That Which Meets the Eye

part of making an excellent instrument is the overall look. ukuleles have curves, lines and proportions. when you can make the wood match these aspects, it puts a bow on the entire package.

for starters, the uke has hips, a waist and shoulders. and it is narrower at the top than at the bottom, so the pull is towards the center as you move from the butt to the neck. if the wood has a pull that is opposite that, the look seems t o conflict itself, pulling and pushing in opposite directions.

the sides are the same way. the back profile is tapered towards the neck. the wood grain should move from the back of the uke towards the top.

other things to consider are knots, cracks or ugly marks that you want to avoid. when gluing up. you can take those into consideration and profile you wood to put any undesirable part outside of the profile of the top, back or sides.

below are a few pics of a set I’m working with. it’s already glued and sanded, but I have some options for the lay out. take a look and leave a comment as to which you think I will use on this instrument

Layout  A                                 Layout B

    Layout C                                            Layout D

              Layout E                                 Layout F

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Busy Days

 I put some deliberate effort into finishing up the molds and bender for the tenor today. I needed to assemble the the form for bending and finish shaping the the second half of the building mold. I hit the ground running this morning and never looked back. It’s amazing how fast the day goes by when you’re doing what you love.

now that I’m ready to build, I am going to take you (the reader) through the steps of making an instrument starting with how to choose wood, visually lay out the instrument, and feel your way to excellent tone.

It should be an adventure… c’mon and join me. we start tomorrow.

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Decisions… Decisions

 

One of my tasks at the guitar factory was to take rough lumber and make guitar sets form the material available. To do this I not only did I have to look at the big picture but the details as well. Maybe a load of lumber was mostly narrow boards that would only net small guitars or sides. sometimes I could get sides and backs from the same board. for guitars and high production, there was a little wiggle room. I had to maximize the yield, and minimize the waste. My minimize the waste, I took scraps and turned them into alternative parts for the guitars like kerfing, and interior blocks. 

fast forward a decade, and now I’m looking at much smaller amounts of wood, with muck smaller yields, and no room for error. sure Ukuleles take less material, but the raw stock I get is usually the leftovers from other music related projects. I must say that I get a fair amount of my stock from a lumberman up in Washington State who keeps his eyes open for me. there is also another mill that sells me scraps left over from their guitar production… oh and that guitar company I used to work for, they throw mea bone every once in a while as well. either way, I’m grateful for the blocks the show up on my doorstep.

That being said, I got a few blocks in the mail back in January, and up until yesterday, I hadn’t done anything with them. then I hit the saw and made 14 sets of various species including Figured Maple (duh) Koa and Black Limba. see the sets below.

		New Wave Ukulele Tenor Sets VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

The Material includes some maple that was warehoused in a violin workshop since 1972. that’s the story I was told, I’m stickin too it!

1972 Maple

Last month I received a few maple planks from Washington. This material has been warehoused since 1972 at a violin makers shop. over the last few years, I've bought a handful of blocks dating from the early 80's to late 90's however this is the oldest stock I've received to date.

for order info: newwaveukes@gmail.com

The Tenor Progress Continues

this week I've made some progress on the tenor molds and bending form.  more pics to come soon.

Tonally Awesome sound -- its all in the feel

“What” you ask? that’s right getting a great tone from an instrument is all about the feel.. of the braces that is. i;’ve been having an online conversation with a guitar builder who tried his hand at building a uke. the one thing that I’ve noticed on forums and websites is that most ukes are over braced. that is the braces are usually too large for the instrument that they are being used on.

some custom builders will glue brace blanks to the top, then shape them with planes or chisels. When I make braces, I shape them separate from the top.this makes for raw fingertips on the belt sander, but gives me the opportunity to tailor the individual brace to is placement on the top. I can make a brace with a little more flex in it to bring out the warmth of the trebles, I can leave the brace a little stiff to give the instrument some pop. either way I take most of my time sanding, flexing, re-sanding, re flexing and sometimes scrapping the brace all together to try again. it’s not an exact art, and takes some trial and error. but the result is a superior tone.

The choice wood for this is Sitka Spruce. it’s light and strong. it makes for a warm tone without adding much weight to the instrument. when I brace my ukes, I use only one block to make all the braces in the entire instrument. most makers will make a batch of braces, throw them into a bin and pull random pieces to brace the top. I however pull one block from the stack, and make all the braces before gluing them to the top. if I run out of material, I scrap the entire batch and start a new.

this is what makes New Wave Ukuleles – Tonally Awesome!

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Some Special Maple for Tenors --

to inquire about pricing and upgrades, please email newwaveukes@gmail.com