The next step is to sand or chisel
a pencil in half long-wise and, laying it flat side down on the
frets, mark the fret height onto the front of the nut. This will
be your depth reference line when cutting your string slots in
the nutAnd so we arrive at the final step: getting our concert ukulele set up with nut, saddle tuning machines and strings. The nut and saddle that I chose are cow bone, which is the best material for this use, excluding fossilized ivory, which is tremendously expensive. I bought both from Stew-Mac, and cut them both to the width of their respective channels.
The nut has an angled bottom to conform to the 15-degree angle of the peghead. I had measured the thickness of the nut before chiseling its channel, but the fit was looser than I would have liked, so I put a couple of drops of super glue gel on the peghead side. When the drops dried, The nut fit snugly.
The next step is to sand or chisel
a pencil in half long-wise and, laying it flat side down on the
frets, mark the fret height onto the front of the nut. This will
be your depth reference line when cutting your string slots in
the nut
My neck is about the same width as a soprano uke at the nut, so I lifted the string spacing from that and marked them off on the nut in pencil. The spacing between strings is about 3/8", and approximately 1/8" from the edge of the fingerboard.
Placing the nut in a small vise,
I made the initial cuts with an Exacto saw, cutting to within
1/16" of my fret height line. I then widened the slot slightly
with my fretting saw. For the third, or "C" string,
which is thicker than the rest, I rocked the fret saw slightly
to widen that slot more than the others. I checked my slot widths
with a piece of the proper string for that slot until it was perfect.
I then smoothed each slot with a folded piece of 220-grit sandpaper.
Next, I fit my saddle into its slot and, stretching a uke string from nut to saddle, gauged how much to shorten the saddle height for the optimum action. I reduced that height very quickly on the belt sander, and rounded the corners to match the bridge shape.
Then it was time to fit the tuning machines. I chose to go "Old School," and went with Grover premium friction pegs. These are very good quality pegs as used the newer Martin ukes, as well as several of the good Hawaiian brands..I had originally intended to use some very nice Gotah mini geared machines with black anodized bodies and tortoiseshell buttons, but these were a little heavy and looked clunky on the slim peghead. The Grovers require no alignment holes to be drilled in the back of the peghead, so I can always change my mind later.
I strung it up and tuned it....and tuned it....and tuned it some more until the strings stopped stretching. When I was happy with the tuning I very reverently put it to my chest and strummed a couple of chords. Wow! It was quite a bit louder than any of my soprano ukes and the solid mahogany gave it a beautiful resonance and sustain. I had thought long and hard about the first song that I would play on the first instrument built with my own hands, and decided that it would be "Something" by George Harrison. George was an enthusiastic ukulele fan, and I am an enthusiastic George Harrison fan, so it seemed appropriate. Even before the intonation was dialed in, my uke sounded very sweet on this beautiful song.
Getting the intonation right on a new instrument is a lesson in frustration. You must match the open string to its 12th fret octave by filing the saddle so that the string rests closer to the front edge or back edge of the saddle. By using an electronic tuner, you can see if you need to go sharper or flatter. I must confess that after filing I was still not completely satisfied with the intonation and was at a loss as to what to do about it.
A couple of months after finishing this uke, I took it to a uke convention in San Antonio where I met Pops Bayless, the great uke player from the band Shorty Long. I showed him my creation and he had some really generous compliments about my work, but suggested that the black strings that I was using were "wimpy" and that I should check out Aquila Nylgut strings, which he swears by. It just so happened that Roy Cone of the famous Ukulele World website had a table set up at the convention and had the full Aquila line of strings. I put those babies on and, let me tell you, it was like I was playing a different instrument! I can't say enough about these great strings. Do yourself a favor and put them on any and every uke that you have. They will make even the most pedestrian novelty uke sound 200% better. The best part about fitting the Aquilas to my new concert uke was that my intonation problems dissappeared! I guess that the Aquilas are a little greater in diameter and that made the difference. So it wasn't that my calculations and adjustments were off - it was the strings!
What would I do differently? Well, in the amber glow of hindsight, I have come to the conclusion that the key to a great sounding ukulele is using the right materials and putting them together in the lightest way possible. The uke must be strong enough to withstand the pull of the strings over the course of its lifetime, but built with as little mass as you can get away with. When I acquired my little 1930's Style 0 Martin soprano, I received more than a great vintage instrument; I also got a real lesson in uke construction. My father told me many, many years ago that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - The really great, elegant designs are the ones with the fewest parts. My little Martin is the very embodiment of that ethos. It is as light as it could possibly be and still hold together, and has but two thin cross braces and a wafer-like bridgeplate under its top, which is a scant 1/16th of an inch thick. All of the mahogany in the body is incredibly thin and the neck has a very shallow profile and a narrow, pointed heel. All of this adds up to an instrument that produces a pleasing tone by just - I kid you not - breathing on it. I have since played a number of classic vintage ukes, both mainland and Hawaiian, in koa, mahogany - both plain and highly figured - and several other woods, with no decoration and those absolutely dripping with it and have concluded that none sound appreciably better than that Martin. So the lesson is: Keep it light and keep it simple. The uke I built for this project sounds remarkably good, but I now realize that it should have thinner plates, less bracing, and a slimmer neck. This is how we learn.
It is hard to convey how satisfying this project has been to me. I have built a sailboat, built or assisted in building several aircraft, built a guest house on my property and constructed innumerable smaller items in my lifetime, but nothing has given me greater pleasure than becoming a luthier. Indeed, it has led me to a new career as a professional builder of instruments. I hope that you'll visit my web site at www.sprucehouseukuleles.com . I named the company SpruceHouse because of the two giant Sitka Spruce trees that dominate the property on which our new home in Eugene, Oregon is located. The view of these majestic conifers out of my shop window is a constant scource of pleasure and inspiration for me.
I hope that this narrative encourages you get started on a lutherie project of your own. I believe that you will be glad that you did.
Al McWhorter
