UGH - Exhibition 2013


The Ukulele Guild of Hawai’i held its 11th Annual Exhibition November 16th, 2013 at the Sheraton's Kaiulani Princess Hotel in Waikiki. The one-day event featured a display of handcrafted ukuleles built by members of the statewide guild, plus builders’ workshops, players’ sessions and live entertainment. For further information about UGH activities or membership: contact@ukuleleguild.org

Photos of the event provided by BIUG Webmaster Tom Russell and BIUG Vice-President Chris Stewart

From Howard Tanaka on his Spanish Neck jig (more pics coming soon!):

The jig is built so that using a router, a builder can rout a shelf for attaching the soundboard to the neck's heel block, as well as trimming the bottom of the heel block to conform to the radius of the sides. 

As you view the pic that you provided, the more or less preshaped neck with slots for the sides, is clamped into the jig. As pictured, you can see a square opening is cut out in the jig with the upper heel set inside the opening. Run a router through that opening to rout a shelf upon which the front part of the soundboard will rest. 

If you are satisfied with the depth of the shelf, then the next step is to the rout the bottom of the heel block.  To do this, first, you must already have had your sides bent and tail block glued on.  Next with the neck removed, and the fretboard side facing down, place it on a flat surface, then slide the ends of the sides into their respective heel slots. Next, use a straight edge like a 12" alum ruler, place it across the sides and flush it to the heel block, and with a pencil, mark a line across the heel block.  Next, mark where the sides ( bottom part, remember, the sides at this point have slotted bottom part up) and heel meet.  Draw a line to connect the marks on both places of the heel block.  My sides are radiused so that the line is an angle from the waist to the heel.

Then, I clamp the neck, fretboard side down, back into the jig, lower the hinged, moveable part of the jig, then by eyeball, sight into the jig from the side of the jig so that you can compare the angle of the hinged part of the jig with the angle of the line that was drawn.  The boltss on the hinged part of the jig can be adjusted (up or down) so that you can eyeball a parallel angle with the drawn line.  Once you get that parallel, start to rout the excess heel.  Don't take off too much at a time, and after each rout, peek into the jig's sides to confirm that the angle being routed remains paralled to the desired line on the heel block.



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