Mahogany Tenor Ukulele

[John Parchem]

Early last year I purchased a grab bag of ukulele sets from a luthier getting out of ukuleles. I got 10 sets mixed of tenor, concert and soprano sizes. All of the plates were joined and loosely profiled. The first ukulele I am building out of this set is a tenor all quilted mahogany ukulele for a friend that picked the set out of that stash.



The sides were profiled for a thinner ukulele than I make (I use the martin tapered back dimensions so I took care in bending the sides and I installed the linings proud on the top and the back so that I could make the ukulele the size I wanted. I am following the template from a Peter Howlett ukulele I made from plans I purchased from him. It has a narrower upper bout than a Martin; the preprofiled top\back fit this template.











I had a bunch of fancy flexable A4 ukulele size kerflings and installed it a bit proud so that I could have the right depth after profiling the rims. Ultimately the missing sides would have been routed out any way for the bindings.











The rosette was a simple herringbone trip that I bent on a pipe and installed. Sorry no picture of the routing.









I sanded the top flat and profiled the back with a 15' radius dish. I braced the top and the back in my go-bar dish and got everything ready to close the guitar.









Whoops, I do not want to forget the end wedge. Here is a stupid ip that everyone probable knows (but I just started doing): When using a ruler a marking device put some sandpaper on the bottom to help the ruler stay in place.









While waiting for the glue to cure I rough profiled the neck.









My ebony end graft:



From here I routed the rims for the transverse braced and closed the box.







A little rework and configuration to turn my guitar cradle into a ukulele cradle.





More in the next post

[John Parchem]

Not pictured but I routed out the channels for the bindings. The back will just have ebony bindings and the top will have the bindings, a maple and a black fiber strip.



I have the bindings fitted but not glued in yet.



I finished the day cutting the slots and profiling the fret board and profiling the neck.

[Kevin in California]

Wow John, all in one day, you are da'man! :)
I sure like your #8 plane.

[John Parchem]

Thanks Kevin,



I usually do not use CA to glue in the bindings but have seen a bunch of builds where people do. So I went ahead and used thin CA. Before I did any gluing I did the best I could with tape to get the bindings fitting the way I wanted them. Then I only put a small amount of CA in between the tape. I worked slowly making sure that each place I glued was in its proper position. There were a few areas where I used clamps to get the bindings in. I clamped before gluing. When the glue cured I removed the tape and ran more CA along the bindings.









I decided to add a figured back strap to the head stock.



From Luthiers Supplies I bought a bunch of neck profile tools including a handy one for a tenor ukulele. I used the shape at the nut and the 10th fret to figure out good facets to cut. I used a spoke shave where I could and a rasp in the tight areas to cut the facet. Not shown but I drew out some secondary facets and cut those. From there I just used the template to guide my carving.

[Kevin in California]

Going to be pretty cute. Did you like how the bindings turned out doing them that way? I used CA that way once so far and had pretty good results, but I glued a purfling using AR glue up against the spruce top first.

[John Parchem]

Thanks Kevin,

I did like the results of using CA for the bindings and purflings. Also working a couple of inches at a time I was able to keep things cleaner than my past attempts. I am not so sure I would use it on a spruce or cedar top. In any case I am so conflicted about my own use of CA. I have a real dislike for it, but I always find myself picking it up to use.

[ken cierp]

I did like the results of using CA for the bindings and purflings

If you practice a bit, plan ahead, follow the procedures and precautions required and the results of using CA for this purpose can be impressive and ----- Fast!