Ukulele - Part 3: Linings

Same as it ever was...

If you look at the photo above you may ask yourself, "How did he get here?"

"Let me explain... No, there is too much. Let me sum up."

If you look at the photo below you will notice that the sides of this ukulele are pretty thin.  The same goes for the sides of a guitar as well.  There's not much there to glue a top or bottom to - the way to fix this is to add linings.  Linings add a bit of rigidity to the sides and more surface for the guitar 'faces' (the back and top) to sit on.  In a guitar, these linings are much more ornate but in a Uke they can be pretty basic - especially in a mass produced kit like this one.

Take a little off the top.

Before you can add the lining, though, you have to level the sides.  I used a carpenter's level wrapped in sandpaper to make sure the sides were even and that the heal-cap and the end-cap were flush to the sides (that's the lighter bits of wood in the photo below).

Kinda like a round peg in a square hole.

This kit came with thin plywood linings - and I do mean thin! This was two-ply with the grain going in opposite directions.  However, even though this is plywood - it's still wood.  As you can see up in the top left-hand corner where the lining snapped instead of bent.  This shouldn't be a problem but it was a bummer.  Triply so - as it happened three times.

Something pithy

So, what you do is:  Glue the lining to the top edge of the sides.  Make sure it isn't proud (i.e. it doesn't stick up higher than the side) as you'll have to sand it flush.  What's with all the tape and clothespins?

The clothespins are clamps.  If you look closely - I added elastic bands to each clothespin to increase the clamping force (another handy-dandy tip from StewMac).  The clothespins help keep the lining in place while the glue cures and puts the necessary pressure on everything to get a good glue joint.

The tape is to catch all the excess glue that squeezes out when you clamp everything together.
As you can see in the photo below - I removed the tape after I set up all the clothespins.

Norwegian Ridgeback

Norwegian Fullback

The goal is to get these linings to curve with the shape of the sides but to also be flush with the top of the sides so you don't have to do much sanding (stop and think about that sentence).

With an acoustic guitar, the linings are "kerfed."
Kinda sounds like something a frat-boy would say, "Oh man, I went out last night and got so kerfed!"
But in truth - it's just wood strips with partial cuts to make the strips flexible.

Once the glue has dried, you remove the clothespins, flip the body, and repeat on the other side.

The difference between the rigidity of the sides with vs. without the linings was remarkable.
I have to impress upon you that the linings were thin - no more than 1 to 2 millimeters but once glued in - they gave the side a fantastic amount of strength and structure.

I am Mighty!

As I mentioned - the linings broke a few times.  Mostly - one ply of the plywood would snap and the other would remain intact.  But on the one below - that sucker split the whole way.  And I'm sure in some infinitesimal sense it matters.  Everything adds/subtracts to the sound of the instrument - but we're making Ukuleles here - not sending Landers to Mars.
I'm sure it'll be fine.

Just don't look too close.

Now that I've spent all this time being careful and precise about gluing these puppies in - I have to be doubly careful about cutting them out...

I'm gonna make my mark.  Just you wait!

In order for the top (and back) of the ukulele to fit correctly onto the sides, you have to cut a little notch for the braces to fit in.  I'll be honest - I was aggressive with my brace shaping - so I didn't NEED all of these notches.  But it's a good practice to get into - because when working on a guitar top - you really do need those notches.

Narf!

Mostly, I just used a 1/4 inch chisel to cut out the lining while leaving the sides intact.  StewMac suggest using an Exacto knife but my chisel was reasonably sharp (but not sharp enough to slice through the mahogany sides while removing the linings).

Up next:  Putting it all together.  Also known as closing the box...

Mini-Tele - Part 3: A splash of color

Subtle...

As previously mentioned - my son asked for a gold guitar.  

I said, "Everything gold?"

He said, "Everything!"

I said, "...okay."

I said, "...are you sure?"

He said, "I'm sure!"

(editor's note - when I told him the humbucker wasn't going to be gold - he got upset)

Okay.  Here we go!

