Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

A friend of mine was unfortunate enough to have his Kala UBass run over by a 4WD. Fortunately it was in one of those nylon covered foam polystyrene cases. Unfortunately those NCFPC aren't designed to withstand 4WDs. Result: a collection of mahogany toothpicks with a few bits hanging off them.

I acquired the remnants for the price of a small donation towards a replacement UBass.

The only bits that were in any way able to be salvaged were the Hipshot tuners, the fretboard, the bridge, saddle and electrics. I have rebuilt the rest as a present for my wife.

Bearclaw sitka spruce top; NZ grown Tasmanian Blackwood; mahogany neck recycled from a dressing table my wife had when she was a kid, spruce X bracing copied from the UBass.

She's very happy with how it looks and sounds. I know where all the flaws are but I'm also quite content with this effort. I would say it sounds noticeably better than a Kala Ubass and almost as good as Allen McFarlane's first bass uke (which he made for my wife).
Miguel

Miguel, that looks like a great project. Thanks for sharing. The story is entertaining and the woods you've used go well together (cool top!). I played one of these in a shop once and those strings feel nice, if quiet when unplugged. Do you have a photo of the x brace?

Aaron

Interesting recycling rebuild Miguel, "It's all about the bass", are the bindings also from said chest of draws?

Well done!!



Gaz

Nicely done Miguel. They're not the easiest instrument to build that's for sure.

Wow, that is one crazy piece of bearclaw!
Nice job Miguel.

Best Bearclaw I've seen to date, my small Bearclaw stash doesn't cut the mustard compared to that one.

Thanks for the comments. It's great to get feedback.

Attached picture shows a reconstruction of the soundboard with braces attached. The Norman Gunston look with bits of paper still attached is because I glued all the toothpicks to a sheet of light card to get them aligned. The other side is a lot worse.
Braces are 6mm wide and about 15mm deep at the apex. The other dimensions you can figure out from the rule alongside.

The binding is also mahogany from the dresser. Well spotted that man!!

The bearclaw spruce is from Alaska Specialty Woods. Good product and good service but the postage is a killer.
Miguel

Thanks for the photo, Miguel. It's interesting (for me) to see how a bass uke is braced.

It's nice to see what you started with and all the more impressive that you got to that fine end result.

Cheers,
Aaron