TKL003 Completed Body, Neck, and Headstock

The body of the TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele has now been bound with solid “Tiger” Myrtle timber bindings with contrasting black/white/black stripes. The soundboard and back of the ukulele have had black/white purflings installed. While this binding/purfling combination not only looks great, the solid Myrtle bindings also help to provide additional strength and protection from dings to the corners of the ukulele body. The finishing touch to the body was the addition of a Macassar Ebony heel cap, which will match the ukulele’s fretboard and bridge.

Tiger Myrtle sides, binding, and tail strip

Indication of the colour of sides and tail strip with finish applied

Following the completion of the body binding, the fretboard was cut, slotted, fretted and installed. The fretboard for this ukulele is a beautiful piece of Macassar Ebony, one of the highest quality timbers available for fretboards. 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 fretbard surface allows chords to be fretted with less pressure from the fingers compared to a flat fretboard surface.

The final steps completed to date for the TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele have been to cut and shape the headstock, and to shape the ukulele neck. One of the most important features of hand making a ukulele is the ability to shape the instrument neck by continually shaving away timber until the profile is just right. This allows the neck to take a shape that feels right in the hand. As with all design features of the long neck MAKAIO Ukuleles, the neck has been shaped to allow fast and smooth movement of the fretting hand over the entire neck length.

TKL003 Body Construction

A range of steps were completed to progress the ukulele from separate back, soundboard, sides and neck, to the completed or “boxed” body. At the start of this process, the components of the ukulele included the back and soundboard with shaped bracing, the neck with Spanish style heel block and carved heel, and the thicknessed timber for the sides. The steps that have been undertaken form the constructed body for this ukeulele include:

• Cutting the side pieces to the required profile, so that they follow the domed shape at the soundboard and backboard edges
• Bending the side pieces
• Joining the soundboard to the neck table at the heel block
• Shaping and joining the tail block to the soundboard
• Cutting the bent sides to length and joining to the soundboard
• Fixing the kerfed lining between the sides and the soundboard, and the sides and back
• Reinforcing the treble side upper boat and cutting the sideport
• Closing the ukulele body by joining the back plate
• Trimming the back and soundboard to be flush to the sides
  

TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele front (Englemann Spruce)

TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele back (Tiger Myrtle)

More details of this process have been written for the T004 Ukulele, including images for most of these steps:

http://makaioukuleles.blogspot.com/2009/01/t004-body-construction.html

To enhance the advantages of the modified Kasha bracing system used for this ukulele, the soundhole area on the soundboard has been kept to a minimum and is primarily decorative. However, to allow the air within the ukulele body to resonate, a sound hole was placed in the ukulele side in the bass upper bout (sideport). The use of the combined sideport and minimal soundboard soundhole has two purposes, firstly the available soundboard area is increased by not having a large centre sound hole, and secondly the voice of the ukulele is projected from the body in a range of directions. The side of the ukulele in the area of the sideport was first reinforced with a cross-grain spruce patch to increase the strength around the sideport. Black and white veneers were laminated between the spruce patch and the Tiger Myrtle side wood, which gives the edges of the sideport a decorative white/black/white stripe.

Sideport and soundholes

With the body of the ukulele now constructed, the tap tone of the body is loud, deep, and sweet. The modified Kasha bracing and Engelmann Spruce soundboard produce a tap tone that indicates that this ukulele will have a long sustain. The ukulele body will now be further tuned by thinning the bass side of the soundboard to improve the deeper pitched notes within the instrument's range.

TKL003 Tenor Kasha UkuleleNeck Preparation

The neck for the TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele will be made from Honduran Mahogany, one of the most supreme timbers available for ukulele necks. The neck blank from Hana Lima ‘Ia was already prepared to the correct thickness, and width, and came with pre-cut heel blocks. The first step in construction of the neck was to cut the scarf joint to form the neck/headstock connection. The scarf joint was cut and joined to produce a 15 degree break angle between the neck and headstock, which will provide the right string angle from the nut to the tuning posts, and ensure suitable downward string force over the nut. The top surface of the neck was then slotted along its length, and a carbon fibre stiffening rod fitted to increase the stiffness and stability of the neck. The heel blocks were then glued to produce a stacked heel, following the plans for a Spanish style neck/body connection, with the neck joining to the body at the 14th fret.

