TL002 Completed Body, Neck, and Headstock

The body of the TL002 Tenor Ukulele has now been bound with solid fiddleback Tasmanian Blackwood timber bindings with contrasting black/white/black stripes. The soundboard and back of the ukulele have had black/white purflings installed. The fiddleback Blackwood bindings were purchased from Australian Tonewoods, and give the ukulele a beautiful edge with the binding/purfling combination. The solid timber bindings also help to provide additional strength and protection from dings to the corners of the ukulele body, by ensuring that there is no endgrain exposed on the edges of the back and soundboard. The finishing touch to the body was the addition of a native Australian Gidgee heel cap, which will match the ukulele’s fretboard and bridge.

TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele - Blackwood body, front

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TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele - Blackwood body, back

Following the completion of the body binding, the fretboard was cut, slotted, fretted and installed. The fretboard for this ukulele is a piece of Gidgee, a hard and dense Australian native desert hardwood. Gidgee is an excellent fretboard alternative to more traditional timbers such as ebony and rosewood, especially on nylon stringed instruments where fret wear is minimal. The surface of MAKAIO ukulele fretboards are sanded to a 12” radius curve and have mother of pearl marker dots inlayed, to increase the playability of the ukulele. The radiused fretboard surface allows chords to be fretted with less pressure from the fingers compared to a flat fretboard surface.

TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele - Blackwood body with Gidgee fretboard

The final steps completed to date for the TL002 Tenor Ukulele have been to cut and shape the headstock, and to shape the ukulele neck. MAKAIO Ukuleles have a decorative black/white purfling stripe around the edges of the headstock, as well as book matched veneers on both the top and bottom faces of the headstock. This covers the strengthening scarf joint between the neck and headstock, as well as the headstock ‘ears’ that are used to give the headstock additional width to the neck.

Bookmatched Blackwood headstock