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Dave Means has sent me the first of the construction progress photos for my custom ukulele. Although I have received 4 custom built ukuleles so far, I have never received in-progress pictures from the luthier building my uke. So this is a new experience for me, and it definitely builds excitement in anticipation of the upcoming ukulele.
So I guess there's finally something semi-juicy at the Ghetto! On to the pics!
This is the joining of one of the bookmatched plates. I guess the sandbag applies the force to keep the plates flat while the clamps hole the two plates together.
Sawing out the plate profile. The koa is looking gooooooood! I opted for AAAA koa when the order was placed. This set of koa definitely looks good to my eyes.
Thickness sanding. It still looks great!
Spraying the sides with water in preparation for bending. Nice looking sides too.
The sides coming out of the bender.
Bent sides drying in the mold.
Gluing the heel and tail blocks.
Sanding an arch to the bottom of the back braces in the 12' radius sanding dish.
Gluing the braces in the go-bar deck.
Profiling the back braces with a finger plane.
Ramping the brace ends with a paring chisel.
Gluing the back graft.
So those are the first of the pictures Dave sent me on my uke. He is gluing the back and sides together and routing the cavity for the tail-graft next, as well as starting the Spanish cedar neck. This uke will be highly customized with custom shapes and inlays, so it will be basically be mine forever. It's certainly cool to follow the progress of the build. I'll post photos to share the progress as I get them.
6 comments:
That is WAY COOL! You must be as anxious as an expectant dad in a waiting room!
I can't wait to see the next batch of photos!
Congrats!
P.S. Are you going to pass out cigars when it gets delivered?
Believe it or not I'm not especially anxious about the arrival of this uke. I mean, it has almost been 3 years since I ordered it, so another few months feels like nothing. I also seem to have plenty of patience for most things in life now. I'll be spending more time playing through my ukulele collection in anticipation of this uke, since I'm pretty sure it will be taking away a big chunk of playing time from some of my current ukes.
Having said that, I'm certainly looking forward to this uke. And it will be awesome when it finally arrives!
Umm, what uke will you be selling to make room for the Glyph?
Hey Ron,
I'm not sure. Probably the Kanile'a SS, since it would be the most similar to the Glyph in terms of size. I would like to own at least one Kanile'a though, so I guess we'll see.
wow! that's going to be one beautiful uke!
nice work. Nice jigs as well. Thats half the battle. Keep it up.
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