Miss me?

2005-12-22T06:07:00.000-08:00

...probably not.

O.K. The "original" (i.e., reallllly bad) prototype got finished. I cannot actually claim that is worked very well, but that had everything to do with my technique (or lack thereof) rather than the failings of the equipment itself.

After the inital disaster, I retreated to the farthest reaches of my mind and just played the uke for a while. Not the resophonic Fluke, instead I played a backup Tiki Flea that actually was designed and built by someone who knew what they were doing.

Now that I've finally purged the foul stench of failure from my underground laboratory, I think I am ready to try this again. While I am planning/plotting my next move on the reso front, I'm taking the inital failed Fluke-o-phonic and stripping off all of the malfunctioning parts (which includes everything that I inflicted upon it) and I will replace them with a Sitka Spruce top and rosewood fretboard. With any luck, the Fluke will be playable sometime after the holidays.

Back to the drawing board on the Fluke-o-phonic. I am bloodied, but not bowed.

This is kind of difficult...

2005-05-31T07:14:00.000-07:00

O.K. I was hoping to be done by now with this sucker, but I'm still toiling away.

I started work on a cedar soundboard and maple fretboard, but they didn't quite work out, so I'm starting that part over. Not only that, but I have yet to be happy with (1) figuring out a way to fasten the soundboard/coverplate to the Fluke shell, and (2) coming up with a design for the sound well (for the reso cone).

I think I may have #2 solved. I'm creating some kind of crazy bracing system that will use a minimal amount of wood to gently hold the cone in place. Think of a wooden "#" without overlapping sides and you'd be close. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this will actually work.

For those of you who are not schooled in the ways of fretboards, they are a royal pain to get right. Anyone with even a small amount of talent probably would not have a problem, but I tend to get impatient, which leads to a few beers, which leads to me cussing and taking a Dremel to everything in sight. Hmmm...

I'll try to get some photos up soon. In the meantime, I need to come up with a fastening technique. Maybe I can e-mail Bob Villa. He seems creative.

Hi.

2005-05-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've created this blog to take some notes on the progress I'm having creating a Fluke/resonator hybrid ukulele. Let's proceed, shall we?

First Steps:
I have (had) a Tenor Fluke from the Magic Fluke Company. I like the shape and sound of the Fluke, but I also really like the sound and appearance of resonators (National, Beltona, etc.) Ergo, I began plotting to build my own hybrid Fluke. The plan was to get the soundboard and plastic fretboard off of my Fluke and to install a National ukulele resonator cone and biscuit bridge. Let's keep in mind that I have little, if any, experience working with wood, musical instruments, etc.

The Plan:

Remove soundboard and fretboard from Fluke,
Build new, 2 piece, soundboard. The bottom will screw on to the polycarbonate Fluke shell, allowing access to the resonator cone,
Create soundwell type thing to hold the resonator cone and attach the soundwell to the Fluke shell,
Attach wooden fretboard to Fluke neck,
Re-string and either (a) weep bitterly at my failure or (b) rock out in glorious triumph.

Where I'm At:

First and foremost, I have to give some credit to Jim Beloff and Dale Webb from the Magic Fluke Company. I am a big fan of their Flukes/Fleas and they actually wrote back when I e-mailed them with my crazy idea. Keep in mind that these guys probably receive hundreds of e-mails in any given day from whackos like me, but they still respond. Bravo.

Picking up the parts was the easiest thing thus far. Elderly Instruments carries National Resonator uke cones and biscuit bridges. Ukulele Supply of Hawaii had the soundboard wood (red cedar), fretboard, nut/saddle material and bracing strips. Hana Lima 'Ia had a book on ukulele construction that told me what I was in for. Once I had all of my materials in hand, it was down to business...

Disclaimer:

Feel free to do anything you like to your property. If it involves knives, saws, drills, sand paper, files, etc., use caution. In fact, make sure you wear eye protection, hand protection, ear protection, dust masks, hermetically sealed chambers, decontamination units or anything else you need to keep your limbs attached. Don't blame me if you are somehow inspired by this tale to create the mega-uke 9000 and in the process you cut off your own legs. You have been warned.

The Deconstructionist:

Taking the soundboard and fretboard off of the Fluke was easier than I thought. I used a utility knife to gently loosed the glue on the sides of the soundboard, and I was able to slowly pull the soundboard off. The fretboard came off, nut side first, using a paint scraper. So far, so good. I've always been very good at taking things apart.

Reanimation:

After reading the Hana Lima 'Ia manual a good 20-30 times ("I'm supposed to do what?"), I started putting the soundboard together. For those of you who have never seen how a uke (or guitar) is put together, the soundboard is formed from two pieces of thin wood that are glued together. Joining them ain't exactly easy. The two sides need to be sanded down and checked to make sure that they match up without any big gaps. I've joined the soundboard pieces and now I'm just waiting for them to dry overnight.

In the meantime, I've been trying to figure out where everything is going to go. Resonator guitars and ukes have thin aluminum cones that create the distinctive sound. The strings on a resonator uke stretch from the bottom string bridge (which is close to the very bottom of the instrument) and are slotted through the "biscuit," a wooden bridge that is fitted to the top of the resonator cone. Thankfully, Stewart-MacDonald has a wealth of information on their Web site, so I've been able to do some research. Let's keep in mind that I have never built a musical instrument before (apart from two paper plates filled with dried beans and glued together). More importantly, I'm not entirely sure how a resonator uke is supposed to be setup. I know that the thickness and material comprising the soundboard is less important that in an acoustic uke, since the cone is responsible for most of the sound. Of course, my method of getting the cone in the uke itself will be a stab in the dark.

My plan is to build a "shelf" that the cone will sit on. It seems that the cone is supposed to "float" in the soundwell, which I interpret to mean that I need to prop up the cone slightly above the actual surface of the "shelf." I think that I'll use some thin pieces of wood to prop up the cone in several places. I'll use those in conjunction with short posts that will hold the cone oh-so-gently in place. Because the base of the Fluke shell tapers, I should have the ability to epoxy the shelf to the Fluke with little additional bracing. The trick is going to be figuring out how deep to put the shelf in the shell to ensure that the biscuit is sitting slightly higher than the surface of the soundboard.

Stay tuned... My next steps are to cut out the rough shape of the soundboard and to start marking the spots where I think the cone and string bridge will sit on the new uke.

Fluke-o-Phonic

Miss me?

This is kind of difficult...

Hi.