Two Tenor Ukulele Commisions

Just completed two tenor Ukes for commissions.
The first one is a completely built body from birch ply with a spruce top
I don't have the money to get or the space to have bending equipment so wanted to make a body that I can make without that isn't Square. I made This one similar a while ago and this is a development of that.
The Customer also wanted a highly decorated design with art nouveau patterns incorporating a design of a lady playing the Uke on the back.

The second is a commission from a customer who I built a cigar box guitar for a while ago.

He wanted a left handed electric tenor uke and gave me free reign on it :-)

I have been wanting to venture into resonators (Mainly as I have a potential commission to make one).  but in the tradition of upcycling without using a bought resonator kit. The first one was the 3 string firewood special I built a couple of months ago using a polish tin which worked quite well. So I decide to build the Uke along similar Lines. The resonator for this is a Kettle lid. I routed out a round cavity which the lid fits into snugly. Bored a hole through the back as a soundport and screwed a hardwood bridge onto it. Considering the size it works remarkably well with a nice transistor radio sound acoustically. The pickup is a 60's Japanese red foil lap steel guitar pickup maybe a guyatone. .

 

 

 

Mmm! how about a shortscale tenor wooden banjo guitar. made from a breadbin.

The latest from the workshop is this sweet little instrument.

It shares elements from various instruments essentially it's a shortscale (18.5" ish) tenor guitar with a round wooden body like a mountain banjo. The inspiration for this came from a beech barrel shaped bread bin we had but with the arrival of two children a bigger bread bin was required so it's bread storing days are over. I figure I can make four instruments out of this bin and this is the first made from the base.

It has a Cedar top and Mahogany neck scarfe jointed angled headstock. The neck starts off at the body as a fat U profile and tapers to a fairly sharp V this is to keep strength in the non truss rod neck whilst making it feel slimmer. It has a lovely organinc feel and sit's in the crook of your thumb forefinger quite nicely  The neck is attached to the body with a dowel and glued leaving the body hollow. Strings are retained via a Mahogany tailpiece. The ferrules are made from the primers of a shotgun cartridge. It has a hand carved Corian nut.
It is tuned CGDA and despite it's diminutive size it is incredibly loud and sounds somewhere between a mandolin and banjo and even slightly Ukulele. It has a fairly narrow neck so nimbler fingers than mine would be needed to do anything to fancy on it. It's great as a strummer

 

Available on my Website now

Banjo ukulele

I've finished the Tambolele banjo ukulele banjolele call it what you will.
Total cost about £20. and about 4 hours work.
It's a bit rough as I just wanted to get it done and not spend to much time on the finish but because I was rushing I got the holes in the peg head wrong so had to fill and re-drill and paint the headstock to cover it up. The painting didn't go too well either. . It should have 12 frets but I didn't take into account the rim of the drum so had to cut the fret board a bit short so now it only has 11. However taking all that into account it actually sounds pretty damn good. I will try and sort out a recording of it so I can put a sound file up.
Any way here's the pics.

Taking the Tambourine apart. Pretty easy. the pins that hold the jingles in place just pull out.

Making the neck.

The neck was just made from some scrap Mahogany. I made a fret board from a Beli off cut and fretted it. I have now invested in a fretsaw as doing it with a coping saw was working OK it just takes too long and can quite easily go wrong.

The neck is shaped. I have cut a block to go either end of the hoop.

These are the only Construction photo's I have the rest are the finished item.

I made the neck quite chunky as a normal soprano I find too thin to play comfortably.

The nut and tuners are from a damaged Cheap ukulele I got in a job lot of spares or repair instruments many moons ago. I made the Bridge and fashioned a (Very Rustic) Tail piece from some sheet Aluminium. I almost wished I spent a bit more time on it. I am in the process of making two concert scale cigar box ukes.