4 and 8-string ukes - upcycling an old acoustic guitar!

Evening all!

I've not posted a build here before, so bear with me if I get it wrong, ok?

This is the second uke that that I've constructed out of an old acoustic guitar, that used to belong to my brother. (It was awful - the neck was twisted and bowed - completely beyond redemption).

It seemed to me that the curved sides of the body could be cut down, and used to make the sides of a smaller tenor uke.

The first 4-stringer used the back of the body, but I made a new soundboard out of 1/16" modelling-grade plywood, braced internally.

The neck was formed form a mahogany blank - shaped with a scroll saw and belt sander, before finishing by hand. The neck is dowelled and glued to the body.

All the hardware came from Ebay, and the completed uke is fitted with Aquila strings.

I'm delighted with the result - the tone is more lute-like than a conventional uke, but has ample volume to make itself heard at the local uke club (Cool and Uke).

Tim

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on August 20, 2017 at 7:49am

Thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Kirk on August 23, 2017 at 2:15am

Beautiful!! Can I ask you what the string separation was between the two stringed pairs? I have an order for an 8 string cigar box uke.

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Permalink Reply by Tim Hooper on August 23, 2017 at 7:48pm

Hi Kirk,

I bought an 8-string nut from Ebay. The centres of the grooves are 2mm apart, with 7mm between each pair. The nut is 38mm wide overall ( about 2mm wider than a standard 4-stringe).

At the bridge, I've spaced the pairs at 3mm between the centres of the strings. From the top string to the bottom strng is 43mm.

I hope this helps!

Tim

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