Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

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"Originally Posted on: Sun May 23, 2010 6:33 pm"

This one has been strung up since yesterday, and I'm over the moon with it. It's very loud, but sweet, and has fantastic sustain. Easy to play with a light touch, or really dig in and has heaps of headroom.

It's been the last in the series of instruments that I've been making for the forthcoming Cairns Uke Festival in about a months time.

Body - Tiger Myrtle from Tim Spittle
Top - Bearclaw Sitka
Neck - Qld. Maple
Bridge - Ebony
Fret Board - Ebony
Finish - Mirotone over WEST Systems Epoxy
Strings - Aquilla Tenors
Tuners - Grover

The top is just 1 mm thick from just a hair north of the waist through the entire lower bout. Above the waist it's 2.5 mm with just one transverse brace at a bit above the centreline of the waist. Carbon Fiber TOW and Paulonia lattice in the lower bout. On this one I've taken the peak of the lattice down to 4.2 mm right under the bridge and tapered off to bugger all (just the CF TOW) out at the linings. The CF goes underneath the linings to tie it all together.

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Lovely work Allen, I reckon that one is certain to be show stopper and will really put you out there as a skilled and progressive builder.

Well Done! clapping clapping clapping clapping

Cheers

Kim

Superbly executed Allen - just beautiful and elegant. Cool

You're really pumping them out now and with impressive results. Glad to hear you are happiest with this latest lattice build - obviously this build technique/style has great potential.

Did you employ a radius top in this or any of the ukes you have made or are they all flat top?

Cheers,

Jeremy.

Lovely work Allen.

Jeez your pool room's gunna be full. Very Happy

G'day Allen,

Absolutely class instruments there mate! That Myrtle just looks so impressive. These little beauties will get some hearts fluttering at the Cairns Ukulele Festival.

Thanks for sharing

Cheers

Alan

Beautiful, Allen.

Your table is going to have a lot of traffic Allen. You might want to invest in some paper bibs for all the lookers.

The backs are built in my 15' radius dish, and the tops are vacuum pressed on a work board that I scooped out in the lower bout to a depth of approximately 2 mm depth at the bridge on the concerts and 3 mm on the tenor. Not a true radius on the lower bout, but rather more of taking the depth I wanted at the bridge and blending it out to the perimeter and the waist.

There is no shaping of the top above the waist.

Thanks everyone. I do hope that they impress the crowd.

Wow, wow, wow! Absolutely stunning!

Dennis

Luverly work Allen.

Fantastic Allen, thanks for sharing.
Do you plan any new guitar designs after these uke builds?

I've not really had a chance to take a breath yet and consider what I want to do next Luke.

I guess it really depends on how well these ukes are received. I would like to do some Baritone Ukes, and then perhaps some smaller bodied guitars. I much prefer the smaller instruments to full size guitars.

I've got several ideas of doing a "Family" of instruments from the same wood and trim that I'd really like to do. Just a matter of finding the time to get all the things done that are swimming around in my head.

Allen, i have been following this build for a while now and i loved the idea straight away. Anything that is left of centre is usually flawed in some way but that uke is just stunning all over. If you were to ever put a price on the thing make it out of reach and smeone will be willing. I had a neighbour who turned a wickedly original burl bowl that was left rough on top and he liked it so much he put a price that was rediculous and safe to say it would go home with him again, the rest is history all that is left is a memory of a cool piece of art and a fist full of green!! Good luck, I love it

Hi Allan, thanks for your reply but after having another look I am curious on how you got the colour on the Qld Maple neck? I am a tad colour blind but it looks very close the Tiger Myrtle.
The Qld maple I have is very different.
Thanks

Allen wrote:
Thanks everyone. I do hope that they impress the crowd.

I have absolutley no doubt about that Allen . Beautiful little instrument.
You're gonna be busy !
Superb work as usual Allen

Haven't done a thing to the Qld. Maple neck Luke other than pore fill with WEST Systems epoxy and finish with clear Mirotone.

This came from a very large old plank that was donated to the Cairns Woodworkers Guild from some fellow that had a huge stack of wood stored under his house for God Knows how long.

Luke wrote:
Hi Allan, thanks for your reply but after having another look I am curious on how you got the colour on the Qld Maple neck? I am a tad colour blind but it looks very close the Tiger Myrtle.
The Qld maple I have is very different.
Thanks

Yep, I got some QLD maple for necks as well Luke, noth'in like what Al's got though cause mines as pink as a old nun's bum........not that I been look'in
Cheers

Kim

Looks fantastic, and i can attest to this thing looking even better in the flesh than it does in the photos

Beautiful instrument Allen.

I posted a link to this thread on the Ukulele Underground forum and Chuck Moore said the sides looked to him to be made from one piece (not book-matched) and wondered, if that was the case, how you did the end graft. I said that looking at the last photo, it seemed fairly obvious to me that the sides were book-matched and that you had used the offcut from the treble side to make the end graft.
So who's right?

Someone else wondered how you glued the bridge on. Vacuum clamp?

The sides are bookmatched with an off cut from one for the tail graft as you suspected.

The bridge is vacuum clamped on.

I didn't take a picture of this instruments bracing, but this is one from an earlier model to give you an idea of what it looks like inside the top.

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What a fantastic Uke Allen!!!!
you have showcased that Tiger Myrtle beautifully!!! truly stunning !!!
wish my customers ordered cool innovative instruments like yours.

all the best for the Show !!!

Christian.

That is just superb Allen, all of it works visually, Im sure it sounds great as well.

Reply by "RetiredLuthier"

Dang, that's a cute axe.

Sound sample available courtesy of Alan Hamley who did the recordings of this and a couple other instruments recently during the Cairns Ukulele Festival.

Sound sample from Lattice Braced Tenor. (EDIT by Reconstructor: Link to sound file is broken)

I love the ebony fret board and bridge, it sets the bear claw and the tiger markings off really nicely. gives me an idea....

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