ukulele

Here are some photos of a custom tenor i finished recently. It features a Honduras mahogany body, a figured Spanish Cedar neck, scalloped koa hee lcap, a radiused ebony fingerboard with MOP face and side markers, an ebony tie style bridge, a paua abalone rosette, curly maple body bindings, sea green top and side purfling, bone nut, ivory saddle and a B-Band XOM preamp/UST/AST system. Its finished in gloss lacquer, fitted with PegHed™ geared tuning pegs and strung in low G tuning with Savarez Alliance KF red card trebles and a D'Addario J3505 wound G string. It has a custom nut width of 36.5mm and a custom fret scale of 443 mm.

Regular readers of this builder's journal will notice that i've been cooking up a few model N5 sopranos recently. First there was this one in curly Honduras mahogany and California redwood, which found a good home in Los Angeles. Next was this one in dark curly koa and Swiss spruce, which found a good home in London, UK. Here are a few photos of the newest one. Like the others, it is in the figure of eight style popularized by early ukulele builders such as Leo Nunes. It features Brasilian rosewood back and sides, a Swiss spruce soundboard, a Spanish cedar neck, an ebony fingerboard with MOP face and side position markers, an ebony pin bridge, a simple wood ring rosette, curly koa body bindings, top purfling, a bone nut and an ivory saddle. It is fitted with smooth and reliable Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners, finished in hand rubbed lacquer, and string with Worth fluorocarbon strings. It has a bright, crisp and articulate voice.

These R&D soprano ukuleles are the first 3 in a short (6-12) series of sopranos i'm building while i finish my 2010 custom orders to help make ends meet during the great recession of 2010.

Here are some quick photos of a new soprano i finished recently, this one again in the general style of Leo Nunes. It features dark curly koa back and sides and a Swiss spruce soundboard. It has mahogany body bindings, top purfling, a decorative wood banding style rosette, a Honduras mahogany neck, an ebony fingerboard with ivory position markers, bone nut and saddle and an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins. It is fitted with smooth Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners, strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings and finished in a hand rubbed gloss lacquer finish.

This soprano has a bright, clear and loud voice with good intonation and playability.

Now that i'm almost 61 i've decided its time to start writing my memoirs. Stay tuned for 'Memoirs of a Ukulele Maker', coming to an internet bookstore near you next year. There won't be a lot of information about ukulele making in the memoirs, but there will be quite a few 'Notes and Observations' i've made during the course of my long, interesting and unusual life over the last 6 decades, together with biographical information i'd like to document for family and friends.

Here is a quick photo of the internals of a mahogany model A3 14 fret long scale tenor i'm assembling today showing my current tenor bracing style. I use a wide 1mm thick Mediterranean cypress cross brace which runs across the widest part of the lower bout with 3 spruce fan braces (approx 3mm x 5mm). The cross brace is thinned at the edges and helps the top retain the arch carved into the solera. The fan braces are notched where they pass over the cypress brace. They are scalloped on the end near the sound hole and tapered on the end near the tailblock. The top is approx. 1.75 mm thick overall. The sound hole is reinforced with two cross grain spruce patches about 1mm thick. You can see a small piece of wood and screw used to hold the body down on the solera during assembly. It's removed after the back is attached.

After the bridge is glued and before i lacquer the instrument, I'll string it up and give the top a once over with a sanding block thin enough to allow me to work under the strings below the soundhole, and around the periphery of the lower bout. The goal is to optimize the tone and responsiveness of the instrument. Small adjustments can make a big difference to the sound.

The back is braced with 3 spruce cross braces and a 1 mm thick cross grain spruce patch to reinforce the center seam. The cross braces are tapered in profile and their ends are scalloped. The goal is to produce a strong and light structure which is compliant around the edges.

I have a new long scale 14 fret tenor in Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce coming available. It has a slotted headstock, Gilbert tuners, radiused fingerboard, curly koa binding and an ebony pin bridge. Its a custom tenor I built for a gentleman whose circumstances unexpectedly changed. Its a new and unplayed instrument which I'll be finishing during the next week.

I'll also have a very cute little Nunes style soprano available in the next week. It has curly mahogany back and sides, a California redwood top, curly maple bindings, ebony fingerboard, faceplate and pin bridge. Its looks very elegant and sounds great.

In progress:

A California curly claro and Swiss spruce tenor for a customer in Hawaii. Its sweet !

