Nikko’s Tenor Ukulele
Bear Claw Sitka · Hawaiian Koa

Earlier this summer a longtime friend, knowing my interest in building guitars, mentioned that she was learning to play the ukulele. I am not sure if she asked or I suggested that I build her one. In any case, as soon as I knew she was playing, I knew I would build her one. I love building instruments, and building with a person in mind — especially a dear friend or family — makes the process that much more rewarding.

For Nikko’s ukulele I selected a really fun Bear Claw Sitka top and a Hawaiian Koa back and set of sides. I had some wonderfully figured orphaned sides and a nice Koa back.

The first task is to joint the plates for the top and back. I use a plane on a shooting board to produce a clean straight edge. Normally I use a jig to glue the two plates together, but it is sized for a guitar. For the ukulele I used tape as the clamp — taping the plates while they are at an angle to each other and then flattening them provides enough tension.

With this being my first tenor ukulele, I need to make templates for the sides. The back will have a 15-foot radius with a slight taper from bottom to heel.

While bending the bindings for a guitar, I pulled out my smaller ukulele side bender and bent the sides. The side bender uses a heating blanket — it takes about 15 minutes to heat and bend the wood. I let it sit for a couple of hours before pulling the sides out of the mould.

While the sides were cooling I made the heel block out of some Mahogany and used birch plywood for the tail block. Once the sides were bent and cut to size, I was able to make the rim by gluing the two sides onto the blocks.

I used a radius dish with sandpaper and a plane to profile the top and back of the sides. The top of this ukulele is flat and the back has a 15-foot radius. Once profiled, I glued on kerfed linings and went back to the radius board for the final profile.

I had some Amboyna Burl to use for the rosette and the pegboard. I sawed a couple of slices off the burl and jointed them. I liked the pattern of the sapwood in the slice for the pegboard — I thought it would complement both the shape and my logo.

I have a month to finish the ukulele. My wife and I are talking about a visit to Hawaii in early November — it would be great to deliver the ukulele in person. I installed the centre reinforcement strip on the back, cut out bracing strips, and started bracing the back and then the top. The back braces all have a 15-foot radius on the gluing side; the top braces are flat.

I had to inlet the three fan braces so they would fit tightly over and onto the bridge patch. I used a chisel to take the square braces down to their final shape. After some clean-up sanding, I had both the back and top braced.

I installed a strip of the Cocobolo binding as an end graft before gluing everything together.

Being in a bit of a hurry, I did not take as many pictures as I usually do. I used a bunch of screw and violin clamps to glue the back and top onto the sides. I sanded the sides level before routing the channel for the Cocobolo bindings. I bent a set of bindings and bound the body.

Out of a block of Honduran Mahogany I cut a rough neck blank, glued on the headstock veneer, and fit it to the body.

I reduced the size of my logo from 1″ to 7/8″ to better fit a ukulele. I glue a template with the logo onto a piece of mother-of-pearl and also onto a thin veneer of ebony. I cut out the logo from the pearl and the veneer — using the outside for the moon and the inside for the hawk and tree.

A busy day but time is short. I used a circle template to finalise the shape of the heel, cut out and fit a small bit of Amboyna Burl as a guide, then drew tangential lines on the neck and used a combination of spokeshave, rasps, and sandpaper to carve the neck.

With the neck carved, I installed the logo, drilled the holes for the tuners, and installed the mother-of-pearl fret markers.

It is getting very close to the Hawaii trip date. I spent a bit of time making sure the neck alignment was perfect and glued on the neck. The neck joint is just a butt joint, but I do have a bolt holding it on as well. The bolt made a handy clamp while gluing.

I placed the bridge on the top — wrongly, it turned out; I had to move it a touch later — and used my homemade vacuum clamp to glue it on.

Normally it takes me three days to pore-fill a guitar. Being pressed for time, I decided to use CA to pore-fill this ukulele. With its quick cure time I could pore-fill in about an hour. I applied a very thin layer working it into the pores, let it cure, and used a razor blade to scrape it all off — all except what was left in the pores.

In the morning it occurred to me that even though I set the bridge according to the plans, it did not include the 1/8″ I should have added for proper intonation. With the bridge where it was, all the notes would be sharp as they were played up the neck. I verified this by installing a couple of frets and the two outside strings.

It did not take long to clean up the repair, reglue the bridge in the correct position, and start the French polish. I basically apply shellac until my arm falls off. Once finished, I let it rest for a couple of days.

We are leaving for the Hawaii trip on the 10th, so I had the weekend to install the frets, make and fit the bone saddle and nut, and set up the ukulele. I tried a few brands of strings before settling on Aquila ukulele strings.

Here is the completed ukulele and the happy new owner. I played it a bit before leaving on the trip.