Hello!

IT'S DONE! I'm so very happy I finished my ukulele and I'm proud of how it turned out. As I said last week, I tried the hooks and they did not work. So, I ordered actual soprano ukulele tuning pegs off of Amazon for a really cheap price. Looking back on my project, I think the most challenging part for me was structuring the body so it is strong enough to support the tension of the strings. The most important thing that this project taught me is that if things don't go your way or your original plan fails, you just have to keep trying until something works and you get the result that you needed. Making this ukulele was very fun for me because I love music and I love crafting things with my hands. I'm very proud of the final result I have. It doesn't look incredible but it doesn't look horrible either. The sound is not horrible either! It doesn't sounds professional,obviously, but for a homemade instrument, I think it's perfect. The next goal for my project is to work on the TED Talk we have to do for each of our projects, and that's what I will be doing for the next few weeks.

Thank you for reading!

Hello!

My product was supposed to be done today, but I had to face some difficulties so I asked my teacher for a one-week extension. Basically, I was talking with my dad and we decided that the simple nylon strings wouldn't work to get the sound we needed. So, we ended up buying real ukulele strings, which is fine because they ended up being the same price as the nylon strings. I still think my neck will not give me the support I need by the nut. The nut is the part between the neck and the head of the ukulele. I did, in fact, get the support necessary between the neck and the box. I screwed the neck onto the box (as you can see in the picture) AND I glued it to make sure it didn't snap. I still haven't put the strings in, but I'm not sure my tuning hooks will be able to tune it right because they aren't tight enough. I will work on that this week, though. If all else fails, there are actual ukulele tuning pegs available on amazon for a very cheap price, but seeing as how the purpose of my project is to do this with things everyone has available in their homes, I really want the hooks to work out. This week is the final week I have available to work on this, but all I need to do is stain it all to preserve the wood and make sure it tunes correctly. Fingers crossed I can make it work! I will update this blog on Thursday with my finished product and whether the hooks worked or not.

Thank you once again for reading!

Hello again!

This week, as I said last week, I cut my nylon strings to the right length. The distance between the both ends where I'll tie the strings is 18 inches. I will need some extra space to tie the knots and the long-term tuning. So, I decided that 25 inches was an appropriate length for me to cut each string. This weekend, I won't have as much time to work on it because I'll be traveling, so I will just do a few finishing touches this weekend, like sanding and making sure the structure is good. This coming week I plan on start staining my ukulele. This will for sure take longer to do than the other parts of my project because we have to acknowledge the drying time so I might not stain it all this week. I will definitely start the process and do as much as I can.

Thanks for reading!

Hey everybody!


This week, I screwed my tuning hooks (the first picture) onto my tuning pad. Just to clarify, the tuning pad is the thing at the very top of the ukulele and the tuning hooks are the things you turn to get the string tight enough to sound like an ukulele. I used a standard drill to make the small holes on the tuning pad. I did not make it go all the way through because that could cause the hooks to fall. Once I did that, I put in small plastic drywall anchors (the second picture) so that the hooks can actually turn when they're in the tuning pad. Next week, I plan to get my nylon strings and cut them to the right length and look up a standard soprano ukulele tuning.
Thanks for reading!

Hello! Welcome back!

This week, as I said on the last post, I worked on my frets. I used my saw to make the markings after doing my calculations of how long each of them should be. After that, I glued the toothpicks on each of the markings with standard wood glue, as I am doing in the picture. I obviously had to wait for them to dry, so while that happened, I worked a little bit more on using the sandpaper to fix some flaws and imperfections around the box. That is what I accomplished this week. What I am doing right now is I am measuring exactly where I want the little tuning hooks to be on the tuning pad, and marking it with a pencil so they can be simmetrical and look nice. Obviously, I want it to sound good, but I also really want it to look good, like a lot of effort was put into it. Next week, I plan to screw in my tuning hooks onto the tuning pad.
Thanks for reading!

Hey, everybody!

