I recently entered my DIY soprano scale travel ukulele in the California State Fair and wanted to add a post giving an overview of the materials, design process, progress pictures, sound test and extra information:

1. Final Project Photos

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2. Materials

• African mahogany
• stainless steel rod for the bridge, cotter pins cut and filed for the frets, various hardware (black oxide nuts, bolts, and washers), with fret markers hole punched from iridescent cellophane and laminated into the finish
• strap hand stitched from seatbelt material, paracord, and upholstery thread
• custom 3D designed, printed, and finished elements
• standard ukulele tuners and soprano strings

3. Very fast photo montage with a sound test played on the ukulele

4. Build Process

I blogged my journey from June 5, 2022 when all I had was just a plank of wood and a dream through some updated 3D printed parts in 2023.  Fair warning – there’s … a lot.

1. Learning Curves and Ukuleles
2. Building a Travel Ukulele: Getting Started
3. Building a Travel Ukulele: Cutting Stuff
4. Building a Travel Ukulele: Cutting, Filing, Shaping
5. Building a Travel Ukulele: Filing, sanding, filing, sanding, filing…
6. Building a Travel Ukulele: Sanding.
7. Building a Travel Ukulele: Test Fitting
8. Building a Travel Ukulele: Preparation, Marking and Cutting Frets
9. Building a Travel Ukulele: Shaping Frets, Sanding
10. Building a Travel Ukulele: Building a Drill
11. Building a Travel Ukulele: No Turning Back
12. Building a Travel Ukulele: Sanding, sanding, and finishing
13. Building a Travel Ukulele: Finishing, sanding, painting, etc
14. Building a Travel Ukulele: So Much Experimentation, Bridges, Printing, and Sanding
15. Building a Travel Ukulele: Plancratineering
16. Building a Travel Ukulele: Swapping Hardware, Fret Experiments
17. Building a Travel Ukulele: Bridge, Stringing It Up, and a Sound Test!
18. Building a Travel Ukulele: Improvements
19. Building a Travel Ukulele: Back to Basics

Thanks for reading!