Official Luthiers Forum!

Hello folks ..I'm wondering where you Uke makers go for supplies...wood, tuners etc.....do you buy guitar wood ( tops, sides, neck, fingerboard etc and just cut it to size ? or can you order appropriate size wood.  I've become a huge Uke fan ..mainly due to these 2 guys...

....IZ and George

For those that may not know, IZ is the fellow who sings and plays Uke on " Over the rainbow/wonderful world " that we hear quite often these days in movies and on TV, unfortunately both fellows are gone.

 

Thanks

Irwin R39111.5684375

here are a couple:

ukulelesupply.com

hanalima.com

pegasusguitars.com

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Ukuleles are a lot of fun and very portable. Here are 3 links to ukulele parts and supplies. Hana Lima 'Ia also has classes on ukulele building including a 2 week intensive course once a year. They also have a complete kit and their Ukulele Consruction Manual available. If you give them a call Asa or Mike Chock will set you up with anything you need.

Hana Lima 'Ia

Ukulele Supply of Hawaii

Pegasus Guitars and Ukulele

Philip

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

I guess these must be the hot links since John and I posted about the same time.

Any of these links will help you out.

Bob Gleason at Pegasus also sell a complete Koa ukulele kit.

Philip

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

Some of the 'smaller' tonewood suppliers who process their own wood may have undersize tops or tops with defects that would be good for smaller instruments. It might be worth your while to contact them directly.
If you are just building one uke, a kit or similar would be the easiest. Otherwise you will likely end up (like the rest of us?) with a wood 'stash' that is larger than you planned at first!
John

I'm also working on 2 Concert Ukes right now. I got my wood from Brian Hawkins at Beachtonewood.com on ebay, he has some nice curly redwood sets and walnut for the uke. HERE. I got some fantastic wood from an another ebayer. Contact Glen at hula monkey ukulele supply on ebay HERE
I really like Hana Lima also. Asa is a great guy!
Tracy

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Tracy
http://www.luthiersuppliers.com

I have a good supply of resawn material (Tas Blackwoood & other material)that would suit ukulele dimensions.

regards

Tim Australian Tonewoods

Hmmm, don't forget Jake Shimabukuro, this song is unbelievable.

I have been wanting to find plans for the Kamaka Tenor he is playing...anybody got any ideas?

Mike

We cut curly koa top, back, and side sets for both tenor and concert ukes. We have a few sets available online, more in stock.

Volcano Guitar Works

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Alan Degenhart
Volcano Guitar Works
http://www.volcanoguitarworks.com

Nice stuff!

Question to anybody: I have noticed that a lot of Uke makers like mahogany and koa for tops. That has always seemed odd (ok... it does look good), seems you would want to use a lighter less dense wood like spruce, etc. String tensions on ukes do not approach that of steel strings, so it seems one is giving up a lot by using these dense woods for tops. Thoughts?

Mikeslackkeymike39111.8084837963

Mike,

the reason they are mainly used is because they sound like a ukulele! that is
what they were traditonally made of so people associate that tone with the
uke. A well made all mahogany soprano ROCKS! It has "that" tone that just
makes the uke tone.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Do any of you folks use single piece for tops and backs?..any problem with that ??

A lot of makers use single piece tops (see Kaloha). I don't get it though. Koa has such a stong grain...to me it just does not look right.

Thanks for the tip about the uke sound...I was kind of thinking that.. I think I would go for koa sides and back with mahagony top. Maybe mahagony neck and a koa face plate for the peg head. I would definitely book match the back and top.

Mike

[QUOTE=Irwin R] Do any of you folks use single piece for tops and
backs?..any problem with that ??[/QUOTE]

Yes. Best sounding uke I've made this far imo.

John Mayes39112.407025463

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

WOW!! What materials did you use there John? Irwin R39112.4679282407

[QUOTE=Irwin R] WOW!! What materials did you use there John? [/QUOTE]

Flame redwood top, Madagascar rosewood back and sies, koa binding,
cocobolo fretboard, koa headplate...

Thanks :)

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

John,

Very nice looking Soprano. How did you brace the top. Did you use Fan bracing (how many)? Maybe a single brace accross near the soundhole? Just wondering. I have seen some with no bracing on a bridge and sound hole patch.

Philip

_________________
aka konacat

If you think my playing is bad you should hear me sing!
Practice breeds confidence and confidence breeds competence. Unfortunately, I'm stuck in practice.

[QUOTE=konacat] John,

Very nice looking Soprano. How did you brace the top. Did you use Fan
bracing (how many)? Maybe a single brace accross near the soundhole? Just
wondering. I have seen some with no bracing on a bridge and sound hole
patch.

Philip[/QUOTE]

no fan. Just cross brace and bridge plate ala a vintage Martin Style 1

_________________
John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

I build only ukes. I get most of my wood from notable woods. Bruce Creps does a great job of selecting woods made for ukes. He has koa, walnut and others. I get precut fret boards for my Tenors from Allen guitars. He has great prices and a good selection of Ebony fretboards. The other place that has some uke parts is Elderly instruments. Strange name but they have some good stuff. I have made ukes out of koa, walnut and mahagony and they have all sounded good, just with different voices. My wife's personal favorite is one made of quilted mahagony with a redwood top.
Bob

I noticed in my Stewmac catalogue that there are a couple of contruction books on Ukes. Can anyone comment on a good one ?

Thanks

I would like to reiterate that single piece tops are great, but when using koa, sometimes they look funny to me (grain is too strong).

That redwood top loos awsome!

Mike

The book from Hana Lima is very good. It explains steps in great detail with good pictures. Also, if you download the pdf file from Stew-mac there are some interesting techniques they show for building their kit uke that I have incoroporated.
Bob

I'm not the luthier that John Mayes is so he can shed more light on this than I can, but one thing to watch for when using one piece tops is that some woods will have a disportionate stiffness across the grain, i.e., one side will be stiff, the other side floppy. Sometimes there is a large difference in stiffness across the grain. I've used some guitar half tops for ukes and found that due to unequal crossgrain stiffness it's better to cut the top in half lenghtwise and then glue the them together as if they were book matched. This produces a more even stiffness across the grain and with proper matching it can be difficult to tell that it's not a bookmatched top.

This is not to say that you can't use a one piece top but I think you should check for even stiffness before deciding to do so.