I may have bit off too much the other day and volunteered to make a ukulele for my boss who is retiring. Less than a week and a half to finish it. Get a gun and shoot me. But those of you who know me I'm always one for a challenge and this is exactly that. After some very brief discussion, we decided to incorporate wood from the voyaging canoe Hokule'a. Remembering that he was in a heated battle for a canoe paddle made from wood off the Hokule'a that he didn't get because someone out bid him. An ukulele with Hokule'a wood incorporated into it would have a lot of meaning to him. So Guy Fo and I took off to our Marine Education Center where the students work on and maintain the Hokule'a. Bob Perkins who runs the program there managed to find us a piece of spruce that was a brace that fit over the hull of the canoe. Guy and I were shocked to find out that there is very little Koa on the Hokule'a most of it is Cedar, Spruce, or Douglas Fir. So for our Hokule'a ukulele the Hokule'a will become a part of the sound board.
I cut the brace on my bandsaw last night and sanded the pieces to thickness and glued up the sound board.
I also found a nice back and side set that I had bought previously for another project. Not a AAAA but a AAA / AA.
I also decided to do a Kasha brace pattern on this one with an off-set soundhole and a side port. The neck will be Sapele with macasser ebony finger board and bridge. Tomorrow I bend and do a bunch of inlay work. Also going to see the gang in the print shop to laser the inside label. Till tomorrow...
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