[Original Post: Jun 4, 2011]

Alan Roberts has a great set of construction photos in his photo collection on his CBN personal page. But the problem is that they are intermixed with other photos and are not in any particular order (well,  maybe they are in reverse sequential order).  So, I decided to move them here and put them is some semblance of order. Here goes:

I (Alan Roberts) built this soprano uke in class at the University of Oregon. I've got about a dozen photos of the steps I took posted below. You might get some ideas, even if they're "jeeze, that's the HARD way to do things."

The following photos describe the construction process:

Backpack Uke I
Here's a first look at my current project: a backpacker's ukulele. As I don't have a bending iron, I just cut 1/8th" into left and right sides of the heel block, and spread the sides apart after soaking the wood in hot water for a while.


Backpack Uke II
One problem I had was that one side is more flexible than the other, so now the sides aren't very  symmetrical. No fears; once the kerfed linings are glued in top and bottom, that SHOULD fix things. Otherwise, gluing top and bottom will force sides back into true. Maybe on my next project I'll build a forming jig of some kind to help hold the pieces together more symmetrically.


Caul for Bracings
Gluing the prism-shaped bracings to the soundboard proved to be a challenge. I just cut slots into an ol' fir 2x4 and sandwiched the soundboard with bracings between the caul and a second piece of scrap lumber. Someday I will make a go-box for this purpose....


Gluing the Linings
Linings have to be glued to the sides to give top and bottom more area to glue onto. The clothespins have rubber bands wrapped around them to give more "pinch." The linings may be made of softwoods. Glued just a bit "proud" of the hardwood sides, they can be easily sanded down flush with the sides.


Gluing on the Top #1
The instrument was so off symetrical that extra work was required to try to force it back into line. A center line was drawn on a board. The neck was lined up with the center line and clamped. The top was slid under the body. Other clamps were applied to shove the body back into line. Is this going to work?  Hmmm....


Gluing on the Top #2
Take everything apart, apply glue and reassemble. If you look closely, you can see that the center line drawn on the inside of the top doesn't match up with the line on the board you can see through the sound hole. Sliding everything over any further will put the sound hole WAY off center. Drat.


Gluing on the Bridge
I've never given much thought to bridges. Even if they were glued in place, I just put a glob of glue under them, pushed them into position and called it good. As the strings are ANCHORED to this bridge, I had to be sure this glue joint was 100%. I'll trim the edges of soundboard after this dries.


Gluing on the Bridge, back
View from the back. The softwood caul inside kept falling out. With fighting the sliding bridge in front and falling caul in back, it was a handful. Finally got smart and just TAPED the dang caul in back with a loop of masking tape. Then I only had the bridge to fight.


Fretboard Inset 1
So here's the problem: the fretboard has to sit on top of the soundboard for the last inch or so. But how to cut an inset at just the right depth using hand tools?


Fretboard Inset 2
Answer: Use scraps! I had bits of scrap fretboard left over. I sliced them down the middle and put masking tape on the tops of each. I put the fretboard between the scraps, upside down. I slid a piece of soundboard scrap under the fretboard, raising it EXACTLY the sidth of the soundboard. Carefully saw using a miterbox, and STOP just when you hit the tape.


Fretboard Inset 3
As long as we have the saw out. let's see if the edge of the soundboard is perpendicular to the center line. No? Let's trim it a touch.


Fretboard Inset 4

So now I have a bunch of kerfs, all at the same depth. A bit of CAREFUL cutting with the chisel, and I have a nice flat inset. Too shallow by the thickness of the masking tape I put on the scraps, but a bit of sanding will fix that.


Neck Cauls for Fretting
I'm going to be whacking the fretboard with a fretting hammer, so I want something to support the neck. These pine scraps will work nicely. I should put some scrap leather to give them a bit of padding.


Gluing the Fretboard, top
Fretboards can be a pain to glue, because they want to skate around like an elephant on ice. With the back of the neck shaped, clamping can be a challenge. I drilled small pilot holes in the neck, pushed finishing nails in and ALMOST clipped them flush.


Gluing the Fretboard, back
The end of the fretboard and be clamped using a caul, but the neck is curved. LOTS of industrial-sized rummer bands work fine, and apply pressure from all directions equally.


Jack Installed
Gitty's jacks arrived in the nick of time. HOORAY! Tomorrow I'll try soldering his piezo pickup and see how it goes...


Piezo in Place
Shazam! People told me that soldering this up and hot-gluing it in place would be easy. For once, they were right! I did a sound check later; "tap, tap, tap," went the soundboard, "BOOM, BOOM, BOOM" went the amp.

If ANYBODY is looking for piezos and jacks, go to C. B. Gitty.  I will NEVER set foot in Radio Shack again!  Tomorrow, I'll pull out their piece of junk piezo/jack out of my CBG and replace with the real deal.



Backpack Uke Almost Done!
Well, it still needs its action set and the final sand 'n' finishing, but at least I can hear it now.

The following photos are of the finished instrument:

Uke 1
Here's my finished backpacker ukulele: Walnut neck, sides, tail, and fretboard.

Cedar top, quilted maple back.


Uke 1, Closeup
I used an "ogee arch" on the fretboard, peg head and bridge. The saddle is bone.


Uke 1, Closeup Back
This photo doesn't really show off the fine grain on the quilted maple back.


Uke 1, Peg Head
"Ogee arch" on peg head. The tuners are Grovers, from StewMac. The nut is corian. Fretboard is walnut (would have liked ebony or rosewood, but both woods are banned from the craft center workshop)


Uke 1, Peg Head back
Grover tuners with white knobs. Maybe I should have gone with black? I can always swap later.

Look like I'll have to glue that nut down, ha ha. It's peeking around the neck there... Uke still needs final setting of action and intonation, but sounds good already.


Uke 1, Neck and Sides
Neck and sides are all one piece of walnut. The heart wood is much lighter, so it looks like two pieces of wood.


Uke 1, Tail
Same block of wood taken out of the middle, turned around to make the tail. You can see how the same walnut has two sharply contrasted colors. Nice.