It was a zen day today. Fretwork is always zen-work. Yesterday we cut fretboards, slotted them and installed frets for our four Keystones making their way through the shop. We dressed the fret-ends this morning and glued up the fretboards. Then we finished the day adding accents at the ends of the necks. These four will be in finishing this week. Here are the pics.
Roni
First up is Roni. Fretboard is cut to follow the soundhole. We haven’t finished sanding yet but you can see her beautiful curly Maple starting to shine and shimmer.
Each “wobbly” soundhole is cut by hand so they are each unique.
Roni has a curly Maple back to match her sound board and a little Rosewood accent from the same piece of rosewood that makes up her fretboard
Traveler
“Traveler” is our first thin-bodied, “travel” ukulele. perhaps not a thin as some other travel ukes, but quite thin for us. Traveler has a one-piece cedar soundboard.
California
“California” has a beautiful golden Kauri soundboard like we used on Akinori. This wood is simply beautiful. Like “Roni”, California uses a “wobbly” soundhole. She also has a K&K Twin Spot pickup installed and a soundport on the side.
Can’t wait to see this golden Kauri with finish on it. It is just going to shine!
Fancy
Ukulele “Fancy” has a quilted Maple sound board. Really beautiful stuff. Also she has a soundport on the side.
Fancy’s back and sides are Poplar with a rosewood accent at the neck.
Four Keystones
From left: Roni, Traveler, California & Fancy
And from the back. Ukulele California (2nd from right) has a “wobbly” neck accent to match her wobbly sound hole
So there we are, lots of progress. Tomorrow should be a dust blizzard because we’ll be sanding.
Smile when you play that!™
WOW! You sure have been busy…. Beautiful as always!
I have used up all my sliced walnut and had to purchase another board. The band saw will be getting a workout in the next few days. Finished #16… Have lots of questions but will use the e-mail to get your reply…
I love that lighter grain on the rosewood (Roni and Fancy).
I like medium toned fretboards. Like on Renata. The have kind of a retro look I think.