The Summer of Electrics
Yes, 2020 has come off the rails and who knows how hard it will hit when it finally reaches the ground. In the meantime, amping up to build some electrics over the summer and we are kicking it off with an electric baritone ukulele.
I don’t know if I had even heard of a baritone ukulele until Jill’s aunt Jill wanted me to build one. Turns out, it is basically the top 4 strings of a guitar with a much shorter scale length. For a fun, “quick” build, decided to build an electric one for my daughter Sara.
I have recently started making templates for all the parts our of foam board to make sure everything lines up correctly and to check dimensions as the build progresses. Save time on a lot of extra measuring and worrying.
The body on this one is a framed hollow body type design that I have been playing around with for a while. Since the “electric” part of the uke would be a transducer glued to the top just in front of the bridge, I thought this design might work well.
Since this one would not rely on the “acoustic” parameters as much for it’s sound, I left the top fairly thick and lightly braced along the string line.
Got a lot of practice veneering oh this one - mostly how NOT to do it. the top is spruce with a flame maple veneer.
Headstock has a nice section of veneer as well. Been doing that on most all my guitars.
Another new feature on this one is a hand-did blue burst for the finish. Didn’t get any pics of that…. Sara wanted a sea-blue color scheme and in the end, we think it turned out pretty cool.
I knew that I had succeeded in part of my fathering when Sara went along with the reverse headstock as the cooler design. If Hendrix had played a baritone uke, I think he would have liked this one.
Just finished up an electric guitar for my buddy Larry Chicken (aka Scott Rogers). Keep an eye out…. Pics will be coming very soon.