Gold digger

Two things:

1) I've never spray painted a guitar before.  This is my fifth build (sixth if you count the incomplete Les Paul that still sits on top of my fridge) and I've finished all of them with stain, dye, or shellac under a Nitro finish.  I've got nothing against paint - it's just that all of my builds to date have been made with fairly attractive wood that I wanted to showcase and not hide under paint.  So this is new territory for me (read: plenty of NEW mistakes for me to make).

2) The medium of a blog is rife with dishonesty.  I didn't take a lot of photos of the process of painting the guitar.  So, it looks like this went swimmingly.  I can attest that it did not.  Also, time is a plaything in the blog medium.  This thing sat for months in my garage waiting for me to get my backside in gear and finish it.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics...

In brief:  I painted this with a generic gold color I purchased at Lowes and neither I nor my son was all that impressed.  It was only after stumbling on a really metallic gold paint (by accident in A.C. Moore) that we got to the color you see now.  Then, as I was preparing to spray a lacquer finish on it - I decided to wipe it down with some naphtha.  ...It had loads of dust (and cobwebs) on it from sitting all summer in my garage and I wanted a clean surface to spray on.  Yeah, it turns out that naphtha will strip spray-paint off like nobody's business.  So, I had to paint the guitar a third time.  Only this time the temperature had dropped and I was spraying in temps way too cold for rattle cans.  So, I'm not confident in how well the paint bonded to the previous coats.

When I finally did get to spraying lacquer - I was using a new brand - Watco - Lacquer, Gloss, Spray

...Let's just say - I'll never be using that brand again.  Stick with Behlan's Stringed Instrument Lacquer, kids.  It works!

I had already started spraying the neck with Behlans so I decided to not mix the streams with a different lacquer on the neck.  In the end, the body got 8 to 10 coats of Watco and the neck got 8 to 10 coats of Behlans.  The neck looks great (even though I used steel wool to dull the finish) and the body looks barely passable.  I never even finished polishing the body as weird black spots were starting to show up under the finish as I waxed on/waxed off.  This could have been the spray-paint I used, the temperature at which I sprayed things, or the lacquer.  Seeing as the neck had none of these issues and the only difference was what lacquer I used - you be the judge.

How you doin'?

With regards to the neck.  I did a fair amount of work to it.  I received it with a badly damaged finish (which I expected for $25).  I sanded off the existing finish and also reshaped the neck a bit.
Knowing that this will be a first guitar and not likely to be used for more than a year or two in this household - I went for comfort over perfection.  I skinny-ed down the neck at the 1st and 2nd frets
so that it would fit in my son's hand and perhaps make it possible for him to play first position (e.g. cowboy) chords.

Can't complain

I also worked on the fret ends quite a bit.  The fret ends were sticking out like barbed wire - so I filed those down and polished the frets as well.  I did a little fret leveling but not much.  If he gets to the point where he's ready to start ripping out an Angus Young solo - I'll dress these frets to perfection.  For now, the neck fits in his hand, won't cut him, and is mostly in tune.

Had some work done?

I also inlaid an Irish coin into the headstock because for some reason that has become my thing.  In this case, this is the first time I've used legal tender.  This is a 10 cent Euro coin.  I used it because it is gold colored.  It was a fabulous piece of good luck that I had a drill bit that was almost the exact size of this coin.  I'm happy with this part of the build.

So, while it's not perfect - the guitar now has a finish.  It's time to assemble it!

Ukulele Part 2: Jigs, Sides, braces

That's dangerous looking...

What you are looking at is a body mold.  Briefly - it is a plywood board with four angle brackets screwed to it.  I then attached two rectangular pieces of scrap wood to the ends and two curved pieces of scrap wood to the sides.  FYI - the curved bits are from a piece of extra banister that I had lying around from some house projects.  You could just use a bit of dowel and tape it to the angle bracket (stewmac suggests this method, in fact).

I wouldn't want to be in the middle of that.

As you can see from the paper taped to the center of this torture device - we'll be putting the Uke body in there at some point.  This jig is used for a few things.  It helps the sides keep their shape as you glue them together.  It also keeps everything contained when you glue in the linings (see Part 3).

