Hi Oliver. Love the videos! So much information in your videos and us folks interested in building really appreciate the work you put into them. I'm currently building my first ukulele and its time for me to cut the mortise and tenon. I was wondering if you give your neck and angle or do you attach the the neck flat to the top without worrying about any neck angle? is there a specific thickness you go with in terms of fretboard and bridge? Any help is appreciated All the best Carlos
Hi Carlos, thank you for your kind words. It is a bit tricky to get the angle right as the heel is usually tapered and then the body is also curved. This means that if you cut the shoulders of the male dovetail (on the neck) square then the neck will be tilted up. The top flat face of the neck needs to be on the same plane as the body top as the fretboard sits on both. I usually cut my dovetails to be overly tight so I can recut the heel shoulders at the proper angle to correct for that. This also allows to adjust side to side orientation so the neck is in line with the centerline of the body. You can always trim some but adding on isn’t what you want. To answer your question about fretboard and bridge thickness - it depends on whether your fretboard is flat or radiused for the fretboard and that with how high you want the action for the bridge. You can be safe with a flat fretboard being about 3/16” thick and the bridge about 9/32” as the saddle will give you a bit more height. Of course you will need to adjust these depending on what size ukulele you are building. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you are near Corvallis, Oregon I invite you to come by my workshop.
Hi Oliver. Love the videos! So much information in your videos and us folks interested in building really appreciate the work you put into them. I'm currently building my first ukulele and its time for me to cut the mortise and tenon. I was wondering if you give your neck and angle or do you attach the the neck flat to the top without worrying about any neck angle? is there a specific thickness you go with in terms of fretboard and bridge? Any help is appreciated
All the best
Carlos
Hi Carlos, thank you for your kind words. It is a bit tricky to get the angle right as the heel is usually tapered and then the body is also curved. This means that if you cut the shoulders of the male dovetail (on the neck) square then the neck will be tilted up. The top flat face of the neck needs to be on the same plane as the body top as the fretboard sits on both. I usually cut my dovetails to be overly tight so I can recut the heel shoulders at the proper angle to correct for that. This also allows to adjust side to side orientation so the neck is in line with the centerline of the body. You can always trim some but adding on isn’t what you want. To answer your question about fretboard and bridge thickness - it depends on whether your fretboard is flat or radiused for the fretboard and that with how high you want the action for the bridge. You can be safe with a flat fretboard being about 3/16” thick and the bridge about 9/32” as the saddle will give you a bit more height. Of course you will need to adjust these depending on what size ukulele you are building. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you are near Corvallis, Oregon I invite you to come by my workshop.