Lutherie is something that I've wanted to try for many years and, finally, in the second half of my life, I am able to devote the time to its pursuit. The experience of building my first instrument, a concert ukulele, has been one of the most rewarding of my life. Not only do I have a beautiful instrument to show for my efforts, but I have something equally important, though less tangible: a discovery that I now have the patience and conviction to see a long, complicated project through to its completion. This is no mean feat for me, a life-long procrastinator and notorious non-finisher of projects. Maybe it's the onset of maturity, and maybe it's a matter of finally finding my niche - either way, I have never enjoyed a hobby (and now a vocation) more.
I've been a guitar player for most of my life, but the sudden onset of tendonitis in my left thumb and wrist a couple of years ago made it difficult to chord a guitar. A compulsive music store browser, I picked up a new Martin ukulele on impulse one day and discovered that I could play it with very little pain. The slim neck and the low action of the nylon strings made chording almost effortless. I found myself thinking about ukes a lot over the next few weeks and decided that I would learn to play. The new Mexican-made Martins were fairly expensive and the cheaper ukes did not sound very good to my ears. That led to thinking about building one. What could be a better introduction to lutherie! The hook was set.
I have been doing guitar repair and maintenance - fret jobs, adjusting action and set-up, adding and replacing pickups, etc - for myself and friends since the early '70's. but had never actually constructed an instrument. I had entertained the idea of guitar building for years, but shied away from it for various reasons: time, money and maybe a little fear of not doing it perfectly. the ukulele seemed so much less intimidating that I decided that I could do it.
Long thought of as a novelty instrument, lumped together with woodblocks, triangles, and kazoos, the ukulele has lately become somewhat popular again as a fun, easy-to-learn alternative to the guitar. A number of respected luthiers build gorgeous custom-made ukes that command anywhere from $500 to $5000. While I admired these ornate creations, I set my sights somewhat lower, hoping to create something along the lines of a Style "0" uke made by Martin Guitars in the twenties. These very plain, mahogany instruments have a kind of understated elegance that appeals to me, and they are much cheaper to recreate!
After searching the internet for ukulele building supplies,
I settled on a basic 
materials kit from
Hana Lima 'Ia in Hawaii. This "kit" consists of the
various pieces of mahogany needed to build a uke from scratch.
This is a good compromise for a new builder who wishes to do all of the building, but doesn't have the machine tools for milling, thickness sanding, etc., of the raw wood stock. The halves of the top and botton plates plus the side pieces are 3/32" thick, which is about right for this size instrument. The plates will have to be joined and cut to the shape of the body. The sides will be bent on a jig that uses heat to force them into the correct shape. The neck will have to be glued together and shaped, the rosewood fingerboard will have to be planed, and slotted for frets, and the peghead will have to be sawn from the neck blank and reattached at the correct angle. Then, of course the whole thing will need some kind of finish.
I decided to construct a "concert" uke, which is the next size up from the tiny "standard "or "soprano" size. It will allow me a little more room for my fingers on the fretboard, and I like the fuller sound that the extra interior volume gives it. While there are at least a couple of plans available for concert ukes, I decided to measure the little Hilo soprano that I bought to learn on and scale it up accordingly, using dimensions that I found in a book on Martin Guitars. The Hilo is a cheap student model, but it has a nice shape and decent intonation. The body has a less pronounced "waist" than the Martin style 0, more resembling the guitars and ukes that Martin made for the Oliver Ditson Music Stores in the '20's and '30's. This shape has come to be called the "Dreadnought" when used on guitars, so I guess my uke will be a "Baby Dreadnought."
I set up shop in the workshop/studio that I built in the back yard several years ago, and went to work. One of the many benefits of starting with such a small instrument is that you don't need much room. My 2'x 4' bench is more than adequate for my purposes, and there is room to move all around it. I used a clip-on light from Home Depot attached to a microphone stand to give me a good strong light to work by.
I built this uke in Austin, Texas, but have since moved to Eugene, Oregon, where I am now building instruments commercially as SpruceHouse Ukuleles
I hope that this site gives you some idea of the process involved in getting started in lutherie. Thanks for visiting!
Al McWhorter
