Second Soprano Build

[humblej]

My first soprano ukulele build did not give me the sound I had wanted and I didn't really care for my choice of wood as well as a few design details of the plans, so removed the tuners and usable hardware and threw the rest of it away. I started over from scratch and with added experience and what I have been learning here, ended up with more of the sound I was after. In comparison to the first build, this one sounds a bit harp like rather than tinny. Walnut body, neck, and fretboard, quilted maple for the soundboard, shellac finish, abalone dots, GHS black nylon strings. The maple had a defect in it that I couldn't see until I ran it thru the thickness sander a few times. Since it was not a split I thought it would look OK after filling with super glue, but that just made it look worse. As this build was another experiment I went ahead and used it.

 

[Jim in Oregon]

My first soprano ukulele build did not give me the sound I had wanted and I didn't really care for my choice of wood as well as a few design details of the plans, so removed the tuners and usable hardware and threw the rest of it away. I started over from scratch and with added experience and what I have been learning here, ended up with more of the sound I was after. In comparison to the first build, this one sounds a bit harp like rather than tinny. Walnut body, neck, and fretboard, quilted maple for the soundboard, shellac finish, abalone dots, GHS black nylon strings. The maple had a defect in it that I couldn't see until I ran it thru the thickness sander a few times. Since it was not a split I thought it would look OK after filling with super glue, but that just made it look worse. As this build was another experiment I went ahead and used it.

Humblej, thanks for giving us a look at your No. 2 build. I love the headstock that seems to harken back to early Hawaiian ukes.

Is the bridge angled slightly for compensation's sake? Or is that just my eyes playing tricks?

Jim

 

[John Colter]

I missed this when it was first posted. That is a very attractive design with impressive detailing. Congratulations!

 

[humblej]

Humblej, thanks for giving us a look at your No. 2 build. I love the headstock that seems to harken back to early Hawaiian ukes.

Is the bridge angled slightly for compensation's sake? Or is that just my eyes playing tricks?

Jim

Not angled, not your eyes, it's the camera.

 

[BuzzBD]

One of the more difficult things to do in my building career has been to solicit honest criticism from people on my instruments. People generally want to be nice and encouraging, so many times they won’t mention the negative things they notice. Please take my following comments with that perspective in mind. In my opinion, the most important task for a new builder is to aim for the best sound they can achieve, followed closely by how easy they can make the instrument to play. How the instrument looks should be a distant third. Your work is nice and clean, but I think you shot your self in the foot with the choice of a non quarter sawn top of quilted maple and to a lesser extent a flat sawn walnut back. Good luthier grade wood is not hard or terribly expensive to obtain. You can find suitable wood for a reasonable price at your local lumber retailers, you just have to search carefully to find it. Over time the ability to find and identify quality lumber will serve beginning builders very well. Again just my opinion. A couple of other suggestions, from the side picture, it appears that the sides at the tail block and neck block are not perpendicular to the plane of the top. And you may wish to consider reducing the radius of the curve of bottom of the neck to the heel. I know the old Kumalae ukuleles had that gentle curve, but a tighter radius saves weight, looks better and is easier to play higher on the neck. Any way the most important thing is that your instruments get better as you go along.
Brad

 

[humblej]

One of the more difficult things to do in my building career has been to solicit honest criticism from people on my instruments. People generally want to be nice and encouraging, so many times they won’t mention the negative things they notice. Please take my following comments with that perspective in mind. In my opinion, the most important task for a new builder is to aim for the best sound they can achieve, followed closely by how easy they can make the instrument to play. How the instrument looks should be a distant third. Your work is nice and clean, but I think you shot your self in the foot with the choice of a non quarter sawn top of quilted maple and to a lesser extent a flat sawn walnut back. Good luthier grade wood is not hard or terribly expensive to obtain. You can find suitable wood for a reasonable price at your local lumber retailers, you just have to search carefully to find it. Over time the ability to find and identify quality lumber will serve beginning builders very well. Again just my opinion. A couple of other suggestions, from the side picture, it appears that the sides at the tail block and neck block are not perpendicular to the plane of the top. And you may wish to consider reducing the radius of the curve of bottom of the neck to the heel. I know the old Kumalae ukuleles had that gentle curve, but a tighter radius saves weight, looks better and is easier to play higher on the neck. Any way the most important thing is that your instruments get better as you go along.
Brad

Thanks Brad, that is the kind of feedback I am looking for, I appreciate your comments. Regarding the choice of wood, my goal at this point is build and learn, I do not expect to have a fine instrument on the first few attempts, so at this point I have been using what I have on hand, also experimenting with different combinations of wood species for appearance. I was given some nice tone wood from a member of the forum that I intend to use for my next build. Like my first soprano build, this one will have the tuners reclaimed and the body given an unceremonious drop in the waste basket at the completion of build #3. I may try the tighter radius neck for #3 although I am going for the early Hawaiian ukulele look and have been copying details from one I have. It is going to be awhile before I am willing to cut into my stash of koa.

 

[don_b]

That shot of the front, beautiful headstock shape and beautiful body, very pretty ukulele!

Actually I think it even looks like a different ukulele from each of the angles you’ve shown here, like it’s 3 ukes. And yet, it’s 1! Can’t say I’ve ever had that experience viewing a uke from 3 angles. Very cool!!!