Day #16

Aloha!

     Today is the big day that you finally get to finish the ukulele! It should now have the finish on and hopefully, it looks really good. Now for the final steps. The first thing that you need to do is install the tuners.
After you have bought a kind that suits you, insert them into the holes so that the label can be read. It is important that you install them correctly so they spin the strings the correct way. You can hand tighten the tuners and adjust to your liking. Then you will have to screw them in to the headstock. If you want, you can pre drill a hole for the little screws before screwing them in.

     Using torch tip cleaning files, make the holes in the nut for the strings to go through. Then from the front of the nut, measure 17 and 3/32" down the uke and mark where it ends. The end is where the front of the saddle will be. After you draw a center line, put a piece of masking tape that is bigger than the bridge down. Trace the outline of the bridge onto the tape so the nut will still line up with the point you made. Cut out that outline with a exacto knife and scrape off the finisher in that area you just cut out.

     Secure the bridge in place with double stick tape. Mark the locations of the two outside strings and drill 1/16" holes into the soundboard. Insert 3/4" brads into the holes and then apply a thin layer of glue onto the bridge and soundboard. After you put the bridge on the soundboard , clamp it down. After ten minutes, take out the brads and re clamp for twenty four hours.

     The height of the strings over the 12th fret will be 5/32". make a shim that is 5/32" for your straight edge to rest on. Using the straight edge, place one end at the bass string location on the saddle and the other end at the bass slot on the nut. The bottom of your straight edge will be the height of the saddle. Draw a line across the saddle where it will be trimmed. Sand off the excess material, but leave the line. Being careful, sand a light crown at the top of the saddle.

     To find the string holes for the bridge, divide the distance of the outside holes by three to find the equal spacing between the two other holes. All four of the holes should be 5/16" from the saddle. Drill the last two holes by hand with a 1/16" bit.

     Now feed the strings through the sound hole and into the bridge holes. Place a bead at one end of the string and tie in place with some overhand knots. Then, pull the strings so the bead sits under the bridge. The bass string goes on the lower left hand tuner from the right side and out the left side. The end of the string loops counterclockwise under the string and then back over. Wind the knob clockwise to tighten the string. Once all the strings have been put on, you are done with making your very own ukulele! Now the next step would be to learn how to play, but I think you can do that on your own time. Good luck!

(Word of the day: Hau' oli/Joy)

Mahalo!

Day #15

Aloha!

     These next few days are probably the easiest days. You have fully assemble the ukulele except for the strings, tuners, bridge, and the nut and saddle. All you have to do is apply finishing coats on the ukulele. You can only apply two coats a day or you will ruin your ukulele and  you need eight coats. Do not put finish on the fingerboard! Work in sections and after you finish a section, rub off the finisher immediately. See you in four days!

(Word of the day: Mauna/Mountian)

Mahalo!

Day #14

Aloha!

     Today, we will be attaching the fretboard to the neck, shaping the headstock, making the tuner holes, and a few other things. If you want to, you can make a little design at the sound hole end of the fretboard to go around the sound hole. Temporarily hold the neck and fretboard together with double stick tape. Then, position the fretboard and center it on the neck. Use two pieces of masking tape and place it on the fretboard edges where it passes over the soundboard. Then, use a hand drill and use a bit that is 1/16" to drill into the fretboard at the 1st and 11th frets. Don't drill through the neck, only the fretboard. Lightly hit brads into two holes.

     Cut notches into a caul to fit around the brads. Glue the neck and fretboard together and place the caul on top of the fretboard before you put the clamps on to not ruin the fretboard. After it has dried, remove the clamps and brads and install the two missing pieces of fret wire. Do not forget to bevel and trim the wire ends.

     To glue the headstock veneer, you need to square the end of the veneer that will butt against the break angle. Sand the end to a 15 degree angle. Apply glue and clamp it around the entire headstock. Be sure to leave a gap of 3/16" between the headstock and the fretboard. The gap is the nut slot. Make sure that the bottom of the headstock is smooth and sand if needed. Then you can create a headstock design to be creative. It is a good idea to rough cut the design and then sand it down. Then, use a file to sand where the headstock and neck join.

     Moving on to the heel of the ukulele, we need to glue the heel cap on. Just make a shape similar and a little bigger than the heel  and glue it and clamp it on. After it dries, sand it down to fit the heel. Now, you will put on the final touches of the neck by sanding it down. It should be smooth and round all throughout the neck and the widest point is where the neck meets the fretboard.

