Life in the Village and beyond, based around the interests of my life.

Life in the Village and beyond, based around the interests of my life. Sunset at Telegraph Point.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Making A Boat Paddle Tenor Ukulele - Part 14 - The Finishing Touches

Final Steps

  1. Lacquering
  2. Fitting the tuners
  3. Stringing
  4. Play
Lacquering
I have used Mirotone spray lacquer  for this finish.
Because mango is such an open grained timber, I first gave it two coats of sanding sealer followed by Mirocat three coats.


 The beauty of this finish is that it is dry enough for re-coating after 15 minutes.
A light sand of 400 grit paper between coats was all that was needed.


The tuners are added to the head. I had previously spent time drilling out the tuner holes before the lacquering took place.  This gave a handy hook hole to hang the instrument while spraying.


The headstock has come up rather beautifully with the application of the lacquer


Adding ths strings is done incrementally, and the nut and bridge are adjusted for height to keep the strings at an appropriate height above the frets and to prevent buzzing.

I had to sand the back of both to lower the action before I was happy with it.


And finally - here is the finished product.
It is a super-tenor ukulele, as the scale length is 19 inches.



The intonation is spot on, with the 12th fret exactly an octave higher than open string tuning.
It has plenty of sustain and volume, and I will be looking forward to playing it once the strings stretch and keep their tuning, and the timber settles down and gets bedded in.

Happy trails partners

4 comments:

  1. Nice work! Now where's the grass skirt?

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    Replies
    1. Haha, yes it will need to be the next project.
      I do have a tuxedo T-shirt though to wear at the concert at the end of Novemeber. I think that the uke will have played in by then.
      Thanks Toby
      Tom

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  2. This is my first attempt to blog. Great intro to blogging..very impressive uke cant wait to hear it and maybe have a srum. Well done village woodie . Another village woodie strummer.

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  3. Thanks RP. It does sound good.
    RP - are you a woodie from HWWG or a TP uker or a local? I'm having a seniors moment trying to place you.
    Tom

    ReplyDelete