It's Here!

I received my Uke kit last weekend and I had a chance to begin a bit of work on it.  I thought I would start out with the unpacking and a good look at the initial instrument design and construction.

I was pleasantly surprised with the overall instrument.  The design, though very simple, looks like it will lend itself to a nice playing instrument when completed.  The sound of the main box seems very good for a plywood material construction.  I must admit, I was a bit disappointed the top was not solid.  I guess I didn’t read the description close enough.  That being said, I think I can make a nice looking and playing instrument from this kit.

It was packaged quite well and arrived undamaged and nicely arranged.  The instructions seem quite thorough and should be complete enough for even a beginner to follow to completion.  It looks like the two biggest tasks will be filing, and shaping the neck to match the pre-fretted fret board and the clamping and gluing portion.  As with most instruments, there are very few “flat” places to clamp up when gluing,  a bit of creativity will be handy when it comes to this portion of the build.

Given the lack of edge binding, the open edges of the plywood top and back are visible.  Although this appearance isn’t bad or anything, it just doesn’t say “quality” like an edge binding would.  The insides seem to quite well finished.  Most of the braces are at least partially sanded and the glue joints seem neatly done without excessive drips or errors.   A bit of work in there with a sanding stick will go along way towards a nice finish.

Overall; I like it, I think it’s going to work out quite well.  After all, it’s a $50 instrument.  My goal is to make it seem  like a more expensive hand built, with a few custom touches.  I am looking forward to “spiffing it up” a bit.  More on that next time.