I made some good progress in just a few hours today. #1, I got the frets installed on the fretboards.
First I cut each fret to length. I am using gold hued frets on two of the tenors, standard silvery frets on the Redwood/Rosewood which has an ebony fretboard.
Then I sanded down the Peg head plate with the g on it and glued it to the neck, aligned the fretboard and tacked it in place for gluing.
I carefully trimmed and shaped the fretboard end to fit around the sound hole in my usual style and was then ready to glue it onto the neck. A couple of hours later the glue had set and this tenor is beginning to look like a ukulele
I rubbed one coat of dilute shellac on the top to protect the delicate and exquisite Redwood during the rest of the build process. Notice how just the first coat of shellac brings out the designs and colors of the Rosette maple and darkens the Redwood.
Now for another project. Pat Madsen wants a MiSi pickup installed in his Griffin Redwood/Rosewood and while I am at it I will install a pickup in mine too. First you must carefully clamp the instrument onto the operating table. Notice I am padding it well and using a cross bar to bring the pressure on the edges of the uke where the top or bottom will not be stressed.
As usual, carefully measure and mark where you want the hole for the MiSi pickup to be. It is a half inch hole so measure carefully. I then make a heavy gouge with a sharp awl to guide the drill bit.
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Make a small guide hole with a drill bit Then you are ready for the big step drill bit. this goes in in graduated steps until you have drilled a perfect 1'2 inch hole to accept the MiSi shaft.
Ah! Sweet success. I will finish the installation tomorrow.
