Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

Hi Everybody,

New to the forum. It's with some trepidation I'm posting some photos of my first build. Concert ukulele:
Bunya Top
Bunya Braces
Silky oak back, sides and headplate
Acacia (not sure exactly what type, came from Dad's place down the sth coast of NSW) neck
She-oak fretboard, bridge and binding (ditto Dad's place, old fallen tree)
Finished in tung oil and wax

I'd loved the process, made tonnes of mistakes, learned a great deal. The uke plays really nicely and sounds good.
I can see all the mistakes when I look at it though and consequently really motivated to build a better one.
So it starts I guess.....





Jim

Welcome to the forum Jim.

Your pics dont appear to have uploaded. Try again and let me know if you have further problems.

Cheers Martin (Mod)

Jim wrote:Hi Everybody,

New to the forum. It's with some trepidation I'm posting some photos of my first build. Concert ukulele:
Bunya Top
Bunya Braces
Silky oak back, sides and headplate
Acacia (not sure exactly what type, came from Dad's place down the sth coast of NSW) neck
She-oak fretboard, bridge and binding (ditto Dad's place, old fallen tree)
Finished in tung oil and wax

I'd loved the process, made tonnes of mistakes, learned a great deal. The uke plays really nicely and sounds good.
I can see all the mistakes when I look at it though and consequently really motivated to build a better one.
So it starts I guess.....





Jim

Jim you appear to have posted up links to photo bucket to the forum using the image upload. Try uploading the jpeg files directly to the forum.

Sorry Martin,
Forgive my ignorance, can you tell me the easiest way to do this? Thanks for your help and welcome.

Jim

Think I figured it out, sorry for the delays

Very nice Indeed wood choices look the part that's for sure great work ,john.

Good effort.
Nice job on getting the bindings so neat. The Aussie woods look good together.

Well done for finishing it.
Cheers
R

Thanks for the complements. Lots of room for improvement though I'm afraid. Found the binding really hard to do, something I'm hoping to get better at.

Jim wrote:Thanks for the complements. Lots of room for improvement though I'm afraid. Found the binding really hard to do, something I'm hoping to get better at.

It's your first build Jim....but as you say yourself, the more builds you do the better you get at it. Im on No 16 but still on a steep learning curve

Time is the trick the binding thing was it routing or bending ,I'v used an old soldering Iron for tight corners the back part near the handle it's cooler plenty of wetting down and I slide it back and forth I use maple a lot it's a breeze .

A very good first effort Jim.

I'd say that you have picked some of the more difficult timbers to work with, so take heart that most everyone would struggle the first time around using them.

I just machined up a bunch of sheoak for bindings and they all crumbled on me as I was carrying them to the work bench. So off to the wood racks to pick out a different piece to try. Hopefully these ones will work when I go to bend them.

The thing that will make you a better builder is to be critical of your work, and strive to make even just one thing better the next time around......and just get stuck in and build. Far too many people are afraid of making a mistake and never produce anything. You're already in the small group of people who can say they've built an instrument from scratch.

Well done mate.

Thanks for all the encouragement everybody. I must say it's addictive. I've got the next couple on the go already with some new and improved jigs and ideas to do things better.

Nice work Jim.
Your reference to "new and improved jigs" made me smile. Now you are sounding like a real luthier. It is all about the home-made jigs!
Cheers
Mark

Well done Jim. Keep going, It becomes even more fun the more you make and the more you challenge yourself.
I started 35 years ago and still love it.

Thanks everybody for the encouragement. Think I'm hooked now, I'm finding myself daydreaming about better ways to do things. Just built myself a fox bender and the next lot of builds are under way. Going to try tenor and soprano ukes this time.
Must say I'm inspired (awed...) by the quality of work you guys are doing..... something to shoot for...