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Ukulele Building Resources
Books, Plans, Kits, Classes, Schools, Tools and resources for building ukuleles.
Contents
Building Classes and Schools
Building Classes and Schools
Learning the graft of luthier and building musical instruments.
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Links
Artist Info
(from schools's site) -
Folk Schools have been operating in Scandinavia since the middle of the 19th century. Folk schools developed in during a period of economic and political changes in Europe. The aim of these schools was to give people an opportunity to develop new skills as their agricultural opportunities dwindled and moved to the cities.
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DaSilva Ukulele Co.
Luthier Mike DaSilva
2547 8th Street, Suite 28
Berkeley, CA 94710
510 649-1548
510 291-2943 fax
Links
Tiki King's Ukulele: Brand name database: DaSilva
Made by Hand: Mike DaSilva Ukuleles
Here is a great video by Michael Levin and Witt Monts titled Made by Hand of luthier Mike DaSilva in his show.
The uke man maketh
By Jennifer Modenessi
Contra Costa Times
YOU PROBABLY wouldn't guess it from the stacks of wood piled almost to the roof of his Berkeley workshop, but Michael DaSilva never set out to become a ukulele maker.
"I didn't grow up with enough music," says the soft-spoken 50-year-old Oakland resident and lone proprietor of the DaSilva Ukulele Co. "I think I was a little bit starved."
Looking around his studio, you'd never know it.
more at: Contra Costa Times
Info
(from their site) - DaSilva Ukulele Co. in Berkeley, California is the workshop of Michael DaSilva where he makes high-quality , handcrafted ukuleles. You will also find the full-line of RISA Solid and Electric instruments and inexpensive beginner ukes. The shop is also host to house concerts, ukulele lessons and workshops, the occasional jam session and meetings of the Berkeley Ukulele Club. Check the Calendar for events.
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Links
Info
We are a school for the teaching of Ukulele making to those who have both the interest and desire to build handmade 'ukuleles.
Plans for Soprano, Concert, Tenor and Baritones Ukes are available thru their online store.
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Pete Howlett
The International Ukulele Building School
South Wales, United Kingdom
UK Phone: 07870 677754
Links
( from listing's site )
A prophetic photograph of me age 4 used to form the background, Bowman style, to my labels. Clutching my plastic Woolworth's ukulele, standing in the tartan kilt of my mother's Scottish clan, in front of the wall my dad built, is a constant reminder that I really was born to do this job!
My whole philosophy is one of care in the selection of materials and attention to detail. I learned these qualities from my toolmaker father whose exacting eye taught me to take notice of the small things
.I remember when our neighbours painted their houses; it took a couple of days with a gallon can of Dulux. It always needed re-doing a couple of years later. Dad took a week applying 3 coats of Mangers lead based oil paint over 2 coats of red lead primer. He only did it once. It lasted years.
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T.T. Ukuleles
Shipman Business Park
16-185 Kalara St. Unit D
Keaau, Hawaii 96749
PH: 808 - 933 - 8537
Toll Free: 866 - 933 - UKES (8537)
Links
- www.ttukuleles.com
- Tiki King's Ukulele: Brand name database: T_T
T.T. UKULELE'S Made in Hawaii by Tadashi Oguma and sons.
Ukulele Building Classes are available.
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Vermont Instruments School of Lutherie
George Morris, Luthier
P.O. Box 115
Post Mills, VT 05058
(802) 727 4311
Links
Info
Vermont Instruments is a teaching lutherie begun in 1983 offering private and small group tutorials by appointment. Students design and build their own instruments from raw materials. Acoustic and structural design, jig-making, inlay and repair are woven into a personalized course of study to accommodate each person's interest, skill level, and experience. Courses are designed to minimize the need for expensive equipment and specialized jiggery. It is expected that a student can continue their own creative work using small-scale power tools and common hand tools.
Ukulele Building Course - A two week course in Ukulele building. Students will choose materials and trim options, and learn how to build a soprano or tenor ukulele from scratch, not a kit.
Students work daily with Adam Buchwald, an experienced builder/repairman most recently from Brooklyn, NY. Adam will build an instrument along with everyone else during the course. We follow the hand-building tradition, not the factory model. We wish to further the craft by incorporating useful modern techniques with traditional wisdom.
