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Making a Resonator Ukulele
The Raw Material
It all begins with a tree; sycamore, walnut, cherry, black locust, white pine, persimmon, dogwood or mulberry. Fortunately, I rarely have to kill any of these beautiful trees to obtain their wood. A sharp eye after a storm and a keen ear tuned to the growl of the chainsaw leads me to more wood than I can handle.
Of course, you find some interesting things in trees! I have found nails, buckshot and even a small glass bottle embedded in wood.
Once the wood has air dried for several years, it can begin its journey toward becoming a ukulele. This is a piece of osage orange which became a tenor resonator (No. 5) built for David Betz in TX.
One of the cool things about reso ukes is that the choice of wood is not as critical as it is for a standard uke. There are limited species that are suitable for an instrument top. On a standard ukulele, the top should be fairly stiff and lightweight. When a string is plucked, it transfers that energy to the top via the bridge. The top then vibrates and moves the air inside the instrument. This creates the sound.
On a resonator ukulele, the aluminum resonator does most of the vibrating work and the wooden body acts like a speaker cabinet. Hence, a wider selection of woods can be explored.
My Thickness Sander
After the wood is selected, the top, back and sides are cut to shape and sanded to thickness. Instrument wood is frequently quite thin. I can sand wood down to 1/32" with my homemade thickness sander!
My Side Bender
After I sand the sides down to 1/16", I bend them on my handmade side bender. I encorporated several designs when building this tool but it is basically a copy of a Fox side bender. There are two light bulbs inside that heat up the wood. Once heated, the sides can be coerced into the classic hourglass shape. Once the two sides are joined together, the lining can be glued in. The lining adds rigidity to the sides and creates more glue surface for the top and back. I prefer solid linings. I think they look cleaner.
Gluing The Lining and The End Blocks
I turn my soundwells on a Nova wood lathe. I usually use tulip poplar for this. Look at the nice pink streaks on this piece.
The top is glued to the sides and the soundwell is glued to the end block and top. I route a hole in the top so the resonator can sit on the soundwell.
Making Rope Binding
Yes, it's a pain in the butt...
...but the results are so worth it!
russmorin.com • Big Rusty Ukuleles
Greenville, SC