Do you remember those six soprano pinecones that I started way back. I finished one of them to take with me on my trip to D.C. last month. I left one of them with an Auto Repair shop to be sprayed with lacquer as an experiment. The remaining four have been in my shop receiving the usual slow and tedious French Polish treatment along with the three Concert Pinecones.
Today it all came to a head. I picked up an extremely shiny uke from the body shop. I also finished the French Polish on the four in the workshop-so this afternoon was devoted to attaching bridges, making bone nuts and saddles, installing tuners and stringing a couple up. Interesting results so far. Both ukes sound wonderful but they sound a little different. Must be the lacquer vs. the French Polish.
Today it all came to a head. I picked up an extremely shiny uke from the body shop. I also finished the French Polish on the four in the workshop-so this afternoon was devoted to attaching bridges, making bone nuts and saddles, installing tuners and stringing a couple up. Interesting results so far. Both ukes sound wonderful but they sound a little different. Must be the lacquer vs. the French Polish.
The critical act of placing the bridge and saddle. This jig makes it pretty fool proof but if you got this wrong your uke would never sound right. The blue tape sets the bridge in its proper location and prevents it slipping when clamps are tightened during the gluing process. I use the Dremel and tiny drill bits shown above to drill the string holes through the saddle, soundboard and the walnut brace below.
Then I scrape off the shellac within the blue tape confines with the razor blade in preparation for the gluing.
Here is a clever idea someone told me about not long ago. To clean up the glue squeezed out when the clamps are tightened cut a plastic straw like this.
Then you just scrape up the oozed glue like this- can you believe this sharp photo was taken with just an iPhone?
Here we are-All glued up and clamped with my homemade bridge clamps. I had to design and build my own for these little pinecones. The clamp jumps the bout brace inside and bears on the walnut brace under the bridge.
Here is the result. Two completed ukes and more in progress. The upper uke is the one sprayed in the body shop. I was interested to see if there is a tonal difference. These ukes are both from the same litter. As close to being identical as I could make them. One has a heavy lacquer finish the other a typical thin French Polish.
Both of them sound really really good. The lacquered uke seems deeper, even more mellow. The French Polish has a clearer, more precise sound. Seems a little brighter. Frankly I am surprised at the small difference and I honestly do not know which I prefer. I will continue to compare and listen to see if they mature differently as they are played. I must say that the lacquer is a little too shiny for my taste, seems to mask the beautiful wood a bit, but boy it is tough stuff, and having the auto shop spray it was a whole lot easier than my French Polish technique. It was very inexpensive also as it took very little material and only two coats.
Both of them sound really really good. The lacquered uke seems deeper, even more mellow. The French Polish has a clearer, more precise sound. Seems a little brighter. Frankly I am surprised at the small difference and I honestly do not know which I prefer. I will continue to compare and listen to see if they mature differently as they are played. I must say that the lacquer is a little too shiny for my taste, seems to mask the beautiful wood a bit, but boy it is tough stuff, and having the auto shop spray it was a whole lot easier than my French Polish technique. It was very inexpensive also as it took very little material and only two coats.
