TL002 Completed Oil Finish

The TL002 Tenor Long Scale Tasmanian Blackwood ukulele has been finished with a Tru-Oil varnish. This finishing technique is applied to most MAKAIO ukuleles, as it is incredibly light and has little dampening effect on the acoustics of the instrument.

Prior to applying the oil varnish, a pore filling process was completed for the body of the ukulele, using a clear epoxy finishing resin. By filling the pores of the timber prior to applying the oil varnish, the completed finish appears significantly smoother and the body has a higher gloss. Following the application of the pore filler epoxy, the ukulele was level sanded back to bare timber, and the application of the Tru-Oil finish started. Overall the Blackwood ukulele recieved four base coats of oil (applied two coats daily), followed by a light sanding, then four finishing coats (applied one coat per day). The oil finish was then allowed to fully cure for approximately one week, followed by the application of a light wax (mixture of beeswax, carnauba wax, and silicon).

Completed oil finish on the Tasmanian Blackwood ukulele



A Tasmanian Blackwood and a Tasmanian "Tiger" Myrtle ukulele hanging to dry

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

TL002 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
• Closing the ukulele body by joining the back plate
• Trimming the back and soundboard to be flush to the sides
  

Sides joined to soundboard and neck, with kerfed lining fitted

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

With the body of the ukulele now constructed, the tap tone can already be heard to be loud and full, primarily due to the Blackwood soundboard. The ukulele body will now be further tuned by selectively thinning areas of soundboard and back to refine the sound of the ukulele and improve the projection and sustain.

Assembled body - front

Assembled body - back

Soundhole and "Tiger" Myrtle rosette; assembled Blackwood body

TL002 Tenor Long Scale UkuleleNeck Preparation

The large Tasmanian Blackwood block that was purchased for the TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele was initially cut down into enough pieces for two tenor sized neck blanks, along with heel blocks and tail blocks. The Blackwood neck blanks were perfectly quarter sawn, with tight strong grain. While slightly heavier than traditional neck timber, these Blackwood necks will be extremely stiff, and more importantly stable for many years to come. 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.

Tasmanian Blackwood 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 Blackwood 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 Tasmanian Blackwood neck with carved heel

TL002 Tenor Long Scale UkuleleSoundboard and Back Preparation

Initially the Tasmanian Blackwood pieces for the ukulele back and sides were significantly thicker than required, so the first step in the construction process was to thickness sand these pieces down from approximately 6 mm to 3 mm. Following this, the bookmatched plates were edge sanded and joined.

Bookmatched Blackwood soundboard and back plates, prior to joining

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Once the bookmatched plates were joined, they were cut roughly to shape (leaving approximately 8 mm overhang), then further thickness sanded to get to a reasonable working thickness for installing the rosette. In this case the soundboard plate was thickness sanded to 2.1 mm, then the Tasmanian ‘Tiger’ Myrtle rosette was inlaid and levelled. The soundboard was then further thickness sanded to achieve the right long-grain stiffness and cross-grain flexibility, which in this case was at a thickness of 1.75 mm. The back plate was thinned to 2 mm.

Blackwood soundboard with "Tiger" Myrtle rosette, and Blackwood back

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The next step in the construction sequence was to add a cross grain bridge and soundhole patch to the soundboard, then to construct and fit the soundboard and back bracing. The patches are applied to reinforce the soundboard area directly under the bridge, and to compensate for the weakness generated by having a centre soundhole. All of the patches and bracing used in this ukulele are Engelmann Spruce. The braces were initially cut to size, then profiled into a triangular cross sectional shape, which provides good support to the soundboard but reduces the mass of the braces. The braces were then shaped to the 25 ft and 15 ft dome profile for the soundboard and back respectively, and fixed to the plates using the go-bar deck and the domed workboard. The centreline joint of the back plate was then reinforced using a domed cross grain Engelmann Spruce graft, that was specially shaped to have minimal mass, but provide maximum reinforcement for the joint between the two plates.

The cross braces on the back plate were then shaped by scalloping the ends near the perimeter of the ukulele, to further reduce mass and increase the flexibility if the plate, allowing the back to resonate more freely. The cross braces on the soundboard were shaped to have a parabolic top curve, which reduces the mass but maintains stiffness and strength. The ends of the braces near the ukulele perimeter were also scalloped to increase the ability of the soundboard to vibrate. The most important brace shaping was for the three fan braces that support the main soundboard around the bridge area. These tone bars are shaped so that they have maximum bending strength directly under the bridge saddle, and steadily decrease in stiffness toward the soundhole and the tail.

Blackwood soundboard and back plates, after bracing

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Internal soundboard and back bracing

TL002 Tenor Long Scale UkuleleMaterials and Preparation

The TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele is intended to be made using all Australian native timber species for the main components. I sourced the various parts for this ukulele from a range of places, and I think the tonewoods that have been selected will combine to create a beautiful ukulele that will be suited to a strumming style of play.

For the soundboard, back, sides, and neck, I chose to use Tasmanian Blackwood. I went to Guitar Woods at Botany to personally select the Blackwood pieces for this ukulele, as well as many other parts for different ukulele projects. I selected two nice medium figured bookmatched pieces of Blackwood that were long enough to cut three back/soundboard pieces out of, so I have ended up with one spare back. I also selected a pair of endmatched sides, for this ukulele and a large beautifully figured Blackwood block that I have re-sawn into two tenor neck blanks.

Blackwood soundboard/back plates, and Blackwood sides

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The two pieces that were cut down for the back and soundboard are generally a light brown colour with dark brown streaks running through them. They have a medium flame figure, which is most obvious in the centre of the back. Even though the raw Blackwood pieces were quite thick at about 6 mm to start with, they had a lovely sweet ringing tap tone.

I chose a Gidgee guitar fretboard from Australian Luthier Supplies that was then cut down for the TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele fretboard and bridge. Like the Blackwood, Gidgee is a native Australian timber species from the Acacia family. The fretboard blank that I ended up with is a beautiful chocolate brown colour that should match well with the Tasmanian Blackwood body.

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Gidgee blank for fretboard and bridge

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The bindings for this ukulele are Tasmanian ‘Tiger’ Myrtle which I ordered from Tim Spittle at Australian Tonewoods in Western Australia. I have also used this timber as the rosette inlay for this ukulele. Most of the remaining components such as bracing, fretwire, marker dots, nut, saddle, tuners etc, came from Asa Chock at Hana Lima ‘Ia in Honolulu.

TL002 Tenor Long Scale UkuleleDesign Details

This ukulele was designed and started in early 2007, and is the first of the MAKAIO Ukuleles to be made with all Australian tonewoods. I expect to finish this ukulele in late 2008. The ukulele will have a traditional fan 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.

Components of the TL002 Tenor Long Scale Ukulele are:
Soundboard/Back/Sides: Tasmanian Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon)
Neck: Tasmanian Blackwood (Acacia melanoxylon)
Fretboard: Gidgee (Acacia cambagei)
Bridge: Gidgee (Acacia cambagei)
Binding: Tasmanian "Tiger" Myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii)
Rosette: Tasmanian "Tiger" Myrtle (Nothofagus cunninghamii)
Tuners: Gotoh SGM Mini Closed Geared (16:1) in Chrome