Solidbody Tele-shaped Ukulele Build

[JasonRobert]

I have been thinking of what my next build should be, and I have come to the conclusion of building a solidbody tele shaped ukulele. I want to try to get this one finished before the end of the month hopefully in time to take on holiday with me.
I have decided on a scale length of 15" and I will rpobably finish it with oil or wax to save time. The wood I will use is an unnamed hardwood from B&Q which I have used for making bodys and necks.

Before I can start on this I will ask a few questions to get peoples opinions as I have never owned or played ukulele...

1. As it will have to be strung with steel strings for pickups, will it need a truss rod, and if so would a non adjustable truss rod be ok?

2. what size fretwire should I use?

3. on a ukulele, is the width smaller at the nut than at the heel of the neck or is it the same wdith all the way down the neck?

cheers, Jason.

[djdeacon]

Something like this?
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...-mandolin.html

[djangomusic]

Hi

I made a 'Flying V' uke as my very first homebuild over 30 years ago and I still use it sometimes now!

I can offer some advice based on mine still working!

1. I used steel strings but didnt use a truss rod. I just cut the next wood in 2 and reversed one piece to provide the strength. It has never moved.

2. At the time the only fret wire I could get hold of was Dunlop 6105 and have never had a prob but may not be suitable for your tele style

3. Mine tapers from the nut to the neck - I dont have any means of measuring at the moment to give you the figures however

hope this helps!!

Currently restringing if you wonder why there are none on!

Darryl

[KevinB]

Decide on what scale length you want. Standard soprano ukes are typically 13" scale and are tuned re-entrantly to g-C-E-A. Concerts and tenors are tuned the same but with 15" and 17" scale lengths, and baritones are 19" scale tuned to D-G-B-E (like a regular guitar).

Especially for a shorter neck, I don't think you'd need a truss rod.

Fretwire is usually the same as a mandolin. StewMac carries it.

Fretboards are tapered. Something like 1 3/8" at the nut tapering to 1 3/4"at the 12th fret is typical. Fretboards are also typically flat like a classical.

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by djdeacon

Something like this?
http://www.tdpri.com/forum/telecaste...-mandolin.html

a lot like that except mine probably wont turn out as good as that! and also It wont be tuned in 5ths like a mandolin, but in 4ths like a ukulele.

Originally Posted by djangomusic

Hi

I made a 'Flying V' uke as my very first homebuild over 30 years ago and I still use it sometimes now!

I can offer some advice based on mine still working!

1. I used steel strings but didnt use a truss rod. I just cut the next wood in 2 and reversed one piece to provide the strength. It has never moved.

2. At the time the only fret wire I could get hold of was Dunlop 6105 and have never had a prob but may not be suitable for your tele style

3. Mine tapers from the nut to the neck - I dont have any means of measuring at the moment to give you the figures however

hope this helps!!

Currently restringing if you wonder why there are none on!

Darryl

that is a really cool little ukulele you got there! Did you make it from one piece of wood, or is it a glued neck?

Originally Posted by KevinB

Decide on what scale length you want. Standard soprano ukes are typically 13" scale and are tuned re-entrantly to g-C-E-A. Concerts and tenors are tuned the same but with 15" and 17" scale lengths, and baritones are 19" scale tuned to D-G-B-E (like a regular guitar).

Especially for a shorter neck, I don't think you'd need a truss rod.

Fretwire is usually the same as a mandolin. StewMac carries it.

Fretboards are tapered. Something like 1 3/8" at the nut tapering to 1 3/4"at the 12th fret is typical. Fretboards are also typically flat like a classical.

I am sure I will use a 15" scale length although I am not too sure about the High G on the 4th string, I may tune it down an octave... Thanks for those measurements.

I will hopefully be making a tele style bridge but for four strings and control plate . I dont like the idea of using a normal tele bridge and leaving out the outside strings, and the control plate will most probably need to be smaller. It will also have one pickup so I suppose you could say it is an esquire-ukulele.

I was hoping to spray some colour on one of my other projects today, but It doesnt look like that will happen as it is raing very hard. Instead I will draw up some plans by scaling down the outline of terry downs plans, and combining this with a ukulele drawing I found on the internet.

[jwells393]

No truss rod required. In the early '90s Fender Japan made small (18.5 in. scale) Telecasters and Stratocasters. One piece necks no truss rods.

[JasonRobert]

got some wood yesterday and started making the neck today.

This is the wood I got from B and Q. It is actually hardwood skirting, but the type of wood I do not know. It comes in lengths of about 7 foot. I got 3 pieces like this thinking I will just have enough, and I have realised I got my measurements and got double what I needed, so there will either be another one of these, or a mandolin.




Here is a closeup of the grain. If anyone knows what type of wood this is please let me know.




I have cut the long piece into the small pieces of about 13 inches long these will be glued together to make up the neck blank. I will also cut 2 or 3 smaller pieces to glue on at the headstock.




This last picture is the pieces glued together. when I measured the width of all three pieces it is 35.5mm, which is the exact width for the neck heel.




I will probably be making the bridge tonight. I have got a piece of L shaped aluminium which is perfect for a tele style bridge. I will be using saddles recovered from an old strat tremolo I had.

