Ukulele making

 I have been working on tenor ukulele making for past 5 month. I have two ukuleles, one has a western red cedar top and, the other has a Paulownia top. Both ukuleles have premium grade Oregon myratle back and sides. Tops are Greg smallman type balsa carbon fiber epoxy laminate. The sound board is thinned to only 1mm for super responsible sound. I completed finishing work last weekend. After curing the finish, I will polish the finish, and then install the bridge. I am very excited to test drive those ukuleles.

OO Project Complete

 Finally, the OO project is completed. OO was completed in middle of April. However, at the last process for installing the tuning machines, I damaged the head plate veneer using the wrong size of the drill holes for the grommet installation. I used Stewart McDonald's custom peg head drilling jig. However, the jig was designed for the Waivery tuners. The jig size did not match for the Schaller tuning machines. I replaced the head plate veneer and I did re-work for the finishing. Then, the other problem happened. When I water polishing the re-finished neck, I did over polishing, and the bare wood appeared. Then, I needed the re-finishing work again for the neck. Finally, the OO project is completed. 

The hard work was payed off by excellent result. The floating neck using the sloped neck design showed amazing tonal quality. This guitar has the maximum freedoms for the top vibration, because the fingerboard above 14th fret is isolated from the top. Also, there is a benefit for this neck design. The neck is completely removable using just two screws. The neck re-setting work is super easy. New design feature is a truss rod cover that has a magnet attach. I also, added a floating armrest using a black dyed maple. This also maximized the sound board vibration. This guitar has very good over tones. It feels like very complex and thick sound layers. I will take more detailed adjustment, and then this guitar will be shipped in next week end.

OO-Specifications

Bony Style: Martin 14th fret joint OO

Top: Carpathian spruce premium grade

B&S: Black limba (Korina) and Yellow cedar epoxy laminate

Neck: Spanish cedar, Ebony, Maple, Ebony, and Spanish cedar (5-plys)

Finger board: Indian Ebony

Neck Scale: 650 mm

Neck Joint: 14th fret, Bolt-on joint, Sloped neck design with isolated finger board from the top. Neck join section has a beveled edge.

Tuning machine: Schaller open back gear

Binding: Madagascar RW

Head plate veneer (front): Madagascar RW

Head back plate veneer: Katalox

Body bracing: Adirondack spruce X-bracing

Body back bracing: Lattice bracing with Sitka spruce.

Bridge plate: Madagascar RW

Bridge: Brazilian RW

Bridge pins: African black wood

Neck block: Spanish cedar with two Carbon fiber rods.

OO project, Wood working is done

 Wood working for the 00 project is done. I made a bridge from a Brazilian RW stock. I selected a cigar  shape. This shape was able to make a less than 20 grams bridge. I really like the light weight bridge that makes very good sound response. I also installed two additional graphite rods in the neck from the neck head to the finger board edge. Then, I installed the finger board. This finger board has the 650mm scale. After installed the Indian ebony finger board, I completed the neck shaping. Additionally, I did the finger board radiusing and polishing. Then, I installed the fret wires. Before install the fret wires, I removed the fret tangs approximately 80%. Fret tangs makes the neck shape change. To maintain the perfectly flat fingerboard, the fret wire tangs must be removed. The last step for making guitar is the armrest making. This time, I made a floating armrest from a fiddle back maple stock. Bottom side of the armrest has a cavity to isolate from the sound board. When you play this guitar, your right side of arm does not sit on the sound board. This makes the best freedam of the sound board movement. The armrest is installed using 5-mm three carbon fiber dowels. The armrest was black dyed. At this moment, the black dye is a little bit too dark. However, the black dye will be fade-out over years, and it will make very nice fiddle back maple patterns.  

Neck making and joint to the body

 I have been in Japan for my vacation during the Christmas holydays. OO project has been slowly progressing after back from my vacation. I completed the binding install for the body. Now, the body constriction is done. Neck making also has a good progress. Truss rod channels are cut, and the truss rod is also installed. Two more additional cannels are for the carbon fiber rods. Carbon fiber rods will be installed after complete the neck fitting. This neck has the Madagascar RW front side veneer, and the Katalox back side veneer. This neck has the truss rod access hole at the head, because of the sloped neck design. There is no space for the truss rod access from the neck bottom. Finger board material is the Indian ebony. Indian ebony is much herder than African ebony. Although the color is not the jet black as the African Ebony, I really like the much herder Indian Ebony. This material makes really robust fingerboard. I also cut the mortise joint slot to the body. I also completed the mortise slot cut for the neck. I still need fine adjustment and fitting works for the neck joint. The neck fitting work is the time consuming process. However, this is the most important process to make a comfortable action setting.