Finally, it is used when we glue the top and back to the sides (see Part 4).  Knowing what I know now - I would have cut the scrap wood a little shorter than I did.  The Angle brackets are 2.5 inches.  I would cut the scrap wood to 2.5 inches as well (or maybe a bit shorter).  They all ended up being too long to use for gluing the top down - so I had to remove them when I got to that step.

Sigmund the sea monster

Again, I didn't take enough pictures - so what you don't see are the two sides before they were glued together.  The sides came pre-bent and fit nice and snug inside the mold.  I did have to cut the neck-block and the end-block to the same hight as the sides (they come about an inch too long).  But what you are seeing above is the clamping of the sides to the neck and end blocks.  When it's all dried and released from the mold it looks like this: 

Sure is shaped like a Ukulele!

Sometime in the near future, the top and back will be glued to this bad boy and we'll have a ukulele body.  For now, it will sit and wait while I finish up the bracing for said top and back.

Perfection is for amateurs

As I mentioned before - one of the braces on the back moved as I was gluing it down.  It should be fine (some acoustic guitars have bracing that goes across at an angle).  The point is to make the top and back strong - and right now - they are strong.  Too strong.  I'm going to shave those braces in the near future. Shaving them down should make the instrument more responsive - which should make the uke sound better.  We shall see!

Kind of looks like an Anime cyclops cat.

Same goes for the top.  Those braces are huge!  I'm going to make them a bit shorter and thinner.

Here's hoping that they are not too thin.  For the curious - here is Dana Bourgeois describing how and why you would want to do such a thing.  He explains it much better than me.

Soon...

Mini-Tele Part 2: Cultural Appropriation

Theft

Never let it be said that a DIY blog about building guitars can't be socially relevant.

Yeah, I can't believe I typed that sentence either...

So what are we looking at?  It's a neck plate, dummy.  No really, it's used for screwing the neck onto a guitar body. And speaking of screwing - it is also a bit of Welsh culture and Druid mythology that I'm taking without asking.  So, for all you Welsh Druids out there - I'm gonna steal your culture.  Look out!

What you are actually looking at is the Druid symbol of the Welsh word - Awen.  Awen means "inspiration" - usually of a poetic nature.  I guess the Druids liked the word and decided it needed a symbol to go with it.  And who are we to judge?

Great Expectations

I thought it would make an interesting image on a neck plate and back in 2015 planned for it to go on the first guitar I finished that year - hence the 2015-001.

(Editor's note - no guitars were finished in 2015).

It just so happened to be a gold neck plate - so it's perfect for this build.  Better late than never!

I like the cut of his jib

Speaking of necks - we're gonna need a place to put that thing.  I routed out the neck pocket on this body blank using the process I have used on the last couple of builds that I've worked on:  Trace the outline of the neck shape on a piece of particle-board (or plywood) and cut out that shape with a jigsaw.  Then use that shape as a tracing template for my router.  What you can't see in the above picture is that everything to the left of that last fret is the overhang.  The thickness of the whole neck minus the thickness of the overhang is how deep the neck pocket needs to be routed - so that the overhang sits flush to the body.

Flush

As is quite typical at this point - things fit pretty well.  The neck fits in the pocket nice and tight and the neck is straight and level.  It's only later - when I start monkeying with things - that I'll mess it up!

"Aren't you a little short for a StormTrooper?"

 As you can see - this is a short-scale thing we're building here.  A normal guitar has a scale length (the distance from the bridge to the nut) - or total string length of 24.75 to 25.5 inches.  This puppy will be about 20.5 inches.  Also, the width and depth of the neck are much smaller than a normal neck.  Hopefully, this will make it easier for little hands to hold it.

Diggin' Holes

In addition to the neck pocket, I also routed out the hole for the pickup.  I'm going to go with a Humbucker for this build for two reasons: I already have one left-over from another build and humbuckers are quieter than single-coil pickups (as in they don't hum as much - hence hum-bucker).
I already have a humbucker routing template so this went fairly quick.