[JasonRobert]

Here is the material for the bridge. It is an L shaped piece of aluminium.




Here I have marked out the holes to be drilled with a 3mm bit. the holes for the strings to pass through will be drilled after I have fitted the saddles.



And here is the bridge half finished. I have filed the edges and the holes to make it all flat. I am not sure whether to leave this with a brushed look or to paint it... Next thing to do is to drill the string holes. I am probably going to make it a string through not top loading as I do not like the idea of drilling on a sharp corner.



To do the holes I will make sure all the saddles are parallel with themselves and the bridge plate, and make sure the adjustment screws are flat with the inside opening (where the string comes through) of the threaded hole on the saddles. I will then punch a hole on the bridge plate, witht he punch as close as I can get it to the inside back part of the saddle.

[JasonRobert]

And this is the completed bridge plate. I coutersunk the mounting holes and drilled the string holes. Then I finished filing all the edges.




The next job is the pickup. My pickup making experiences have been rather disasterous in the past, so I may end up using a hot rails single coil sized humbucker I have lying around.

[Stubbs]

Great job on that bridge. Very professional looking.

That wood might be red oak, looks like some that I made a lap steel out of.

[jwells393]

I am not sure whether to leave this with a brushed look or to paint it.

Good job. You could polish it. The aluminum (aluminium) control plate below had a brushed look before wetsanding and polishing.

.......

[JasonRobert]

After reading your post jwells393, I immediately went straight to my shed and starting wetsanding and polishing. Here is the result:
EDIT: This picture is better....




some of the observant among you will notice the middle two look as if they are to close together and not fitting correctly. To fix this I just tried all different combinations of the saddles and found that some must be slightly bigger than others, causing this mis-fit.

[Edutainment]

I've had an idea like this in my head for a while because I want something small I can play hanging out outside or something. You've inspired me. But first... I need a source of income :P

Nice build. I like the custom bridge.

[JasonRobert]

I have cut the headstock and marked the frets. I have decided to make this ukutele like the original broadcaster prototype due to many of my miscalculations I have also decided on a 13 inch scale length to make it smaller.



Here is the neck blank




And here is the neck blank cut out with the headstock almost finished with a bit of sanding and hole drilling left to do. I will cut out the fret slots tonight. I have learnt from another build to leave the tapering until the frets slots are cut, otherwise I get slanted frets!

[JasonRobert]

After checking everything was square, I cut the fret slots. I actually used a flattened junior hacksaw blade which is just the right size for fret slots. I also had to flatten the bit where the nut goes as the nut isnt a tele or strat nut, its a four string version of a les paul type nut. I will now taper the neck, finish the headstock and drill holes for the fret markers and machine heads.




EDIT:

I just tapered the neck, and once I had done it I had to measure it and check again with the nut because the angle is so small. I am used to working with guitars and basses, and suddenly doing something that is almost half the scale length I usually do, I have to keep checking every measurement as it looks sooo small!






As it will be a bolt on, how many bolts should I use? I was thinking 2 or 3, but I am not sure how I will fit 3 on....?

[ibobunot]

Not a solidbody.

Mr. Sandman

[JasonRobert]

here is the shaped neck:



It really didnt take long at all. usually I would spend an hour or two getting the shaping and sanding just right. But this only took me 15 minutes.

[reddogbass]

Since you didn't get an answer to the "neck wood question," it looks like mahogany to me.

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by reddogbass

Since you didn't get an answer to the "neck wood question," it looks like mahogany to me.

I thought it was mahogany when I first saw it, but it when sanded or sawn it doesnt smell like mahogany. It smells sort of like rosewood, but not as strong. Stubbs said he thought it was red oak, and when I researched red oak, I got to this website.... http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/Landown...&Species=rubra When you click on the little woodgrain picture there is a picture of the grain. here is another picture of the grain...

[JasonRobert]

I fretted it and put some finish on it last night. I used a walnut coloured varnish. I was going for a very dark look. I didnt grain fill at all because I wanted the grain to pop out, which it did. I then sanded this smooth, which also sanded off the varnish from the popped out grain, which made it lighter. I then put another coat of varnish on this to colour the deeper grain darker, which means the grain shows up better. I will now give this 2 or 3 coats of clear varnish, sand it smooth and polish.





sorry for the bad quality pictures, I cannot use the camera I usually use at the moment.

[KevinB]

I'd say red oak too. It's a common hardwood in our Home Depots and Lowe's, which are very similar to your B&Qs. (In fact theyr'e so similar that I suspect Home Depot and B&Q have the same owners).

Nice build! Can't wait to see the body.

[Nick JD]

Originally Posted by JasonRobert

Here is a closeup of the grain. If anyone knows what type of wood this is please let me know.

It looks a lot like Victorian Ash aka Tasmanian Oak - but if it is it's a long way from home! Same grain and colouring, which is almost identical to mahogany in grain and density (makes me wonder what those new Gibbys are made from). Most of Tasmania is covered in the stuff.



When they are growing they look like this. All 92 meters . The history books tell of a 500 footer, but it's unconfirmed.



BTW - love the Uke!

[Edutainment]

I can't wait to see where this goes. I really like that custom bridge.

[JasonRobert]

Originally Posted by Nick JD