Griffin Ukuleles

THE ROSETTE AND THE SOUND HOLE

12/2/2022

Cut the inlay groove with a router and oval guide with the unsanded top clamped down tight, paint the groove with dilute shellac to seal the grain.

Next tap the rope inlay into the groove and fix it with thin superglue. Then start the sound hole with the drill press.

Cut out the rough hole with a sharp blade. The dark stain is caused by the dilute shellac. It will disappear when finished.

Now we are ready to perfect the oval sound hole on the sander

And finally, the top is sanded to its final .90 thickness and it is ready for its tone bars.

The sanded redwood soundboard will provide a warm rich sound and the French Polish treatment will make the dark spot disappear.

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Beautiful Maple

11/28/2022

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Marvelous Big Leaf Maple makes great ukes.

this is a maple Baritone #201 being made for Mike. It has a bearclaw Sitka Spruce soundboard and is going to be a beauty.

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THE MiSi TREO AIR INSTALLED

11/26/2022

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The pickup installation revealed

The pickup is seen at the bottom with the piezo cable taped into a loop and penetrating the bridge patch. The bronze colored band leads to the volume control wheels

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A LONG ABSENSE

11/25/2022

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SORRY it has been such a long time since I have posted a blog. A busy time, a significant birthday and some problems with uploading photos has slowed me down.

This is a nice little concert with a Sycamore back and sides and Englemann Spruce soundboard. It will be taken to UPS for shipment to Bonnie in Texas in the morning.

And this is the "Pocock", a special design baritone delivered to the owner of Pocock Boats today. It sounds great.

The three chevrons represent the logo of the Pocock Boat Company, the maker of legendary racing shells in Seattle. The ukulele was built for the owner of the company and used Cedar, Ironbark and Alaska Yellow Cedar from the old company warehouse. Their racing shells are now made of fiberglass. There was fine, aged wood stored in the warehouse.

And here is the maple back of the " Pocock". Turned out to be a very nice Bari

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LILA GETS HER UKE PLUS ONE

10/4/2022

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She ordered her concert a year ago and I finally got it done. Driving from Colorado to Bellingham to visit friends here she was able to pick it up.

and while she was at it she also bought an available tenor. She is going home with a big uke load.

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A TINY MICROPHONE

9/24/2022

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This tiny microphone pointed out by the white tooth pick transmits the acoustic sound from inside the ukulele and adds an interesting and impressive sound to your amplified music. It is all quite amazing. You can even talk into the sound hole and hear yourself on your amplifier.

This is the MiSi Trio Air ukulele and guitar pickup. It picks up sound also from the under saddle piezo. Each sound source is controlled by its individual volume wheel. Works like a charm.

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A REMARKABLE PICKUP

9/22/2022

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This is the new MiSi Trio Air ukulele pickup, a marvellice creation.

I recently installed one in my "Finn" tenor, I am extremely pleased. its features are as follows.
*Its twin super capacitors power the pickup for eight hours of use and are charged in 60 seconds.
*It contains a tiny microphone that transmits the audio sound from within the instrument.
*It also transmits sound from the Piezo cable under the saddle.
*Each method of sound transmission is controlled separately by its own volume wheel in the sound hole.
*Volume controls range from off to loud. They can be played separately or blended together.
*they come with a charger that is plugged into the house circuit and into the end of the pickup for only 60 secs.

Can you identify the tiny microphone
I will point it out in tomorrow's blog

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LILA GETS HER CONCERT

9/22/2022

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She ordered it last September. Finished just in time for her trip to Bellingham from Colorado

Quilt Big Leaf Maple body with an Englemann Spruce sound board.

And Lila plays her new concert, already named "Feather"

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THE POCOCK

9/17/2022

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Planning and production for this interesting baritone commission continues, The tone bars are now glued to the underside of the sound board and I can be confident we can fit in those three chevrons, part of the Company logo. Google the Pocock history, building racing shells since 1911.

The chevrons will be cut through the Cedar soundboard strengthened by a carbon fiber or fiberglass patch the size and position of the white paper in this photo.

And the Maple back is completed and braced.

Stay tuned as we complete this Bari for the President of Pocock. He will be traveling to Bellingham bringing the carbon fiber patch material and applying it,

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THE BARI IN THE BOAT

9/14/2022

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The owner of Pocock Boats has commissioned a Griffin Baritone. The maker of legendary rowing shells featured in the recent best seller "The Boys In The Boat" has ordered a unique instrument.

Pocock rowing shells are now made exclusively of carbon fiber and fiberglass but they still have a warehouse with lots of wonderful wood from the days when their shells were master pieces of woodworking. Good enough to defeat Hitler's rowers in the 1939 Olympics.
Bill, the owner, has ordered a baritone made of their treasured wood and with the Pocock logo as the sound hole. Their treble chevrons present a unique challenge to provide the necessary strength, to re-design the fretboard below the 14th fret. Here is part of the planning process.

One of the challenges is how large the three chevron sound hole should be-so here are a number of cutouts helping to make that decision. The Pocock warehouse has provided the cedar for the soundboard, Alaska Yellow Cedar for the neck and Ironbark for the fretboard and bridge. Wonderful master-class wood.

This exercise convinced me that we can get the chevrons fitted in amongst the tone bars. Now how do we shape the end of the fret-board?

The back and sides of this Baritone will be made of this lovely fiddleback Big Leaf Maple. Here the back is receiving its braces in the Go bar.

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