Today we're gonna start making a ukulele bass
Let me tell you that this is by far the most complicated and time-consuming project I've made to date
so
please be prepared four hours of film and a vast amount of techniques and research
I didn't follow any plans because there are no plans online to build a ukulele bass yet,
at least that I could find. That led me to weeks of research and ensure decisions and procedures along the building process
What I thought that wouldn't make sense was to start by observing a real instrument
Since I didn't want to buy one. I collected a bunch of photographs and watch lots of videos about the Kala U bass.
Fortunately, they have a few measurements displayed on their website and high-quality photos to zoom in what I did was to take measurements from
The photographs and tried to get a balance of what might be the real dimensions, scale and angles.
So I started by making the mold. I managed to find a way to make the mold reusable and reconfigurable
So I drew all the shapes and cut them on the x-carve to make it reliable and easy
This way all the pieces were exactly the same
I then taped them together to make some alignment holes that it could actually have been made on the X carve but I didn't think about that
Next I started to prepare and plane the solid wood boards
this is a piece of mahogany that I had for years waiting for me to make an instrument from
All the wood I used for this project had been in my studio for years
So I didn't purposely buy any of it for this Ukulele
That means there wasn't a big choice here
but still from all the species I had around I picked the mahogany, wenge, padauk and
a yellow one that I supposed to be called Mora
Unfortunately, I don't have a drum sander which have been super important to build such a project so I had to rely on the double
Side tape in technique to get a rather consistent thing thickness on the planer
So here's our stephania saga, I thought I could result this board in three thin slices
But in my perfect world, wenge is not a super hardwood
So I used the plow plane to create a groove around the entire board for the handsaw to follow
It did work well. The problem was the wood being incredibly hard and
Taking more than two hours with resting pauses in between to cut through the material with my Rayoba saw
Needless to say that I aborted this option after finishing the first slice and
lucky or unlucky
Enough, I forgot to turn the camera microphone on at this point. So you missed all the slang behind the facemask.
I got outside to the table saw and cut some more layers of wenge and padauk
The boards weren't large enough to make the entire back of the
Ukulele, so that's why I added a padauk strip in the middle. Also I thought it would give it a nice detail.
I Repeated the thickness and process and cut the pieces closer to the final size
I ran a hand plane on the side to make the edges nice and flat
Once everything looked good with no gaps. I glued them using a high quality wood glue
I placed the flat board with some weights on top to keep them flat to dry
I cut both slices the same size and send it everything before starting the bending process
To bend the wood, it's crucial to get the pieces wet and heated
So I submerge the slices on water for a while.
I attached the bending iron to my T-Track table using these awesome T-Track clamps from Rockler and turned it on
It was set to 180 degrees Celsius, so once the red number is marked 180
it was ready to bend.
I had the mold put together right next to me so I could keep comparing the shape I was doing with the wood
This was much harder than what I expected
But I guess that having such a hard wood for the sides wasn't helping
Eventually, I got it close to the desired shape and clamped the pieces inside the mold and let it dry for a few hours.
I repeated the process for the second half and realized they didn't come exactly the same
I tried to reshape them slightly, but still couldn't get them to match perfectly
So I cried for a while and made the post about this on Instagram
I'm joking, but I did make some posts and stories on Instagram about little problems
I had along the way and I want to thank every one of you who cared then actually tried to help figuring things out and
Provide some master knowledge about the encountered issues
Some people pointed out that it wasn't a big deal that they were not absolutely
symmetrical so I kept going
I trimmed the ends to size and then I reconfigured the mold to shape the linings
I needed to add the thickness of the sides and for that I could some strips of 2 millimeter balsa wood which I do not recommend
You should use cork or a hard rubber instead. Something that is flexible and yet hard
I shaped it, stuck it inside the mold and applied a layer of tape to prevent any glue to stick to the balsa
But I recommend using packing tape instead
Here I was trying to establish the correct offset of the inside part of the mold
so what I did was to fit a dowel with the diameter of the lining thickness on the two bouts area and
Having the parts clamped to the workbench, I ran a compass the perimeter to create the offset
I painted those lines with a sharpie and sanded the remaining material
I can now start making thin strips of wood and I used mahogany for this
This small bandsaw is so bad that I can even stop the motor by pushing small pieces of wood against it
After every cut, I took the piece to the vice and hand planed the fresh edge
With all the thin strips done I can start gluing and placing them in the mold to make the solid linings
As I mentioned before the balsa can be smashed down and doesn't make for an ideal material for this job
So here, I was fixing the lost depth by applying two strips of thick paper
And now I can repeat the process of gluing and bending this on the mould three more times which was
Incredibly difficult and stressful
I can finally rest and make some popcorn
A few hours later I released the pieces and cut some more mold shapes on the x-carve
Here I was making the end and neck blocks
Here the machine is carving little waste shapes so I can later create the waste clamping blocks.
I curved one face of the block and glued it in place carefully
To make the mortice on the neck block I used my router table with a three-quarter inch straight bit
I didn't want to go all the way through and
Eventually, I did cut the rest of the material but later in the builds, you will see me filling the end again
So I really should have kept this the way it is right now until the end
I will connect the neck to the body using a bolt in addition to the glue
So I want to make a recess for the head and washer
I gave the block a rounded shape just because I've seen others like this
Please note that there are many many steps. I went through that
I can't explain and I did because I've seen others doing it and because it feels or sounds right to me
I removed the balsa layer and
Reconfigured the mold so I could have to halves that were just a little thinner than the ukulele sides.
I can now set and assemble the waste blocks
And I also need a way to connect both halves, so I made these little connector pieces
Drilled some alignment holes and attached some bolts
I Identified them with some drawn shapes just in case I need to take them apart later and want to know where they belonged
I match the curves with some sanding and I kept working on the waste clamp
Here I was shaping each lining
Before gluing the linings I need to get the neck block in place. So I center to the mortise to the Wenge sides and glued it in
While the glue is drying I can round over one side of the linings on the router table being extra careful and
Using two push blocks to keep my hands away from the bit as well as gripping the oddly shaped piece
Here I was just making a sanding surface
Once the top edge is completely flat I can start applying the linings
Did I mention you need clamps to build this project
On the other side there's going to be a ramp so I need to remove material at an angle
While the glue-up is drying I can start working on the bracing
For that it's recommended to split the wood along the wood grain and start
Flattening from there in order to have as little tension as possible
So I worked my way out of the split pieces and cut some strips to make both the top and back bracing
Once the clamps got removed I could clean up these other edge and prepare it to receive the back of the ukulele
But that's for next episode
I hope you have your popcorn ready for next Sunday's video a big shout out to Rockler and
Inventables for supporting this project and I couldn't forget about the amazing people on patreon
without my sponsors and supporters
I couldn't really spend as much time and effort doing what I love the most
so thank you in the meantime hit the subscribe button and notification bell and
Follow me on Instagram to know what I'm up to. Oh
And go get your hands dirty
