also wanted to try for a smoother body style - both in aesthetics and in player comfort. The Tele standard is quite flat and boxy, so I decided to round it heavily front to back. This required some care in design for the internal pocket layout among other considerations.
I was using a rare single piece Honduran Mahogany body with a 6mm thick flamed Maple cap. However, I wanted the rounding to make the mahogany 'frame' the maple, with just a fine line of purfling for definition inside that, but also on the curve of the body - visible from the side. I therefore decided that rather than gluing the cap on top, it needed to be inlaid into the body itself before rounding. The purfling also needed to be deep enough to not be removed from the rounding process - about 4mm deep I think it was. It worked, but the resulting look could probably have been achieved by just capping anyway. The only place you can really see how it has been done is above the carved jack outlet - showing the maple flush with the mahogany top. Nevertheless, I was happy with how it turned out.
String bending was important, so I made a compound radius fretboard to provide the best action/string bending combo. The hardware, as is evident, is also not traditional Tele, with dual humbuckers for tonal versatility and a hardtail solid body bridge. The beautiful piece of maple for the neck was oil finished for smooth playability, while the body was Mirotone Pret-Cat high gloss.
Specs are -
Body: Single piece Honduran Mahogany, chambered.
Cap: Bookmatched Flame Maple
Neck: Single piece Flame Maple
Fretboard: Ebony
Fretwire: Gold Evo
Purfling: Qld. Walnut and Maple
Pickguard: Qld. Walnut and Maple Laminated
Headstock Front/Back: Qld. Walnut/Maple Laminated
Tuners: Schaller Mini M6's
Humbuckers: Seymour Duncans
Bridge: Hipshot Hardtail
Jack: German Locking
Here tis...
Jeremy.