Diggin' More Holes

 I also drilled the hole for the input jack (where the guitar cable plugs into the body). If you look at the center of the hole you'll see a little light.  That's the pickup cavity in the previous picture.
The below picture is a detail shot of this.  I chose to go really primitive with the electronics for this build as I didn't want to overwhelm my Son with switches and knobs and I didn't want to overwhelm myself with soldering headaches.

Holes inside holes.

When I'm done with this build it will have one pickup, one volume knob, and an input jack.  Low-tech but just enough to do some damage.

Two-fer!

Someone's in the kitchen with Dinah

There are odd bits of wood and string on my counter, glue and clamps next to the stove, the soldering iron is on the kitchen table, and the sandpaper is next to the fruit bowl.  What’s going on here?
I’ve moved the whole operation into the house for the winter!

So, perhaps I should back up a bit.

I’ve got the 'no workshop' blues…

For almost a year now my workshop has been in disarray.  I dismantled everything so that I could insulate the space (and be able to work year-round) and then ran out of money and time with the project.  So now I have a space that is mostly unusable for guitar building.  Especially now that there is snow on the ground.  But I still have guitars to build.  What to do?
I dub this kitchen counter, “Workbench.”

Now, what’s on the burners?

Something shiny this way comes

Earlier this year I asked my son what he wanted for his birthday.  He said, “A gold guitar!”
No, my son isn’t into Liberace (to all the Millennials – go ask your parents).  I think this is where Ninjago, Pokemon, and Yu-Gi-Oh comingle (to all the Boomers – go ask your kids).

Also, last Christmas, my wife bought me a ukulele kit from StewMac.  So, I have two irons in the fire (never mind the one that is patiently waiting on top of my fridge).

So, here we go:

1. Building a Mini-Tele
2. Building a Ukulele

Ukulele - Part 1

"No woodworking experience required."

Ukulele (pronounced "Ookulele" if you are from the 50th state) seems to be all the rage these days.
Think of this:  When I walked into my local Guitar Center last Christmas the first stringed instrument I saw was a Uke, not a guitar.

I'm not sure if  Zooey Deschanel or Eddie Vedder is to blame for making it popular again but it is.
I'm a fan of IZ Kamakawiwo'ole and I like anything made for making music - so I'm on board.

My lovely wife - knowing that I like building (and hoarding) guitars - thought this would be a fantastic Christmas gift.  And she was right.  I don't think I would have purchased a Uke on my own but build a Uke?  That sounds like fun (and I get a Uke at the end of it all).

StewMac (for those of you NOT playing the Luthier Home Game) is where all the guitar building things are sold.  They have the tools and the supplies to build pretty much anything with strings including build-it-yourself kits like the one above.

The caption on the picture above is a bit misleading.  No, you don't need much woodworking experience to build this kit.  But you do need a fair amount of woodworking tools.  StewMac sells what again?  Having said that -  I'm not even 1/3 of the way through this build and it's already one of my favorites.

Is it live or is it Memorex?

What you are looking at is what will become the inside of the guitar on the right and the brace template on the left.

The kit comes with all the parts you'll need already cut and sized.  You provide the glue and the clamps.  The kit also comes with detailed instructions, a template (see above) and most importantly "How-to" videos on their website.

Blast-Ended Skrewt?

This was a perfect project for me as I can build it at my kitchen counter without creating a big mess (Editor's note:  My definition of a "big mess" and my wife's definition don't seem to match).

I kid. She enjoyed watching me build this and even lent me some of her clamps.

Purple clothespins - Accept no substitutes.

In truth - you could possibly build this with just a couple of clamps and a bunch of clothespins (StewMac suggests this route) but since I have the clamps - I'm gonna use them.

In the above pics, I put some painters tape on the back of the guitar to catch the excess glue that squeezes out when you clamp on the braces.  Oh yeah!  The braces are to strengthen the back and top.  If they weren't there the guitar would implode the first time you string it up.

Sans tape

 About 5 minutes after I clamped the braces I removed the tape (don't wait until the glue is dried or the tape will become a permanent part of the instrument!).  It may be hard to see in the above pic but one of my braces moved a bit during the clamping process.  It shouldn't be a big deal (and you'll never see it) but watch for it if you try this at home.