     The first two tuner holes will be 1 and 1/2" from the break angles. The last two will be 3 and 1/4" from the break. All four holes will be 7/16" from the side of the headstock. Mark these holes and drill out the holes with a 1/16" bit. Drill from the top surface to the back to have a cleaner look. Sand off any pencil marks on the headstock.

(Word of the day: Mea 'ai/Food)

Mahalo!

Day #13

Aloha!

     Today is the day that the backboard gets attached to the rest of the uke. For it to be attached properly, we need to work on the rest of the uke first. Using a felt tip marker, cover the surface of the tentalones. Then sand them until all of the marker has disappeared. Then, sand from the high point of the tail block toward the heel block until the sides are clean. Now take the backboard and starting from the tail block, fit it onto the sides. Be sure to align the center line of the backboard with the rest of the ukulele. Once it is set, hold it in place with some clamps. Next, you need to measure the thickness of your tentalones and sides. Draw it on the inside of the backboard and use it to chisel the braces on the backboard.

     Now, apply a thin layer of glue along the sides of the uke and brush the glue inward towards the tentalones. Place the backboard on and clamp it at the tail, then the heel. Once it is aligned, continue to clamp. After that has dried, use a jig saw to trim the soundboard and backboard so they are close to fitting the sides. Then go and sand them down until they are flush with the sides of the ukulele. It is best to do the sanding by hand as the sides are very thin and if you mess up, you might go right through it. Then, cut out the sound hole. You can either use a drill press mounted circle cutter, a key-hole blade, or a saber blade. After the hole is cut out, put sandpaper around a dowel and sand the edge.

     After all of this is complete, begin to pencil light marks all of over the surface and sand the body using circular motions. Then sand the edge of the sound and backboards. As you sand the edges, progressively move to finer grits of sandpaper. As you get to the finer grits, you will have to sand parallel with the grain.

(Word of the day: Makani/Wind)

Mahalo!

Day #12

Aloha!

     So today, you get to assemble most of the ukulele! The first things you want to grab are your neck, soundboard, and sides. Clamp the soundboard and neck to your assembly jig. Adjust the waist blocks to lock into place. The sides should fit into the heel slots easily. If they don't sand them down until they fit nicely. Be careful when working with the sides because they'll break very easily. After they've been put in, inspect the butt joint of the tail ends and sand a little if it doesn't fit together.

     Mask to the bottom ends together with long pieces of masking tape. Take your tail block and glue and clamp it to the tail end of the sides. Apply a bead of glue onto all of the flat edge of the sides. Take two veneer shims (1/4" wide and 3/4" long) and insert them into the heel slots against the heel block. Be sure to put them in the inside so they won't be visible when finished which should make a clean fit with the neck and sides.

     Using clamps (spool clamps are preferred) work your way from the heel to the tail end and clamp the sides, one side at a time. Then let them dry for two hours. After they have dried you will install the tentalones into the uke. You can start from either end and work your way down the sides. The flat side should be glued to the sides (It's okay if the tentalones crack or break). It helps if you clamp the tentalones in place with pieces of plywood that can fit over the sides of the uke and down to the tentalones. When you reach a horizontal bar, cut the tentalone flush with the bar. After installing the rest of the tentalones, glue one tentalone block on top of the brace bar ends.

     After your bottom tentalones have dried, you have to do the same thing at the top edge of your sides. Once you have glued them to the sides, a great clamp to use if PVC pipe clamps. Just take some PVC pipe and cut it into small circles. Then, cut a slot through one end of the circle and you have PVC clamps. If you can't make the clamps. then clothes pines will work too. Leave the clamps on for about an hour until the glue dries.

(Word of the day: Mokupuni/Island)

Mahalo!

Day #11

Aloha!

     Hey everybody! For the next parts of building the ukulele, there were parts that I needed that I could not find in local stores and had to order online. I ordered a pre-cut fretboard, fret wire, tuners, strings, tentalones, bridge pins, marker dots, a bridge, and the nut and saddle. So unfortunately, I can't tell you how to make those but it is probably best if you see if you can find them in a store.