A sharp red electric 15 fret long scale tenor in the style of a LP Junior for a customer in California.

An all Honduras mahogany custom tenor for an Hawaiian player. Custom scale, custom nut width, special setup.

There are some very interesting things going on these days in the world of technology, where my professional roots lie, and i'm getting more and more involved in a software startup. I'll be turning my building efforts back into a hobby next year. I've learned from the experiences i've documented for you in these notes and observations over the last few years that lutherie makes a great hobby but its logical development as a business capable of providing a living wage, health and retirement benefits etc for a family man changes its character completely and leads to a career managing a woodworking factory and significant artistic and lifestyle compromises. That's not where my interests lie. Faster, faster, harder, harder, cheaper, cheaper.

If you have been talking to me recently about a custom build, best act soon !

Here are some photos of a model A3 14 fret long scale tenor ukulele i finished recently. It features Brasilian rosewood back and sides, an Adirondack spruce top, a Spanish cedar neck, a radiused and bound rosewood fingerboard, a rosewood bridge with ebony pins, a bound rosewood faceplate, top and side purfling, and a paua abalone rosette and fingerboard markers. It is fitted with Gilbert tuners with ebony buttons, finished in a gloss lacquer finish and strung with Savarez strings.

It sounds sweet !

After binding the headstock on this custom Brasilian rosewood tenor, I cut the mortice ramps. Here is a photo of the tools used. From the left is a tsukinomi (Japanese push chisel), a Chirozuru Sadahide kiridashi (Japanese woodworker's knife), a cedar pencil, an oirenomi (Japanese bench chisel) and a 270mm dozuki (dovetail saw).

This tenor is nearly finished now. I should be tuning it up next week !

Here are a few photos of a long scale custom soprano ukulele i've finished recently. It has an Adirondack spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, curly maple body bindings, a 14 fret long scale Honduras mahogany neck, a radiused ebony fingerboard with ivory position markers, a decorative wood banding style rosette, an ebony faceplate, an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins and a bone nut and saddle.


It has a gloss lacquer finish, is fitted with PegHed™ geared tuners and strung with Worth strings. It has a Mi-Si Acoustic Trio™ battery free pickup with a Baggs UST installed.


It sounds sweet and plays well.

I have half a dozen new custom instruments just oh so close. During the last few months I've been building four tenors, a soprano and a classical guitar and they are all just about ready. I'll be publishing photos here when each is ready to ship, one at a time. One of the downsides to building 6 of anything that requires a lot of attention and work is that its a long wait to experience the reward of seeing and playing the finished instruments. In the future, i'll probably go back to building them one or two at a time.

Here are photos of the first model A3-L 14 fret long scale lattice top tenor. It features select curly koa back and sides, an Adirondack spruce top, a figured Spanish cedar neck, curly koa bindings, side and top purfling, a decorative wood banding style rosette, an ebony fingerboard, ebony pin bridge, ebony faceplate and a bone nut and saddle. It is finished in gloss lacquer, fitted with Gotoh UK700 gold openback geared tuners and strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings. It has an articulate, detailed and resonant voice with excellent clarity and sustain. You can read about the construction of the lattice braced soundboard in recent journal entries here and here.


We're been having an unusually perfect spring this year. That is a pleasant change, as normally the central Texas spring lasts about 3 days and quickly flees in the face of an overly long and torrid summer. This year we had a month of spring. Frequent rain and pleasant temperatures brought an end to the multi-year drought we've been experiencing. The plants love it. I've found it a serendipitous time to build.


Stay tuned for photos of more sweet custom instruments appearing here over the next couple of weeks.

I found a little time today to make some progress on my lattice bracing experiment. Here is a tenor ukulele top with the lattice bracing installed. The Adirondack spruce top is 1.5mm thick. The bracing is German spruce, 3mm wide by 5mm high on 40mm centers. I used a small foam roller to apply glue to the bottom of the lattice, placed it in the correct position on the top, and applied pressure using several Klemsia clamps through a small sheet of 1/2" plywood over a 1/8" thick sheet of rubber until the glue dried. When dry, i cut the scallops.

It'll be interesting to see what it sounds like. This top is going on a 14 fret long scale tenor with koa back and sides. Stay tuned !

While cutting braces and other parts for the next few ukuleles and classical guitars i decided to cut some bracing for a lattice top.