Honduran Mahogany neck blank

MAKAIO Ukuleles are constructed using a traditional Spanish style neck/body connection. With this neck design, the sides are fitted into pre-cut slots in the heel block, and the soundboard is recessed into the top of the heel block. This creates an extremely strong one-piece connection between the neck and body, which reduces loss of sound energy into the neck. By not using any mechanical fasteners to fix the neck to the body, the heel of MAKAIO Ukuleles is able to be made delicate and in proportion to the small body size, allowing access to more of the fretboard.

Once the neck scarf joint and heel blocks had been completed, the neck was tapered roughly oversize for the finished dimensions, and the heel carved to its final shape. The table of the heel blocks was then recessed to accept the soundboard so that when the body and neck are joined, the soundboard and upper neck surface are perfectly flush. The remainder of the heel blocks were cut down to reduce mass, while maintaining strength in the neck/body connection. The final step in preparation of the neck was to add ears to the side of the headstock, to provide increased width, and allow the headstock to later be cut to the unique MAKAIO headstock shape.

Spanish style Honduran Mahogany neck

TKL003 Tenor Kasha UkuleleSoundboard and Back Preparation

The two bookmatched pieces of Engelmann Spruce that were selected for the soundboard of this instrument were initially 3 mm in thickness. These pieces were edge sanded, and centre joined to form the soundboard plate, before being thickness sanded to approximately 2 mm. Due to the asymmetric Kasha/Schneider soundboard bracing selected for this ukulele, the soundhole has been re-designed as a series of irregular sized smaller holes placed on the upper bout, treble side. This unique soundhole arrangement has two purposes, firstly it provides an aesthetic balance to the asymmetric soundboard and bridge, and secondly it will be used to facilitate a part of the sound transmission from the soundboard, in conjunction with an upper bout side port. Cross-grain spruce patches were used to reinforce the soundhole area, as well as the location for the bridge on the soundboard. Following the installation of the patches, the soundboard tone bars were added, along with the treble confinement bars, as per the previous discussion on the Kasha/Schneider bracing system. The soundboard was braced to conform to a 25 ft domed profile, to provide a pre-tensioning of the soundboard for increased mechanical strength.

Engelmann Spruce soundboard

The bookmatched pieces of Tasmanian “Tiger” Myrtle for the ukulele back were edge sanded and centre joined, before being thickness sanded to approximately 2.5 mm. The plate was then cut to shape slightly oversize, before the spruce cross braces were added. As with the soundboard, the back plate bracing was arched so that the back plate would conform to a 15 ft domed profile, to give the instrument added mechanical strength. The centre joint between the two bookmatched halves of the back plate was reinforced with a light cross-grain Engelmann Spruce graft.

Tasmanian "Tiger" Myrtle back

TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele soundboard and back (outside).

TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele soundboard and back (inside)

TKL003 Tenor Kasha UkuleleMaterials and Preparation

MAKAIO Ukulele TKL003 will be produced as a premium level instrument, that has superior tonewoods combined with a modified Kasha/Schneider soundboard bracing system. In selecting timbers for the MAKAIO TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele, the aim was to produce an instrument that has a unique striking aesthetic, but could also have tonal qualities that support the complex modified Kasha/Schneider bracing system. For the back and sides of this ukulele a Tasmanian 'Tiger' Myrtle set was selected, which has one of the most unique grain patterns of any timber available from anywhere in the world. This set has a beautiful contrasting sapwood section which will form a stunning backstrip running the length of the ukulele back, as well as a mesmerising wavy 'Tiger' figured pattern. The 'Tiger' Myrtle set was one of two purchased from Tim Spittle at Australian Tonewoods. A master grade Engelmann Spruce soundboard was selected, as it is probably the most superior tonewood for producing ukuleles with bright and clear tones as well as excellent sustain.

