The bass ukulele now has a pickup. I drilled a hole in the back to install it.
The hole was just big enough to get my hand inside the case. I installed a SilenceBan pickup with 3 piezo transducers from EBay. It seems to work fine and is certainly loud – no preamp required.
Continue readingI mentioned before that I’ve had problems with my hands from pulling the sail up. Part of the work to sort this out was changing the 2-part block system to a 4-part block system. That all went fine and the sail is now easy to raise. However, I goofed and bought a new rope that is slightly too large for the existing fittings. On the plus side the larger rope is easier to grip – good for my hands. On the down side I had to make a new fairlead for where the ropes go through the deck next to the mast.
Got the soundboard and fretboard glued on.
I had to make clamps for the soundboard from threaded rod and bits of wood.
Making the clamps took longer than anticipated due to the number of them but they seem to work ok. I drilled the wooden bits at a very slight angle so they apply the force at the tip rather than near the threaded rod. Padding was via neoprene sheet glued on with Titebond – I’ve got a big sheet of the stuff left over from boat window gaskets and it works well.
I’m reusing a reclaimed parquet floor tile for the fretboard and other fittings. I think it might be walnut – not sure. What I do know is that the grain is very wavy and horrible to work – tear out is hard to avoid. I also found out what happens if you use hand tools to plane down the top surface of a used parquet floor tile – it took me a long time to work out why the tools became blunt almost instantly. I assume that bits of grit had become embedded in the top surface. Memo to self – saw off the top of the next tile!
Moving ahead with the sides and front.
Got the join where the sides meet at the tail fixed with an inlay of walnut (bit of parquet floor tile).
I’ve got the kerfed linings in.
The sides ring nicely when tapped 🙂
Continue readingMore general prep on the sides. I’ve got the sides planed down to thr right height.
The neck and tail blocks were inset into the mold so I could glue the sides together around the mold. I held the blocks in place with dollups of hot-melt glue on the surface – hopefully this will come off ok. We’ll see.
Continue readingGot the neck block shaped today. This was interesting to make as it has different shapes at top and bottom – both need to meet the sides in a complex curve.
I marked out the shapes on top and bottom, then connected the ends of the lines.
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