Hello there, my fellow artisans and handcrafts enthusiasts!
Welcome back to this build and to its final entry. Thanks for following this project until the end. Today, we finally get to the last stage of the instrument and get to wrap up all the tasks. Nut, saddle, tuners and strings, all get onto this instrument to give it the chance to make its first notes.
Let's get to it!
Nut and Saddle
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Before we start to make the nut and saddle for this instrument we take some time to appreciate the quality of the polish work on the finish. After letting this sink, we move ahead to cut some blanks and start this small and important pieces.
The idea is the same for both pieces. Nut and saddle set the action of the strings. We need to make the blanks to get both in their respective slots and then start adjusting their height, shape and all.
First, we get the blanks or cut them if needed. Then we measure the thickness needed for both slots. One piece is longer and the other thicker. We use the hand plane to remove material until we get close to the fit. Next we need to sand the pieces to make them get into their slots with a certain amount of pressure. This is to ensure they do not move. However, the strings do a good job keeping the pieces in place.
Next, we use a special pencil to set the height of the nut. It has to match the heigh of the first three frets. This is how much we can remove from the top of the nut. And after this, we can take the measurements to make the division for the slots. We use the caliper for precision measuring.
Set up and tuners
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After working on the thickness of the nut and saddle, we can move to their shaping. We remove from the top of the nut. Then we make the slots. We can make them bigger if needed. We can also carve any design we want to give the top portion of this piece.
The same is true for the saddle. We start removing material from the top to adjust the action to a set value. We always start with high action and then adjust. We cannot add material; only remove it.
Once the customization is ready, we apply some teak oil to both pieces to protect them. During this step, we can also get the tuners in place. It is always great to get a look at the instrument almost finished!
Strings
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Any additional adjustments to nut and saddle are always made once the strings are in place. There is no other way around it. We are using this strings of the brand Alice (they are not the best) since there are not many option for Ukulele strings in the national market.
Setting this up is the same step as with any other plucked-strings instrument. We make a knot at the bridge and then pass the strings through the hole in the tuners. We tight them by winding the tuner. Fortunately, we have a winder for it.
This helps us get an idea of how to work any compensation in the tuning of the instrument. Finally, we can take a moment to let the fact that the build is complete sink in our mind. It looks great and was a really interesting experience. Hopefully, I'll get to make more ukuleles in the future.
Thanks a lot for following the process. You can check out the complete list of posts for the build in the last parts of this entry. See you on the next build!
Photos 📷: Redmi Note 13
Thumbnail 🖼️: Canva.
Editing 🎬:Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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