I’ve built a bunch of electric ukulele, but all of them have been modeled after full size electric guitars.  For this project I set out to design my own electric ukulele.  I think it turned out great.

My other electric ukuleles have been modeled after guitars from Fender and Gibson.  Can you name all of these models??

Here are some sketches that I drew as I designed this instrument.  You can see how how the designed changed and progressed.

I probably shouldn’t admit this, but part of the headstock design was influenced by the fact that I had quite a few left hand tuners in my possession.  I purchased sets of 3-on-a-side tuners to use for my Fender style builds, but only needed the right hand ones.

After all of the parts were fitted, I leveled the body with some putty.  It is important to have the body as smooth as possible before the prime, and color coats.

The body was primed, given a nitrocellulose color coat and then a nitrocellulose clear coat.

I wanted to try having the volume knob on the side of the body instead of the top.  Doing this also allowed for a bigger cavity to house a push/pull switch to split the hot rail humbucker.  To keep the back and top as minimalist as possible, I drilled long holes from the pickup cavity to the combination strap peg/jack.

I’ve named this the “Wave Ukulele” because the body made me think about waves crashing against the shore.  Once I gave this a name, I tied other design element to this theme.  The body is Sea Foam Green, and the fret markers, side markers and even the cap on the volume knob are abalone.

This build was my first foray into the world of fanned frets.  The bottom string has a scale length of 17 inches and the top is 18 inches.   It’s a little different to play, but it’s very easy to get used to.  Make your own fanned fretboard with this tutorial. 

See it in action!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ak2wapy1hdc&w=480&h=360]

I wanted to make a ukulele with the longest possible scale that would still fit in my travel case.

Before staining the body, I made sure that everything fit properly.

The “Les Paul” style body was made with a single piece of cherry wood. The scale length is 19 inches, and its overall length is 21.5 inches. Even though the scale length is 19 inches, I tune it like a reentrant tenor/concert/soprano. I prefer that tuning and it works better with most of the ukulele sheet music that I have.

The fretboard and bridge are made of rosewood. The volume knob is made of ebony. A piece of plastic pipe directs the strings back towards the tuners.

I used transparent red nitrocellulose lacquer followed by nitrocellulose clear coat to give it a finish similar to Gibson’s “Heritage Cherry” finish.

The under saddle piezo pickup is soldered to a 500K ohm potentiometer to control the volume. The output jack is attached to an upside down stratocaster style jack plate.

See it in action!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3DjII_Q1Ek]

Ukuleles are already very portable, but the bumps and bruises of travel can wreak havoc on acoustic instruments.  I’ve already constructed a few travel ukuleles.  The first was a prototype (Home Depot Travel Ukulele).  The second ukulele improved upon the first (DIY Travel Ukulele).   Both of these solutions only required basic tools along with common parts and wood.

After slowly acquiring more tools and expertise, I wanted to make another travel ukulele.  I took the things that I learned from the other builds and implemented them in this travel ukulele.

I started out by sketching out the design on paper.  The scale length was 15 inches (concert scale).  There were two tuners on each side using a slotted, classical style.

At a specialty hardwood store, I picked up a beautiful 1.5 in X 5 in (3.8 cm X 12.7cm) piece of hard maple.

The outline and interior were cut with a scroll saw. The overall length of the wood is a little over 20 inches.  The widest point is 2.5 inches, and it is 1.5 inches thick.

I slotted the frets, rounded over all of the edges except for the fretboard, drilled all of the holes, and spokeshaved the neck until it was comfortable. The entire assembly was then given a few coats of nitrocellulose lacquer.   The lacquer finish really brought out the natural beauty of the wood.

After the strings go over the bridge, they need to be directed back towards the tuners.  I used a handful of nylon spacers and washers along with some “Chicago bolts” (I also saw them referred to as “barrel nuts”) to direct the strings.    

The bridge is a small aluminium tube that was attached to the body with two metal cable clamps.

A rod piezo was inserted into the rod.  The wires from the piezo were fed through a small hole drilled into the jack cavity.

This pickup is very responsive.  The combination of the lightweight, but rigid, aluminium and the rod piezo work well together.

The piezo wires were soldered directly to a 1/4 inch mono jack.

It’s ready for strings.  I decided to use some of D’Addario’s new T2 Titanium acoustic ukulele strings.   They are “bright” sounding strings that are working great for this application.  In addition, they are transparent with a pleasant purplish tint which add a bit of razzle-dazzle to the end product.

The travel ukulele is complete. With all of the hardware, it is 20.5 inches long, 3 inches wide, and 2 inches thick. I’m very pleased with how it turned out.  I set out to make a sturdy and portable ukulele, and I met my goal.  Not only is it a legitimate instrument, it could also fend off zombies, or serve as a cricket bat in a pinch.

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