Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

I love a challenge, and clients allowing me some creative elbow room. This one certainly had a bit of both.

It's strung in gG, cC, ee, aa with the intent of the octave g's spaced far enough apart that they could be played both in unison, or the high g muted while the low G is played. Similar to the way I built a 5 string uke for Bosko. All the other pairs are spaced as you would expect.

Challenges included determining the appropriate amount of bracing to balance all that extra tension, as well as trying to figure out a design for a bridge to accommodate all those strings while still keeping with my styling. I would normally have used a pinned bridge, and that just wasn't something that would have been appropriate on this instrument. Then there was the pore filling. The pores in this mahogany were like bottomless pits. And then the set up. My hats off to those that regularly do mandolins, bouzuki's and 12 string guitars. What a pain in the arse to get them spot on.

Body - Figured Honduran Mahogany
Neck - Spanish Cedar with CF truss rod
Peg Head - Ebony
Fret Board - Ebony with 12" radius
Bindings - Cocobolo
Bridge - Codobolo
Machine Heads - Gotoh Stealth
Pickup - K&K Aloha Twin
Finish - Mirotone 60% gloss over epoxy pore fill

Absolutely beautiful. Could you pls share how you changed your bracing to cater for 8 strings? Tx in advance
Miguel

I used my standard bracing pattern, but had to determine how much extra tension would be on the top, then worked out how much taller I'd need to make those fans in order to keep the balance. Just a bit of math and using the cube rule.....plus a bit of instinct. You know, flex it. Tap it. Sniff it and even bit it.

Allen wrote: even bit it.

Typical of Allen's builds, always willing to go that extra step for perfection
Nice 'clean' looking build Allen, the cocoblo sits so well beside the Mahogany.

Excellent appointments Allen, love the f/b and matching headstock lams, and very nice position markers all ***** star, well done.

Steve

Really showing off your design skills on this one .

If you look hard the fretboard is a bit bigger than normal for a uke, in a parlor guitar sort of way, and looks great!

Do the double courses make it sound more like a mandolin, or more like a sitary uke in the same way a 12 string guitar is a bit sitarish?

The fret board is 40mm wide at the nut, so yes bigger than what would be the norm.

I just got back from dropping this uke off to Bosko who is going to put it through it's paces for a week. Heard him play it for about 1/2 hour on some tunes I've heard him play many times before. There is a real richness and complexity to the sound that both of us felt was mandolin or even dulcimer like but with a lot more bass. I think it's from the octave C string being on the top and it really chimes through, but still has that bottom end of the low G and C.

Thanks Allen!