Lattice tops have been getting quiet a buzz going ever since the Australian luther Greg Smallman (iirc) started using this bracing technique on his classical guitars some years ago. Being a traditionalist at heart and someone who feels there is plenty of room for learning and development exploring the older Spanish methods of fan bracing, i've always looked a bit askance at those who wandered off the beaten path to chase the latest buzz before mastering the traditional methods.

After all, even though the fan braced designs have been around for several centuries and many builder's have struggled to understand their inner secrets, you can count the number of living people in the world who know enough about fan bracing and graduation that they can predict the effect on tone and character of any variation on the theme on one hand, or maybe two, and they are probably all over 60. After all, a fine stringed instrument isn't a static thing, it evolves over time ... interacting and adapting to the way it is played, its environment, stress and fatigue of the materials and so on and so forth, and a lot of the judgements a builder makes when bracing a top are with one eye to how it will evolve over time. It always seemed to me that a builder was more likely to make progress building on the work and experience of the many builders who have worked with the traditional methods.

Having said all that, and stuck my neck out perhaps a bit further than is comfortable in public, i have heard a few lattice braced classical guitars recently that interested me enough to want to experiment. For example, here is a sweet sounding lattice braced guitar by the Australian luthier Ashley Sanders. I haven't decided whether to try a lattice braced tenor or baritone ukulele or a classical guitar, but i have decided to build something and see where it goes. Maybe i'll try one of each.


Stay tuned ...

A little while later, i have some lattice bracing. It must be the arrival of spring and the thought of some nice sweet peas growing on a trellis that got me started on this.



The bracing is cut from an old European spruce top i had lying around. The lattice pieces are approx. 3mm x 5mm on a 40mm grid. Though i am guessing, this is probably a happy compromise between what I'd use on a classical guitar and what i'd use on a tenor or baritone ukulele. The bracing strips are made using a method similiar to that used for making kerfing, using a registration pin and a step and repeat procedure on a table saw with a sliding table.

Lattice bracing, like other bracing styles, attempts to distribute the compliance and stiffness of the top in a way that produces a musical result. A section of lattice bracing shown here will be cut out to the general outline of the lower soundboard less the linings, glued to the soundboard, and then the parts of the lattice near the edges of the instrument will be scalloped with a chisel to provide a stiff and lightweight top with good compliance around the periphery. The soundboard to which the lattice bracing is glued is generally thinner than a fan braced soundboard. The builder aims for a thickness that would be appropriate in the periphery and relies on the lattice to create strength elsewhere. Judgements regarding appropriate thickness of the soundboard and the design of the lattice are ultimately the result of experience with the method and the builder's goals. In this method, i'm guessing the shape of the scallop cut into the braces in the periphery is critical to tone.

Here is a quick photo of a concert i finished towards the end of last year and had to ship before i had a chance to do a complete photo set. Its in the general style of Leo Nunes and constructed of Honduras mahogany with rosewood and maple rope purfling, ebony binding, ebony fingerboard with ivory position markers, an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins, and a bone nut and saddle. It's fitted with peghed™ geared tuning pegs, finished in a gloss lacquer finish, and strung with Worth strings.

Here are a couple of shots of a pineapple tenor i finished a few months ago and have had hanging near the bench to give the mahogany body a chance to darken and to evaluate its tonal development. Its the first pineapple i've made. I didn't have a real pineapple for a prop during the photo shoot, but i did have some fruit and veggies ... and again the spring flowers are fresh from the garden.

With a standard tenor scale and 15 frets to the body, this ukulele features an ebony fingerboard with ivory position markers, ebony faceplate, ebony pin bridge, ebony body bindings, ebony nut and boxwood saddle. It has a decorative wood banding style rosette, is finished in a hand rubbed gloss lacquer, fitted with Gotoh deluxe friction tuners and strung with Worth strings. It has a mellow, warm ringing tone with good sustain, loudness and projection.

Here are some photos of a soprano ukulele in the general style of L. Nunes i finished recently. Its Honduras mahogany with an ebony fingerboard, ebony bindings, decorative wood banding style rosette, a bone nut and saddle and an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins. It is fitted with Peghed™ geared tuning pegs, finished in handrubbed gloss lacquer and strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings.

Its spring in Austin now. Its 76 and blue ... and the flowers are fresh from the garden.