More information available on companys's web site.
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Wood Working and Luthier Tools
Ukulele Building Plans, Books & Kits
Links
- www.donsplans.com
- Ukulele Plans: www.donsplans.com/ukuleles.htm
Info
Here are the available Uke plans:
- Soprano Ukulele
- Concert Ukulele
- Tenor Ukulele
- Baritone Ukulele
- Ukulele Family Value Pack (Soprano, Concert, Tenor, Baritone)
- Arch Topped Baritone Ukulele
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Links
Info
We are a school for the teaching of Ukulele making to those who have both the interest and desire to build handmade 'ukuleles.
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KP Ukuleles
Custom Ukuleles and Repair
Luthier: Ken Potts
Lahaina, Maui Hawaii
Ken Potts - Luthier
(808) 667-0759
Links
- www.kpukulele.com
- Tiki King's Ukulele: Brand name database: KPUkuleles
Ken Potts has a DVD available "Building the Hawaiian Ukulele..."
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Links
Kits and building supplies. Rosettes, Laminated Woods, Misc. Hardware, tools, etc...
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Pegasus Guitars & Ukuleles
Bob Gleason/ Pegasus Guitars & Ukuleles
P.O.Box 160
Kurtistown, Hawaii 96760
Phone/Fax (808)966-6323
Links
- www.pegasusguitars.com
- Tiki King's Ukulele: Brand name database: Pegasus
Wood sets, kits, parts, binding jigs, etc...
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The Ukulele
by Denis Gilbert
Windward Publishing and Press (Hawaii)
665 Ulukahiki St,
Suite 101, Kailua, Hawaii 96734
Links
- Web site changed - no know web site.
- www.books-by-isbn.com/0-9728795/
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A Step by Step Guide On How To Make This Traditional Hawaiian Instrument. Over 170
photos, jigs and tools explained. For All Woodworkers. -
Buy It!!!
I have this book and its a great book on building a ukulele. One day I'll get around to building a uke or two.
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WaverlyStreet Ukuleles
WaverlyStreet Software
277 W. Brighton Road
Columbus, Ohio, 43202
Fax: (201) 917-1482
Links
( 29-AUG-2008 Update ) A great selection of videos show the Step-by-step process of building a ukulele.
Info
(from their site) WaverlyStreet Software has been producing practical, easy-to-use programs for home and office since 1996. We use the "Shareware" distribution concept, which means that you can download fully-operational packages and try them out for a period of time while deciding whether or not to purchase. If you like the program, you can register on-line via credit card (or through surface mail) and receive a registration code which makes the program YOURS, without having to download anything else or re-install the software!
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Ukulele Building Kits
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Grizzley Industrial, Inc.
Order Phone Number: 1-800-523-4777
Customer Service Phone Number: 1-570-546-9663
Links
Info
Showrooms: 1203 Lycoming Mall Circle, Muncy, PA 17756
1821
Valencia St., Bellingham, WA 98226
Corner of Battlefield & Kansas
Expressway in Springfield, Missouri
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Links
Info
We are a school for the teaching of Ukulele making to those who have both the interest and desire to build handmade 'ukuleles.
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Pete Howlett
The International Ukulele Building School
South Wales, United Kingdom
UK Phone: 07870 677754
Links
( from listing's site )
A prophetic photograph of me age 4 used to form the background, Bowman style, to my labels. Clutching my plastic Woolworth's ukulele, standing in the tartan kilt of my mother's Scottish clan, in front of the wall my dad built, is a constant reminder that I really was born to do this job!
My whole philosophy is one of care in the selection of materials and attention to detail. I learned these qualities from my toolmaker father whose exacting eye taught me to take notice of the small things
.I remember when our neighbours painted their houses; it took a couple of days with a gallon can of Dulux. It always needed re-doing a couple of years later. Dad took a week applying 3 coats of Mangers lead based oil paint over 2 coats of red lead primer. He only did it once. It lasted years.
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Mainland Ukes
90 Washington ST
Nashville, IN 47448-1708
Phone: (812) 988-6760
Toll Free: 1-866-949-UKES
Fax: (812) 988-6798
Mainling Address:
PO Box 1708
Nashville, IN 47448-1708
USA.
