Well I have returned from the Island of Oahu where I attended the Hana Lima ‘Ia School of Ukulele Building (Hawaiian for “made by hand”). The class was a wonderful learning experience. The instructor and owner is Mike Chock who studied with Richard Schneider and Sergei de Jonge. Mike has taken his training with Schneider and produces modified Kasha braced ukuleles although in class we built fan braced instruments.
The class was a two week condensed course and I must say that we hardly had time to breath. But we took piles of wood and turned them into musical instruments in that amount of time. It took no time at all to prove to myself that I am a wood working dork but found that I too could effectively complete the tasks. To no ones surprise we all made some errors and having Mike there to help us work through it was great. There are certain things that I would do differently if I would have had more time but I’m satisfied with the results. We only had enough time to put on 1 quick coat of finish before stringing and setup so I’m not quite finished yet. I have been thinking about sanding the thin finish off and then do a better prep before applying the final finish. I may even thin the neck a bit more and maybe lower the action just a hair more. Oh yes, I learned an important lesson “Don’t sand through your sides”. My uke was hand sanded except for a few moments on a hand held when I realized that funny color on the side was my lining. Oh well, other than that it looks nice and more importantly its sounds very good and has great intonation.
The wood is Mahogany with a rosewood fret board and bridge and a koa head plate. The top, back, and sides are Quilted Mahogany and look much better than the photo below. I will post better pictures when I get a chance. There is nothing fancy about my ukulele except maybe the paua abalone rosette and markers but I am very pleased. The best thing is that I will be able to apply this learning experience directly to the guitar that I am going to build for my Father. I'm sure that I will be needing help and support from the OLF Ohana (family)as I pursue my first guitar build.
Philip
