MIMF

Aquila's bionylons are a softer string, other than that try Aquila nylguts or Worth browns.

You only need half the switch. A SPDT would have done the trick. Red & white to one side, green to the other. Run a wire from the middle to the pickup lug on the volume or tone pot and you're done.

Thanks for all the info. I ended up just basing my bracing on a heap of pics from Googling "ukulele bracing", but some of the articles made interesting reading and improved my understanding of how and why tops react as they do. The latest uke sounds at least as good as the more basic mass ...

Very comforting!

I had a really cool grey MIMF Hurricane Katrina Appeal T-shirt. Sure it was getting on in years and starting to fray a bit, but I loved that T-shirt! It was unique, looked cool and made me feel a part of this community. Well today I put my maroon fitted sheet and pillowcases in the washing machine, ...

Thanks Chris. It's a solid Hoop pine body shape based on the Lag Jet guitar shape. Bridge position works out pretty much where you suggest. I was going to brace it with a bridge plate under the bridge and a couple of braces using offcuts of the 3mm Stewmac spruce, so an H pattern. I've also built a ...

I'm starting with a 7" diameter by 1 1/4" deep space, spruce top which I plan to take down to about 2.5mm, so not dissimilar to a ukulele/mandolin except a 40mm soundhole and using a uke bridge and some very basic bracing rather than a floating bridge. I figure if I can get soprano uke vol...

Hi John. I'm working from the Tahitian uke model as a starting point. I've never had the patience or skill to build traditional acoustic instruments (ukes, guitars and mandos) and there's never been a need as the Chinese and their CNC machines do it so well, but the Tahitian ukes got me interested i...

I was reading that the "traditional" ones use 30lb fishing line, ideally bright green! I guess with no tone caps to discuss there's really only what colour and brand of fishing line to argue over!

It is interesting just how much sound is soaked up when the soundhole is up against one's portly tummy! I might have to rig up a toneguard type of effort to hold the uke away from my body. For a 6" diameter plywood soundboard and cheap soprano uke strings on tenor scale length it's not bad thou...

Thanks for that Michael. I've just pulled up Allan's profile and I'm madly opening up his posts to harvest some wisdom!

Thanks Owen. That books has way too much maths for me but I'll work my way through it! Here's an example. Some years ago when a mate had a guitar shop one of his customers picked up a really horrible banjo-mandolin at a market for a few dollars. Rather than rehabilitate the thing he removed the vell...

Thanks Owen. It's things like the effects of the rigidity or sound absorption properties of backs and sides, the concept of "driving" the top and how it's affected by various bracing and bridge designs, how and why soundholes work etc. that I want to get my head around.

The discussions of various ukes here has got me thinking about the different types of bridge and how that affects the physics of the top and hence the sound. Most mandos have a floating bridge so the strings push the top down, although the Ovation mando has an acoustic guitar style of bridge. The tr...

I can see why they sometimes refer to them as Tahitian Banjos... it's a very plunky sound! It'll actually be a handy thing to have about the place when my daughter complains if I play guitar or uke after she's gone to bed.

It's legal here in Australia and the chemical mix has been changed... but we still refer to is as CCA treated or "Permapine".

Thanks Steve. The body is an offcut of CCA treated garden edging timber cut to a Les Paul body shape, so it's definitely not an upmarket instrument! :-) If this one turns out to be ok'ish I'll include a spruce top set in my next Stewmac order, so for around $20 I'll have enough to make a better uke ...

Thanks David! I've seen them on YouTube and you're right, it a very trebly sound played almost like a double chop on a mandolin. Jai Laga'aia who is one of our Aussie imports from New Zealand (but his family comes from Samoa) plays one with a normal ukulele strum on a YouTube track "My Ukulele&...

Hi Dave

Great little uke. What's the tone and sound projection like compared to a "normal" tenor?