     The first thing I did was install the marker dots on the fretboard. They are found on the 5th, 7th, 10th, and 12 frets. Drill the holes for the dots so that when put in , the dots stick out a little bit so they can be sanded down. Next, we need to install the fret wire. Putting the fret wire over the slots on the fretboard, cut each piece a quarter inch longer than needed. Putting glue on the fret tang, install into the fretboard and trim the fret wire with a wire cutter. Do not install fret wire on the first and eleventh frets because they will be used later to index the fretboard when you glue to the neck. Clamp the wire to the fretboard and let dry. Once its dry, bevel the edges.

(Word of the day: Hoku/Star)

Mahalo!

Day #10

Aloha!

     So today, I also worked on the neck and soundboard and just about finished up the neck. I used sandpaper, clamps, a hammer, a dremmel, a chisel, a table saw, and a mitre box. The first thing that you have to do is get your side pieces. They should be thin pieces of wood that can be bent easily. Now what I did was I took three pieces of MDF wood which is 3/4" thick wood and I used the backboard as reference and cut out the outline of the backboard. From there, I glue the three pieces of wood on top of each other to form a mold for the sides of my ukulele. I clamped them together and let them dry.

     After that, I took my soundboard and trimmed the braces to accommodate for the sides. Using your template, cut out the tail block which is 2 and 3/4" tall. Then trace a line on the top of it to match the curve of the bottom of the uke using your template and sand down the side of the tail block to make the curve. Next, you need to cut the neck table. You can use a bow saw or a regular saw to make the curve. The recess will be as deep as the thickness of your soundboard. After you measure down, draw the line to be cut out. It should make a shape similar to a half circle but including the recess.

     Now we have to glue the soundboard to the neck. To do this we need to make sure that the soundboard fits tightly with the neck. Cut out the excess part of the top of the soundboard to fit the neck. Sand down the two until they fit together if needed and then glue them together. Use clamps to hold them together and let dry.

     Now you are going to take the mold you made earlier and start to bend the sides. Before you can bend the sides you need to wet the wood. Then place your sides into the mold and start to slowly bend. Keep clamping parts to the mold as you go along and spray with water when needed. After you have the two sides clamped to the mold, let them dry out and when they are dry, you can take them out of the mold and they should be bent to what you need for the ukulele.

(Word of the day: Anuenue/Rainbow)

Mahalo!

Day #9

Aloha!

     Today, I worked  on the neck and the tools I used were a dremmel, sandpaper, table saw, and clamps. The first step that you need to do is measure from the top of the neck down 7/16". Do that again at the break angle. Then from the tail blocks, measure 1 inch towards the headstock. From there, measure down 5/8". Now draw a line to connect those dots for guidelines for the thickness of your neck. Don't cut it out yet. Make a line 3/16" from the break angle for the nut line. The heel slots will be 9 and 7/16" (14th fret location)  from the nut line and 8 and 1/2" (12th fret location) from the nut line. Draw lines parallel to the nut line from those marks.Cut the heel slots at a 3 degree angle for the curved sides. The cuts should be 7/8" deep and 1/8" wide.

     Next with your table saw, adjust the blade height to 5/8". Use a test block and make a cut that will go 1/8" before going through the fretboard face. Now, start at the heel slots and cut the heel area closest to you. Make a group of cuts approximately 2" in length towards the headstock. Turn over the neck and repeat what you just did. You will now have an area 3/4" wide at the bottom of the heel. The curve of the cut should end 1/8" from the fretboard face. Cut the height of the heel block to match the head end of the side pieces (2 and 3/4").

     Then, you will draw a center line down the fretboard. The neck width at the nut line will be 1 and 3/8".  The width at the 12th fret location will be 1 and 3/4". Draw the taper with those dimensions. Now, use a jigsaw to cut the thickness of the lines from step one. After that, use the jig saw to cut the taper. Cut just outside the line (1/16" to 2/8") for extra room.

     Draw a center line on the bottom side of your neck from heel to headstock. On the edge of the neck, draw a line 1/8" for the fretboard. Take a chisel and chisel the outside of your heel chiseling a facet toward the base of the heel. Use sandpaper to sand the heel further.

     Now you will attach the ears to the headstock. When you glue them, keep them slightly higher than the headstock and when their dry, you can sand them. Use clamps to hold in place.

(Word of day: Kakahiaka/Morning)

Mahalo!

Day #8

Aloha!

