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I'm building my first uke, a tenor. (Actually I'm building a prototype first, and then the one that has been ordered.) I have the GAL Martin plan, which I'm using for body shape. The uke will be a 12-fret, 17" scale, and I will use classical-style tie block on the bridge. I toyed with building slotted pegheads, but am going with the more usual choice. The ordered one is getting Waverly tuners.

Besides the GAL plan, I have the Hana Lima 'Ia construction book and plan. Based on my experience building classical and flamenco guitars, I look at the braced Hana Lima 'Ia top (for example, their page 35) and it looks beefy to me - more like I'd expect on a steel string. I know that I'm thrown off a little because I'm looking at such a small plantilla. Any comments anyone would care to offer? (i.e., is it indeed a little beefy, or OK?)

My prototype is going to be spruce and black limba. The real one is going to be ... strange! (Under wraps until revealed upon completion.) Not strange in terms of wood properties within standard limits, but just strange. Both will have Spanish Heels with necks from Spanish Cedar. (The Spanish heel stems from my usual background, and is what leads me to close inspection of the Hana Lima 'Ia plans, built the same way.)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Jim,
I do not have any real answer, just some recent experience. I nearly followed the same path, spruce top, Martin plantilla, also my body depth followed the Martin and I used the Hana Lima construction book. I also thought the fans were beefy and reduced them more inline to what I thought was right based on my experience building classical guitars. The instrument sounded great to me, but I think ukulele people thought it sounded a bit too much like a guitar (what ever that meant). I will be interested in what experience ukulele builders say as well as I have a whole batch that I want to start building.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

There's a current thread in the Lounge on U.Underground that pertains to bracing http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/sho ... Pipe-Dream

Personally, that `ukulele is severely overbraced, both the transverse, as well as the bridge patch.
Of course, the fan braces, imo, have no shape that will do the soundboard any good. May be a good short read in what to avoid.

As for an `ukulele sounding like a guitar, here, low g Tenors are pretty much where its at, and a "guitarish" sound is not shyed away from. Depends on the player. If you want a Tiny Tim/chalangalang/high pitched `ukulele, a Spruce topped tenor is not where you want to be. Build a hardwood (read: Mahogany or Koa) Standard instead.

Low g Tenors are a great transition, imo, for guitar players that want to start playing ukulele. Its basically the first 4 strings of a guitar, capo at the 5th. Personally, most (all) of mine are low g tenors with Spruce tops.

As well, I think those plans are overbuilt. But it's going to take some instruments built on that size to come to grips with how light to go.

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Allen R. McFarlen
Barron River Guitars & Ukuleles
Facebook
Cairns, Australia

I build one using the Hana Lima 'Ia plans. It was my first build and I tried to follow the plans as close as possible. This was before the book had come out so I cant really comment on that.

If I build another (and I will) I'll probably thin the braces a bit more. I know a bit more about what I'm trying to do now so I think I could pull it off. The fist go was mainly just trying to build something that worked and I had some pride in.

I do remember reading on their forum that when they built theirs, they would sand the edge of the top to "tune" it. You not only had the stiffness of the braces as part of it, but the edge of the plate that were part of the tuning process. Sort of like dealing with the recurve on an archtop.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will proceed with my own notions of what the bracing should look like. I also wondered about the bridge patch. Again, a very beefy add-on in my mind, since I'm used to not using one at all.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Whatever you do, keep it light. I agree that the plan brace dimensions are a bit too heavy. I start with brace stock that is .21 - .23 wide and about .40 high, then carve them down leaving peaks on the tone bars. I use three of them on a tenor, but I am not totally convinced the third one is needed (the middle one).

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Kevin Mason
Mason Guitars and Ukuleles on Facebook
http://masonguitars.net

I'm building my first using the same plan set, interested in seeing/hearing the results.