The Neck

Still Thursday . . . 9:00 p.m. : A little before Hannah's puppy class (every Thursday evening), and after we returned home, I got a start on the neck. The first thing I did was to cut the 15° scarf joint on the table saw, using my scarf-cutting jig: Then I glued it together:

I also tapered the fingerboard and marked out the neck (centerline, nut position, fingerboard position). This ukulele has a 17" scale length. Finally, the last thing I did today was to drill out the tuner holes for the harpbox tuners: SOMETHING KIND OF NEAT: The aNueNue harp ukulele (using Pete Howlett's design) has these neat colored sub-bass strings (take a look HERE at their site to see what I mean). I thought those were really cool, so I emailed them and they very graciously offered to sell me a few sets at a good price. I can't wait to see those strings!!! It should add a little pizazz to my uke!

Well, that's it for today. More work on the neck tomorrow. Friday, June 24th, 2011: The first thing I did this morning (after my morning rituals of Hannah-walking and breakfast) was to glue up the heel stack of the neck: While that's drying, I will turn my attention to making the bridge, which, for this harp ukulele, is quite a different beast! Stay tuned.

INDEX: Return to HOME PAGE Wood, Templates, & Mold The Mold, Continued. . .Beginning the Bending Form The Bending Form Finished / Joining the Top The Top: Rosette and Soundholes Bracing the Top The Back, Gluing and Carving the Braces The Sides Blocks Harp Box Peghead & Kerfing The Soundbox The Soundbox is Complete!!! Binding The Neck Fitting & Carving the Neck The Soundbox & Neck are Complete!!! Sanding, Pore-Filling, and Finishing!!! RECESS: Building a Bulkhead Door!!! I'm Back — Rubbing Out the Finish!!! Final Assembly & Set-Up!!!

Still Friday . . . Before I worked on making the bridge, I figured I should lay it all out, just to see how the string layout would be, with the bridge in its position. And to do that, I also thought I should decide now what shape I want my peghead to be. Here's what I came up with. I started by making the left side of the peghead to be kind of a continuation of the short right edge of the harpbox peghead. Also, I always hate it when the strings hit each other up on the peghead, so this shape keeps the strings apart. I think this might work:

I picked out some scrap koa and laid this cut-out of the quick peghead sketch over it. I think it will look pretty!!! Or, maybe I'll see if there's a pretty scrap of the same Mayan walnut I can use, for a better match with the harpbox peghead. I'll check that out tomorrow.   Finally, here is the neck blank all laid out. I drilled a 25/64" vertical hole about halfway down, for the barrel nut, which is about 1" tall. Above the barrel nut, I have glued a short length of dowel to plug up the hole. I also drilled a 5/16" horizontal hole for the furniture bolt's access to the barrel nut. Tomorrow I will rout out the slot for the carbon fiber strip I will use to give a little reinforcement to the neck, and I'll epoxy the rod in.

Saturday, June 25th, 2011: So far today I have routed the slot for the carbon fiber rod I will put in tbe neck, and I have glued it in with epoxy: I used a Dremel in its plunge router base and edge guide to rout the 1/8" slot. The slot is 3/8" deep. Below is the rod placed in the slot; the slot is a little deeper than the rod, but I will put epoxy on top and scrape it flush with the top of the neck once it cures.

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