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!