     The second day was great and I made good progress on my ukulele. I used Go-Bar Deck, Go-Bar, a drill, a laminate trimmer, 1/8" straight bit, lever clamps, a circle cutting jig, a scraper, and a circle cutting work board. The first thing I did was glue the braces to the backboard. Now I used weights and just put them on, but Go-Bars work great when you are gluing the braces on. Since you have already pre-cut the tone bars out, this process shouldn't take long accept for the drying of course. The next part is adding the 3 grafts which serve as reinforcement for the braces. They are about 3/8" by 4 or 5 inches long. Be careful with the grafts because they can break easily. Before gluing them on, take some sandpaper and bevel the sides of a all three grafts.

     The grafts go in between bars one and two and between two and three. The last graft will go between the third bar and about 3/4" from the bottom of your backboard to leave room for the tail block. The grafts go down the center line and if needed, try drawing a line down the center of the backboard to ensure you place them correctly. Next, we have to scallop the braces to reduce the mass a little more. Start by marking a distance of 1 and 1/2" from the outline of the ukulele towards the center of the bars. On the lower bout bar, it is 2". Then chisel down the ends of the braces but do not reduce the length. They are intentionally left long to help assemble the uke later. After that is done, you can add a label for your uke in between brace 1 and 2 on the center line. The sound hole lies right above it on the soundboard and you will be able to see the label once the uke is finished.

     Now taking the soundboard, you need to drill a hole at the center of where the sound hole will go. Make sure you do this correctly and use your blueprints to check. Place the soundboard on an index pin fixed to a work board. Cut a 3 inch diameter using a band saw. Start from the top of the channel and work clockwise. Then, clean up the rosette channel with sandpaper. Using a strip of about 10" long, carefully bend and install the strip into the channel. It's okay if the top portion has nothing because the fretboard will cover up about an inch of the top. Use a 4 x 4 piece of plywood and place it over the rosette design. Then, clamp it up until dry.

     Take your soundboard with the template side up. For this part, you'll need two upper bars and waist horizontal bars, your sound hole patch, and your bridge patch. Place the upper and waist bars on their proper locations according to the template. Now, take your sound hole patch and find its center line. The piece should be 4" x 2 and 3/4" inches. Draw a center line at the 2" mark and square it. The patch should go in between the upper and waist bars to use as a spacer. Glue all of the bars and put weights or use a Go-Bar until they dry. The sound hole patch isn't glued yet. Take the bridge patch (4" x 1") and draw a horizontal line 1/4" below the top edge and parallel. Align the path along the center line of the soundboard.

Next, make a gluing caul for the soundboard and bridge patch, just a little smaller than the actual pieces. Glue the patch in place and put on weights. After that has dried, take your three tone bars and notch them to fit accordingly with the patches. Then glue them down and put weights or use the Go-Bars. They should dry for about an hour. After that, you will need to scallop the tone bars just like before. They should be scalloped to about 1/16".

(Word of the day: Pali/Cliff or steep hill)

Mahalo!

Day #7

Aloha!

     So today was the first day of building the ukulele and it was exciting. For today, I used a drill, sandpaper, a sanding block, a metal ruler, some scissors, and some clamps. To start off with building your ukulele, it is a good idea to have some kind of blueprint of template for your ukulele. You need a template for the back outline ans the inside outline. Once you have had them printed out, cut out the outline of the template to be used throughout this project. The cut needs to be as accurate and as clean as possible in order for the a better quality ukulele.

     Next, find a nice piece of wood that is flat and cut the thickness in half to have to identical boards. Then, place them side by side so that the grains reflect each other, preferably with the stiffer close-grain lines on the inside where the most stress will be. To join the plates, take one side of your matched pair and sand the edge you will be putting glue on. Only sand forward three or four times and do the same with the other piece. There shouldn't be a gap when you press the boards together. After the glue has dried and the boards have been sanded, you can draw the outlines to your ukulele from your templates. When the boards are drying (for about an hour), put some kind of weight that if flat  and heavy onto the board to keep it from moving. Don't forget to put wax paper under your boards so they don't stick to you work bench or table.

     Carefully remove the weights after an hour and check out your boards. Now, you need to make sure that the joint sides are flat. Always sand from the high side to low side until you get an even surface (It doesn't need to be perfect right now, just flat). To check, run your fingernail down the center line for any problems. After you have the sand boards, you can draw your templates on them. After you trace the templates freehand and outline of about 1/4" from the actual outline on the outsides for both plates. After you have you outlines, you will need to mark up brace locations using either your template of the Internet if yours doesn't have any shown.

