Stub Mandrel Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 (edited) I got a neck and pre-fretted fingerboard for a 23" Ukelele off the 'bay. Still needs a lot of fettling. Might go with a danish oil finish. The scale length is 17", and I've adapted it (not yet glued in) to suit a body made out of three chunks of inch-thick mahogany from an old table. I've got a piezo ukelele/mandolin bridge pickup but haven't quite decided what it is yet. Tempted to fit (at very low tension) bass strings, dampers and tune it CDGA like a cello. Maybe fit a coil pickup as well. Or silicone strings and bass tuning. Or with lighter strings it could be DGBE for a tenor 4-string guitar, or mandolin tuning GDAE. One thing it won't be is ukelele tuning because it hurts my brain. Edited April 17, 2019 by Stub Mandrel 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 Cool. Our Jack has made a couple of ukes from kits and his own design. Great fun in a confined corner of the workshop. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted March 15, 2019 Author Share Posted March 15, 2019 I bought my brother a kit for Christmas, he's already got a couple of quantity Ukes and a bass. He works in pottery and some craft at one of the Camphill Schools, and now he's using decorating and building ukes as one of his activities. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba_the_gut Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 6 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said: One thing it won't be is ukelele tuning because it hurts my brain. +1!! Interesting little project - look forward to seeing what you do with this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreek Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 3 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said: one of the Camphill Schools The IoW prison??? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTool Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 1 hour ago, Jabba_the_gut said: +1!! Interesting little project - look forward to seeing what you do with this. +2 👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted March 16, 2019 Author Share Posted March 16, 2019 11 hours ago, TheGreek said: The IoW prison??? https://camphillblairdrummond.org.uk/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 The Headstock got an Gibson-Style open-book makeover 🙂 I've sorted some tuners and finished and stained the body too. On the neck the stain has revealed a rather open grain with lots of white flecks on part of it. Might finish with Danish Oil or wax rather than varnish. I've ordered a cheap 4-pole pickup that looks really 'vintage'. I can't make more progress until I get it and can rout the body for it. If it's of interest I'm using Titebond Hide Glue - it's the ready to use bottled stuff not the stinky heat up stuff, so not quite as strong. I've repaired a violin and a tbel with it before now so I think it will be strong enough - I've contrived a tongue and groove joint of sorts too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 57 minutes ago, Stub Mandrel said: I've ordered a cheap 4-pole pickup that looks really 'vintage'. I can't make more progress until I get it and can rout the body for it. So steel strings and a double truss rod? Heeheehee. Are you going to string it through or top load it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 21 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said: So steel strings and a double truss rod? Heeheehee. Are you going to string it through or top load it? The bridge will be quite close to the bottom of the body as my bits of table were a bit short, although it gives nice proportions (IMHO). Was thinking of doing it like a Tele, even so, with some 'pretty' brass ferrules, but worried the angle might push the bridge forwards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted April 17, 2019 Author Share Posted April 17, 2019 Well I failed utterly to keep a build diary, but the 'Deathburger III' is now complete, strung with the four middle strings froma guitar and tuned ADGC for the time being as a sort of 'piccolo bass'. Learnt a lot, chiefly don't trust spray varnish and don't fit your pickup to the scratchplate (or move its pole pieces) before you know where the strings will end up! Still it works, on both magnetic pickup and the piezo one in the bridge. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted April 17, 2019 Share Posted April 17, 2019 2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said: Well I failed utterly to keep a build diary, but the 'Deathburger III' is now complete, strung with the four middle strings froma guitar and tuned ADGC for the time being as a sort of 'piccolo bass'. Learnt a lot, chiefly don't trust spray varnish and don't fit your pickup to the scratchplate (or move its pole pieces) before you know where the strings will end up! Still it works, on both magnetic pickup and the piezo one in the bridge. Wow! What a transformation! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted April 18, 2019 Share Posted April 18, 2019 Nice job. Can we get Scott Whitley to demo it by playing Mr Pink? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stub Mandrel Posted April 24, 2019 Author Share Posted April 24, 2019 On 18/04/2019 at 17:29, SpondonBassed said: Nice job. Can we get Scott Whitley to demo it by playing Mr Pink? I enjoyed that 🙂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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