Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a couple of books on ukelele construction, and everyone seems to be using the spanish heel. Is this the "traditional" way to do it?

Is anyone using an M/T or dovetail joint? Can you see any reason NOT to use one?

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I'm using a bolt-on neck for a uke as we speak. Instead of a mortise and tenon, I'm using a "keyway" technique to locate the neck to the body. The barrel is mounted in the neck heel, drilled through the top of the heel down into it. The bolt goes through the neckblock like a guitar, but the neckblock is a good bit smaller mostly. It's not like there's a ton of string tension in a uke. If you are attending the ASIA Symposium, there will be a table with a bunch of NEL ukelele's.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Lots of people also just use wooden heavy dowels to hold on the neck.
The string tension is very minimal (around 20lbs). I use a bolt on neck
for my normal ones and if it is a vintage martin style uke I do a dovetail.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

Great... thanks.!!!

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

I've built two sopraono ukes with this scaled down bolt-on attachment. Seems plenty strong enough so far.

The screws are 6-32 size. I made threaded inserts from short pieces of 3/8" bolt threads and epoxied them into drilled holes. The washers on the screws are little bellville spring washers.

I made the wrench by sawing off a 1/4" drive ratchet extension and inserting a piece of hex key. The length of the wrench had to be figured pretty close because the uke soundhole is only 1.7" diameter.

Inserting and tightening the screws is an excerise in patience. There is not much room to work and I can only swing the wrench handle enough to get a couple clicks of the ratchet.

TomS38489.7746759259

In the classes I took we epoxied the neck directly to the outside of the body. The luthier who taught the class has made about 150 ukuleles and I believe this is his standard method for attaching the neck.

There was an article in the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii newsletter a while back that said something to the effect that any joint that works for a guitar is also good for an uke. The author wasn't hot on epoxying directly to the body though as he felt if the neck needed to be removed you would have to saw it off. I tried to find the article so I could qoute him directly(and probably more accurately ) but wasn't able to.

If you're interested and haven't already been there, Pegesus Guitar has an online uke building tutorial. It's ongoing and seems to be moving on "Hawaiian Time", but it's free and he knows how to build a good ukulele.

Yeah, I have seen Bob Gleason's site. He is a really nice guy and sold me some really nice Koa in the past.

It seems like there is no "standard" way to build a uke. This is a good thing. I will probably just try the good ole M/T joint since that is what I know. I was just curious if it was going to be immediately apparent that I wasn't a uke builder if I did it this way.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

John,

When can we expect your ukelele DVD? I've been watching the MIMF for the announcement.

Joe Volin

Joe,

If your waiting for an announcement at the mimf it's gonna be a while!

I've got the stuff now I just need to get everything packaged up. The past
couple weeks have been unreal busy for me and I apologize for the
delays.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

John,

That was suppose to be a joke! Not a good one, but...oh well.

I thought you might put together a DVD on a real ukelele in addition to the cigar box model.

No rush on the cigar box DVD. I'm still working my way through your others.

Joe Volin

I've been asked a few times now about a "real" ukulele. Might consider it
in the future....

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

John, what is in the pipe fot the guitar building videos?

Are you gonna do binding/purfling? How about finishing?   Maybe even one on setup and fretting?

Curious minds need to know....

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars