Ukuleles
Number One - un-named
This was the first instrument I did 'solo'. The guitar to the right of it had been commissioned and I chose to do a practice piece to ensure that my plan for the cut-away worked. The small lip at the cut-away/neck joint was not liked so I found a way to blend them in. The Uke now lives with the Hale family in Caerffili.
The logo I chose is a Penrose Triangle, part of the Penrose/Escher story.
The Scrapbox Uke
As its name suggests, this concert sized uke was built from some off-cuts, some woods no longer needed by friends and some scraps of mother of pearl.
It was the first on which I used two holes in the tie-block for each string. This gives a much easier knot and the angle of the string over the saddle is better.
The last two photos show that the headstock could either be left with the contrasting woods of the neck or have a veneer added.
The Labyrinth
I started to build this instrument from some of the offcuts from guitars and to be a family instrument. At the time my grandson was showing an interest in mazes, hence the rosette.
The contrasting woods in the neck look especially good near the nut as the carving of the back of the neck creates a curved appearance (compare photos 2 and 3).
The binding of the fingerboard is purely there to make the very nice offcut I had wide enough to fit the neck
The King Harry
David was looking for a solution to the problem of needing more space for his fretting hand. The King Harry has a slightly wider neck and more room between the frets with an increased scale length.
He has a business hiring out vintage buses, called King Harry Coaches and thought he'd like the logo of that business reflected in parts of the uke. There were a few draft versions before we ended up with what you see in the photographs. Included in the uke is wood from two of David's special coaches.
Tom's Uke (another that didn't develop a name - yet)
The King Harry (above) was taken along to a local ukulele group and the leader there liked it enough to commission this. Though he wasn't keen on the narrow waist so we altered the shape a little.
He has a few already, all with white binding, and wanted that on this tenor. I didn't want to put plastic on it so used holly which worked well. One of them has a Fender Telecaster shaped headstock and Tom liked the four-a-side arrangement of tuners so we went for that.
The back and sides are made of the ash wood that he asked me to use. Photo 1 shows the two hole tie-block.