Die Spitze

So, as much as I'm enjoying the "paint by numbers" aspect of building this Uke.  I can't leave it there.

Once all of the braces are dry I'm going to go back and shape (i.e. thin) them.  They are very thin braces but they are still a little too big for an instrument this small.  And the thinner braces should make the top sound a bit better.  Up next:  Building jigs and bending sides.

Mini-Tele - Part 1

Bigger isn't always better!

Like most people that have both children and guitars - I fight a battle.

I really want my son to be interested in music (and being interested in guitars would be A-Okay with me) but I also want my guitars to survive the experience.  I tried early on to demystify the instruments themselves by having him touch, hold, and play some of the more 'durable' items in my collection.  I figured the cheap and cheery Epiphone mandolin would be a better introduction than the near vintage PRS.  Fingers crossed - it seems to have worked.  He's interested in electrics and careful with the acoustics.  You can't ask for much more than that from a 7-year-old.

So, when my son asked me if I would make him a guitar - I had to pause.

Of course, I want to build him a guitar!  I've been waiting for this moment for over 7 years.  I can't wait until he's 16 and he can tell me exactly what pickups he wants in the thing.  But for now - he's 7 and may very well play it once and never touch it again.  So, how do I proceed...?

The thing about guitars for kids is that – you can’t just put a Les Paul in a 7-year-old’s hand and say, “Good Luck!”  It weighs more than he does and it’s almost as tall as he is.  Usually, guitar stores will sell ¾ sized instruments for kids taking up the 6-string but I did the math on that and it would still be pretty big on him. 

Judge me by my size, do you?

About 6 months prior to this post I saw a short scale neck for sale on GFS' factory blowout page.  It was less than $25 and a short enough scale (20.5 inches) that he might be able to play it.  So, I bought it and showed it to him.  He was excited.   I asked him what color he wanted it.  "Gold!" was his only answer.  ...like for all of it.  Gold body, gold hardware, gold headstock.

Don't stop believin', kid.  Gold it is.

So, here I am building a starter guitar for my son.  I'm going low budget on this one as it may end up being a wall hanger but let's see what kind of mess we can make, eh?

I thought you'd be... bigger...

I started with a Poplar body.  Mainly because I could get a slab of wood in the right size.  If I'm careful with the cuts - I might get four bodies out of this plank - and that'll work out to about $20 a body - not too shabby.  If for no other reason it'll be great for working on prototype body shapes - even if this is the only body that gets turned into a full guitar.  (Editor’s note:  if I do this again – I’ll use Basswood.  Poplar was fantastic to work with but it’s a bit too heavy for little guys).

I found a full-size image online for a Telecaster shape and shrunk it down in Photoshop.  I went with the Tele-style - again to keep it simple and to maybe finish the build before he goes to High School.  Tele's don't need a bunch of shaping like a Strat or a Les Paul.  And since I've already built one - it "should" be easier to build.

We'll see how that goes. (Narrator voice-over: it didn’t go how he planned).

Shrinkage

As you would expect if you've been reading this blog for more than 5 minutes.  There's tracing, cutting, and sanding in my immediate future.

Rough & Not-So-Ready

 As you can see from the full-sized template under it - the Mini-Tele body is probably 25% to 35% percent smaller than a normal telecaster body.  I forgot to note how much I reduced the original image file prior to printing it out.  I also made some free-hand changes to the design to better work with the slab of wood I had (read: I made a mistake with my math and had to fudge it a bit).

Ye Olde Schoole

 I also decided to build this guitar in the same way that I built my first one - with a jig-saw rather than a router.  There was no good reason for this - it just felt like a good idea.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

 To fix all those lovely rough edges I used a belt/disc sander.  Seriously, where was this thing when I did this the first time?  These are super-handy if you are a sloppy builder (like me).

There's a little bit of rock in there.

 And here's where I left off after day #1.  Sadly, I didn't record all the steps so the next posts may jump around a bit.

May I introduce you to...

So, I don't have a name for this one yet.  We're still getting to know each other.

You've come a long way...

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