This "build" has a story:
My friend Tony fell downstairs over a year ago (he claims to have been sober), and whilst preserving his Argapa resonator uke he busted his leg badly. He was in a cast, then had complex metalwork to stretch his leg bone over 2 inches (!) because of how the break mended. A month back his cast came off, and I thought he needed something to celebrate.
In his social media signature line he takes the [mickey] out of "serious" players who carefully list their precious ukuleles. One of the ukes he lists is: "Cigarette Box nano-Piccolo (Capstan Full Strength)". So I had to make him one.
I found a tin on eBay:
20s or 30s, I'm guessing so something old. And the seller was fairly nearby, so local too.
It presents an interesting building challenge (something new, I've never done anything like this before). The metal is so thin you can bend it between finger and thumb. When first strung up, the action rose from 3mm to about 12mm before I rapidly de-tuned, so I've had to invent a radical new bracing pattern:
Not sure I recommend it to more conventional builders, but it does allow strings to be put on and raised to tension. In addition to the screws, I had to find a way to reinforce the attachment to the top, which is highly flexible. So you might just be able to see where I've drilled tiny holes either side of the bracing, passed through a wound guitar string, and twisted the ends together. This removed the worst of the buzzing!
Neck attachment is also visible here - a nice big wood screw into the heel.
Tailpiece is simply a scrap of mahogany with a rebate on the bottom side to take the knots on the end of each string and slots to lead the string up to the top.
And today it was finished - the lid still opens, so the remaining buzzing was the edge of the lid vibrating against the side. I cured this with a couple of layers of insulation tape over the rim of the side.
And it actually plays. Not very loudly, because the tin is pretty small (about 6 inches long). Scale length is 11 inches, which makes this a sopranino. I've put concert strings on it and it's tuned in D (a D F# B).
Video tomorrow, once the strings have settled down.
![[:Y:]](./images/smilies/smiley20.gif "Thumbs Up")
