Homemade Ukulele
Building any functional instrument can be a difficult task, requiring a fair amount of tools and experience using them. However, for someone new to building instruments, a ukulele may be a good place to start, as it requires less time and materials than larger string instruments like guitars.
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Things You'll Need
- Wood
- Patterns
- Workbench
- Calipers
- Rulers and combination square
- Chisel
- Router
- Rasp
- Mold for side pieces
- Saws (band, coping, exacto and circle)
- Sandpaper
- Sealer
- Water
- Bending iron
- Fretting jig
- Bridge jig
- Power drill
- Wood glue
- Strings
- Keys
- Clamp
- Screws
- Fret wire
Instructions
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Choose your wood. There are several types of wood generally used to build acoustic string instruments. These include spruce, rosewood, mahogany, maple and ebony. If necessary, however, many types of wood may be used as long as they are durable enough to handle usage. In general the stiffer the wood, the better, and stiffness being equal, a straight-grained wood is preferable to wood with wild grains.
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Shape the headpiece. Use a coping saw to cut out the major shape, then use the chisel and rasp to make fine adjustments. If you have access to a router, use it, as it will be much easier to make an even, symmetrical shape. This will leave you with identical front and back pieces. Sand them until they are roughly .07 inch thick and remove all nicks and scratches.
Use a circle saw to drill a sound hole into the center of the headpiece, and reinforce the sound hole. To do this use four strips of wood in a fan-shaped pattern, emanating from the sound hole and widening toward the end of the headpiece. Also place strips of wood perpendicular to the length of the ukulele on either side. To combine the top and bottom, you will use two side pieces. After sawing out the shapes (approximately 36 1/2 inches long and 2 1/2 inches wide at the edges, widening to 3 inches at the center), let them soak in water for an hour, then use a bending iron to shape them into the shape of the mold.
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3
Shape the neck. Decide how large a ukulele you want to make, and cut a block of wood that is the correct width and 1 1/2 inches longer than you want the neck to be. Standard dimensions for a neck will be roughly 9 1/2 inches long (excluding the keyboard), 1 3/4 inches wide near the headpiece, receding to 11/16 inch near the end, and 5/8 inch thick. Cut off the extra 1 1/2 inches and glue it to the bottom of the neck. This will be the section that connects the neck of your instrument to the body.
After the glue has set completely, use a band saw to thin the neck into your desired shape and size. Then cut out the end of the neck (where the keys will be located). Sand this portion of the neck down so that it declines roughly 3/16" toward the bottom.
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Connect the neck and body. Clamp the neck to the headpiece and drill three holes (in a triangular pattern) through the neck and body. Use glue and screws through each of the holes to connect the two pieces. Sand the body until it is smooth all over.
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Form the fretboard and finish. Place wood in the fretting jig with tape and cut out frets perpendicular to the neck. Cut the fretboard into the shape of the neck, sand until smooth and install fret wire. Then glue the fretboard to the neck and clamp. Form the bridge with the bridge jig, and connect the bridge as per the pattern. Use the pattern to determine where to place the key holes. Use a power drill to add the holes. Do some final sanding, seal with spray and install keys and strings and the ukulele is ready to play.
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Tips & Warnings
Use safety goggles when operating power tools.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit tuning the ukulele image by Shirley Hirst from Fotolia.com