This week, I worked more on the neck of my ukulele. I tried my best to figure out where the markings for the frets should be. By the way, a fret is each of the spaces on the neck where you put your fingers on to play. There was a little confusion on my last blog regarding that, so I thought I'd clarify it. To figure out the spacing, I used a website (https://woodgears.ca/ukulele/fretboard.html) where this man, who also built a ukulele, walks you through the steps of making the fret board. After I applied his calculations to my measurements, I marked with a pencil where each of the markings should be. Here's what I'm working on right now. I finally bought sandpaper and I am so excited about it. My ukulele still has some imperfections that I can fix more easily with sandpaper. I had this little smoothing rock that I attached to my drill, but it didn't quite do the job. So, right now I am working on getting rid of splinters and other imperfections with my new sandpaper, which is going to make it look a lot nicer. Next week, I plan on adding the toothpicks where the fret marks are, and adding the tuning hooks to the tuning pad. I am really excited about how my project is coming along, and thank you for reading!

Hello! Welcome back!

This week I worked more on the neck of my ukulele. I attached the neack to the box with a nail and wood glue to provide more support. I also cut out a piece of wood from my board that matched the neck width and glued it to the neck and the box also to provide extra support. This also makes it so much easier to make the frets. Right now, I am working on getting the frets right because I found out they have to be spaced very specifically. This also goes to show how there is a lot more that goes into making an instrument than what we would normally think. There is an equation people use to figure out the width of each fret based on how long your neck is. If the frets aren't spaced properly, the octaves and the whole thing in general will not sound right. One of the main things that I want to accomplish on this project, is to make my ukulele sound like a proffesional one to the best of my ability. I know for a fact it is not going to sound as good as one made by a proffesional, but I do want it to be as close as I can get. That involves making sure I'm measuring everything right and providmg good support. What I plan on doing next is I want to attach my tuning hooks onto the tuning pad. Below is the vlog we were require to make this year about our inspiration and resources for this project.

Thank you for reading!

Hello! Welcome back!

This week as a part of my project I worked on the neck and tuning pad of my ukulele. For the neck I used a long piece of wood about an inch thick. For the tuning pad, I used the same piece of wood and another board of wood I used to make my acoustic box from a couple of posts ago. I used different types of wood because it creates different textures and the tuning pad needs to be a little wider than the neck. I also realized in the process that, in order to create pressure for the strings, the tuning pad needs to be a little bit angled, as opposed to parallel to the neck. This obviously causes a space between the neck and the tuning pad, so to fill it I used a small piece of wood to securely connect the two pieces. These two parts of the ukulele need to be strongly joined because if not, the second you touch the strings, the whole thing is going to collapse. This is actually a really important part of building a string instrument like this: provide proper support. To make the strings sound like they should, there needs to be a lot of pressure, and your structure needs to be strong enough to support that. Well, that's what I did this week. Thanks for taking the time to read it again. Please enjoy this (not) attractive picture of me cutting wood. Until next week, where I plan on working on the frets of the ukulele.

Hi everyone! Welcome back!

This week, as opposed to updating you on my project progress, our teacher told us to write something different on our blogs. We were told to explain how our Genius Hour projects might help us stand out to colleges and help shape our life plan. Well, personally, I think my project might stand out to colleges because building a ukulele is something everybody can do and will enjoy. A ukulele is one of the easiest instruments to learn and I think many people will benefit from making their own if they are in a situation where they cannot afford to buy a new professional one. Music makes anyone's daily life so much more vivid, much more vibrant. I believe everyone should get a chance to practice music and be able to create it. As for my life plan, I think this project so far has been teaching me a lot about myself and life in general. I learned that you really should plan ahead on what you have to do, I learned to be more responsible. But also, I learned that even if what happens does not match your plan, you have to find new creative ways to make it work. It's okay to change your plan right in the middle of your process. I learned that sometimes, when you think you absolutely need something to make sure your plan goes well, you might not be able to get that specific thing, and maybe you didn't need it after all. You can work around it, find new alternatives that will also make your project work the way the initial idea would. This project has taught me to be more creative, and to not be afraid to speak out loud about your passions.
 Thanks for reading!


(P.S. the ukulele on the picture is not mine.)