     Now, you will need to create eight tone bars in total, three for the back and five for the soundboard. Be sure to cut the brace bars half and inch too big in order to leave room for sanding down. It is best to try and sand down the bars into triangular shapes to keep the strength while reducing the weight of your ukulele. Use your template to see where the bars go and what lengths they need to be.

     Finally moving away from the boards, we will now start to work on the neck of the ukulele. To start building the neck, the scarf joint needs to be cut at 15 degrees. The neck is composed of wood lengths of approximately 3/4" x 2" x 17 to 18 inches for the neck. There are also two blocks that are 3/4" x 1/2" x 5" which will be for the ears. The last block is 2" x 3/4" x 2 3/4". We will cut about 5" from the front end to make the headstock angle. A neck scarf jig or a band saw are fine for making this cut. Now, the blocks come into to play. The first thing that you need to do is glue the first block to the second block (these are the two with the same measurements). Then, clamp them to a table to prevent them from moving. Lastly, clamp the third block to the other two. It helps if the first two are already dried and be sure to put wax paper under to catch any excess glue.

     Next, clamp a stop block or piece of scrap wood to the heel end of the neck to keep the two pieces from sliding. Another stop block should be put at the head end of the neck as well. Make sure you put a piece of newspaper under the joint before gluing. Glue both of the parts and put them back in their place. Before gluing on the heel blocks, makes sure that if the neck is put on its side, it is flat and doesn't rock. The same goes for the heel blocks (sand if needed). From where the neck break angle is, measure 3/16" toward the heel end. Then square a line which will be parallel with the neck break. In between the two is where the nut will go. From the line you just made, measure 9 and 7/16" down to the heel. Square that and draw a line across the neck and down the edges of the neck.

     Now from one end of your heel blocks, measure 1 and 1/4". Square this line around the entire block. The longer half of the block will go in the interior of the ukulele as support for the body. Once you have your heel blocks aligned with the 14th or 12th fret, glue both surfaces and attach the blocks to the neck. Don't forget wax paper and clamp them together.

I know that was a lot for one day, but that was the biggest part from the whole project so don't worry. I will keep you posted!

(Word of the day: Hoaloha/Friend)

Mahalo!

Day #6

Aloha!

     Hey everybody! I just wanted to let you know that the reason why I haven't posted a blog in a few days was because I have been setting up my garage to build my ukulele. I actually found out that I had some Cuban mahogany wood from when I used to live in Cuba so I am going to be using it for the project. My parents already have lots of tools and saws for me to use in the project but we probably still need more tools and you might too.

     So be aware that I'm finally starting! Each day that I do work, I will post a blog and put pictures on there so you can see what I did. I'm looking forward to starting it and I hope you are as well.

(Word of the day: Hale/House)

Mahalo!

Day #5

Aloha!

     Today I'm going to be talking a little more about the ukulele and the types of wood to use for building one.

     For starters, there is no best wood per se because each type makes a different sound. It really all depends on which sound you like best. Harder woods are better for ukes than soft wood that might break easily. Some of the more common types of wood use for ukes are: Mahogany, Koa, Cedar, Mango, Spruce, Maple, and some other less common woods.

     Mahogany has a good finish and nice grain while also bringing a balance of sound and bass to the uke. It also isn't too expensive and has a darker color. Koa is the Hawaiian wood that is used in outrigger canoes, weapons, bowls, etc. It is a very expensive wood only found in Hawaii with a very nice finish and an amazing sound. Cedar, found usually in acoustic guitars, has more of a plain finish and sounds okay. However, it is a lot cheaper than wood like koa and can be found anywhere. Mango wood has a nice bright orange color and is a very sustainable wood choice. Spruce can be found on many ukuleles, but usually only on the top with mahogany sides. It is a very hard wood with a pale-yellow finish used for many other instruments. It doesn't have as much bass as mahogany does though. And lastly, maple is a very hard wood that chosen for its appearance and resilience.

     No matter which wood you choose, they all make beautiful sounds. If you are unsure about which wood you want to use, try watching videos online of different woods or visit a music store that might sell ukes. I'm not sure which wood I'm going to use yet but, I'll let you know!

(Word of the day: Honu/Turtle)

Mahalo!