Bookmatched Tasmanian 'Tiger' Myrtle back and side set

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Master grade Engelmann Spruce soundboard

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The neck of this ukulele will be made from Honduras Mahogany, which is one of the most stable and stiff timbers available for its relatively light weight. The Mahogany neck blank was purchased from Hana Lima ‘Ia in Honolulu. The fretboard and bridge will be made from Macassar Ebony selected from Guitar Woods in Botany. All bracing and patches will be Engelmann Spruce. The body of this ukulele will be bound with East Indian Rosewood bindings. The remaining components of the ukulele such as fretwire, marker dots, nut, saddle, tuners etc, came from Asa Chock at Hana Lima ‘Ia in Honolulu.
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Macassar Ebony fretboard and bridge blank

TKL003 Tenor Kasha UkuleleKasha/Schneider Soundboard Bracing Theory

The TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele is the first MAKAIO Ukulele to be constructed using a modified Kasha/Schneider soundboard bracing system. Standard MAKAIO Ukuleles have a fan style bracing system which has the lower section of the soundboard supported by three longitudinal braces on the inside under the bridge, and the upper section supported by two cross braces above and below the soundhole. The modified Kasha/Schneider bracing works on a different principle.

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......Modified Kasha/Schneider bracing ............................Fan bracing ....................

Developed by Dr Michael Kasha and luthier Richard Schneider, the aim of this soundboard design is to optimise the features of the soundboard/bridge, to better respond to the vibrations produced by the strings, in order to produce instruments that have greater sound clarity and better sustain. The design theory involves a significantly greater amount of physics than the traditional fan braced design, and has a number of key design features:

Firstly, instead of having a relatively symmetrically braced soundboard, the soundboard is braced so that one area responds to treble frequencies, while another responds to bass frequencies. This is achieved by having radial coupling braces extending out to different lengths from around the area of the bridge. On the bass side of the bridge, the tone bars extend significantly longer, all the way into the soundboard upper bout, while on the treble side, the tone bars are significantly shorter. The treble side of the soundboard is further braced with treble confinement bars, which extend around the ends of the treble tone bars.

The second significant feature of the Kasha/Schneider theory is a wedge shape impedance dependant bridge. The shape of this bridge is specially designed to further optimise transfer of energy from the strings to the soundboard, by driving the bass tones into the bass side of the soundboard, and treble tones to the treble section.

The third significant feature of the Kasha/Schneider theory is to shift the soundhole from the centre of the soundboard, to the upper bout on the treble side. This increases the effective area of the soundboard that is available for vibration and sound production, and also reduces the loss of soundboard strength generated by a soundhole.

The Kasha/Schneider theory has been applied to ukuleles by luthier Michael Chock from Hana Lima ‘Ia, with a series of slight modifications to adjust the idea to be more suitable for the smaller body size. The principle of the modified Kasha/Schneider bracing system adopted for the MAKAIO TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele comes from the plans produced by Hana Lima ‘Ia.

The bracing for the TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele has six radial tone bars extending from the bridge toward the neck, and a further six extending from the bridge toward the tail. There are a further two tone bars extending off each end of the bridge patch. The treble side of the soundboard has treble confinement bars going around the ends of the treble tone bars. The centreline of the soundboard has cross-grain grafts to reinforce the joint between the two bookmatched plates that form the soundboard. The transverse brace that was intended to cross the soundboard below the bridge centreline has been left out, and instead a 1.8 mm thick spruce patch has been placed below the bridge. All of the radial tone bars are notched over this patch. A series of smaller soundholes have been placed in the upper bout on the treble side, with this area also reinforced by a cross-grain spruce patch. An oval side-port will be placed in the body of this ukulele to facilitate most of the sound transmission, with holes in the soundboard mainly added for aesthetics.

TKL003 Tenor Kasha UkuleleDesign Details

This ukulele was designed and started in early 2007 and I expect to be finished in late 2008. The ukulele will have a modified Kasha/Schnieder braced soundboard with a ladder braced back. The soundboard will be built with a 25 ft radius domed profile, while the back will be built with a 15 ft domed profile. The neck will be designed as a long scale neck with a 14 fret body connection, and will be reinforced using a carbon fibre stiffening rod. This ukulele will have an offset soundhole design in the treble upper bout as well as a side port on the bass upper bout. To compliment the modified Kasha/Schnieder sounboard bracing system, a low G tuning will be used for this ukulele.

Components of the TKL003 Tenor Kasha Ukulele are:
Soundboard: Engelmann Spruce (Picea engelmanni)
Back/Sides: Tasmanian "Tiger" Myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii)
Neck: Honduran Mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
Fretboard: Macassar Ebony (Diospyros celibica)
Bridge: Macassar Ebony (Diospyros celibica)
Binding: East Indian Rosewood (Dalbergia latifolia)
Tuners: Gotoh SGM Mini Closed Geared (16:1) in Chrome