Day #4

Aloha!!

So today I wanted to give you guys some information about the different types of ukuleles as I have been reading through my books for my project. There are four different sizes of ukes. The smallest is the soprano, then concert, then tenor, and lastly the baritone ukulele. There are different sizes because each one makes a different sound from the other. Also, the longer and larger ukes have more frets than the soprano. Most ukes are also designed into a figure 8 shape, like a guitar. Many are also crafted into rounded boxes known as pineapple ukes or other similar shapes. Some even are specially designed to look like images and are painted as well.

For my project, I am going to be building a tenor uke and will probably have the figure 8 shape if I can make it look like an 8 :).

(Word of the day: Humuhumunukunukuapua'a/Hawaiian Trigger Fish)

Mahalo!

Day #3

Aloha everyone!

    So today I thought that it would be a good idea if I looked up the history of the ukulele for you guys and gave you some information about it. I've used different credible websites, books, and also some personal knowledge to come up with the information so here it goes:

     The ukulele was originally introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1870s by Portuguese immigrants who came to work in the sugar cane fields. They brought along a traditional instrument known as the machete. After hearing the Portuguese play their machetes at night and really enjoying the sounds, the Hawaiians decided to make their own instrument that was similar to the machete. Before it became known as the ukulele, it was called the taro patch fiddle. Hawaiians experimented with different woods to find which made the best sounds and they found that acacia koa, a native plant used in many Hawaiian tools and weapons worked well. Although it became recognized as the ukulele after its name was changed, there are said to be different reasons for how the name came about.

The name ukulele means "jumping flea" which people say is describing how the fingers quickly move on the instrument. Another translation of the word ukulele is "the gift that came from afar" and is believed to describe how the machete came from the Portuguese. However, many believe that the uke got its name from a man named Edward Purvis. He was the chamberlain of the late Hawaiian King Kalakaua and was nicknamed ukulele. He was very talented at playing the machete and because of this, the new Hawaiian instrument was named after him.

Although there are many stories about how the name came about, it still is known as the ukulele and is one of the most famous Hawaiian instruments.

(Word of the day: Ohana/Family)

Mahalo!

Day #2

Hey Everyone!

     As you already know if you read my first post, over the summer I am going to be constructing my own ukulele for my personal project for the MYP Program.  I really wanted to make the blog so that other people could read about a real life experience of somebody building an ukulele from scratch rather than just reading a book. I felt that I could make this project something that could benefit lots of people other than myself and something that would be interesting and educational. I really like this idea for the project already because besides building a brand new uke, this project will teach me skills like woodworking, planning, researching, how to use tools and blogging!

What I liked about making a blog would be that you guys could get the same knowledge from reading a book in a more interactive way that also will save you some money. I have personally ordered some guides to help me make my uke and as I get ready to start, I will keep you posted on things like the history of the ukulele to what kind of materials to use to the different parts of the instrument. It will probably take me most of the summer to finish the uke but, I'm looking forward to it and I hope you guys are as well!

(Word of the day: Aloha/Love, Hello)

Mahalo!

Day #1

Hey everybody!

     My name is Dylan D'Andrea and I am currently a rising sophomore of Princess Anne High school in Virginia Beach, VA. This summer, I have to do a project for the Middle Years Program at my school and I thought that it would be fun to make a blog so people can keep up with my progress. For my project, I think I have decided to make an ukulele because I thought it would be really fun and I also lived in Hawaii for three years. The project had to be something that I was passionate about and Hawaii meant a lot to me during the time that I spent there. I learned numerous things about Hawaii and the Hawaiian culture and I felt that this blog would be a great way to share my piece of Hawaii with people all across the world.

The product which is the ukulele is supposed to relate to at least one of the five Areas of Interaction which are a big part of the Middle Years Program. They are Community and Service, Human Ingenuity, Health and Social Education, Approaches to Learning, and Environment. I decided that I would relate it to Human Ingenuity because I will be constructing my own ukulele and learn about the many techniques that the Hawaiians used to make these for hundreds of years. In order for other people to read about and see how to make an ukulele for yourself by a real person rather than just a book, I will be blogging almost every day about what I did on that day and I will do my best to take pictures of each activity. I will also teach things about the ukulele, its name, what wood is best to use, and many other things. I hope it will turn out good and play even better!

(Word of the day: Mahalo/Thank you)

Mahalo!