Links
Listing Info
( from listing's site ) - We are a home grown family business dedicated to providing quality performance ukuleles at a great price. Our small company started because we love the ukulele and always enjoy meeting others who feel the same way. If you choose to buy from us, you will be buying from people who play ukulele for fun on a daily basis We take time setting up each uke to make sure you will be satisfied with your purchase.
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Stewart MacDonald's Guitar Shop Supply
PO Box 900Athens, OH 45701
US & Canada 800-848-2273
International +1-740-592-3021
Links
Info
Great place for tools and information. This is my main source for tools.
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Ukulele Puapua
Morea Corporation
2490 Kalakaua Ave #19B
Honolulu Hawaii 96815
TEL: 808-924-2266
FAX: 808-924-3377
STORE: Pacific Beach Hotel 1F
2490 Kalakaua Ave #19B
Honolulu Hawaii 96815
Tel. (808)924-2266
Fax. (808)924-3377
Links
- ukulele.pua2.com (English)
- pua2.com (Japanese)
- Music Stores In The State Of Hawaii
Ukulele Puapua sells Do-It-Yourself Ukulele Kit from G-String Ukulele Co.
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Wolfelele
P.O. Box 278
Ormstown, Quebec J0S 1K0
Canada
Phone: 450-264-5689
eMail: info@wolfelele.com
↑ Listing's Web Site Thumbnail Image
- kits
- ukulele
Links
- www.wolfelele.com
- Tiki King's Ukulele: Brand name database: Wolfelele
Listing Info
( from listing's site ) - The Wolfelele is a build-it-yourself ukulele that is designed to be put together on a kitchen table in a couple of hours. The finished product is a real instrument that will provide many hours of lasting pleasure.
The company's founder and instrument designer, Wolfgang Kater, began building guitars at the age of 12, and soon branched out to lutes, viola da gambas and other small, historical keyboard instruments. At the inquisitive age of six he had apprenticed an elderly gentleman who taught him cabinet-making, machining, and the use and fabrication of tools. The Wolfelele ukeleles are the results of the combination of the precision required for each of these trades, his natural artistic abilities, and his engineering mind.
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Miscellaneous Building Info
Links
The home base for the CIGAR BOX GUITAR community.
CIGAR BOX UKULELE PLANS!!! From Comfort magazine, October 1931 in
the "File" section: [ link ]
(Must be a member of the Yahoo
group)
(Ed. ) This is a very nicely designed site, easy to naviage with lots of cool information.
"So I went ahead and made me a guitar. I got me a cigar box, I cut me a round hole in the middle of it, take me a little piece of plank, nailed it onto that cigar box, and I got me some screen wire and I made me a bridge back there and raised it up high enough that it would sound inside that little box, and got me a tune out of it. I kept my tune and I played from then on." -Lightnin' Hopkins
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Building Links
Here are a few sites detailing their building of a ukulele.
- Ukulele Rescue: Fixing a crack howto
- Koa sound box and cedar neck Pete Howlett kit
Repair a simple cracked open seam with hot hide glue using percussion technique. Will work for any wooden string instrument. And, yes, I misspoke and should have said "the two halves of the top" or more correctly "the two halves of the back" ...in any event: it made a sickening noise when it suddenly started to crack apart shortly after I rested it on a shelf. It was a new instrument and was probably constructed in a high-humidity shop somewhere in the tropics.
- The building of my tenor ukulele... by Jerry Foster> - Koa sound box and cedar neck Pete Howlett kit
- My Summer 2005 Project: - An All-Koa Tenor Ukulele
- Notes from an Amateur Luthier...: Building A Concert Ukulele (by Kathy Matsushita)
- link
This is a great site with lots of information on building instruments.
- LUTHERIE: The art of stringed instrument building. Building a Concert Ukulele (by Al McWhorter) - link
- Sam Nihipali & Daniel Yuen's detailed instructions on making your own ukulele
- link
Very nice site with lots of information and images on building ukes. Al chronicles his building of a concert uke.
- My New Adventures in Musical Instrument Building - Ukulele Building
- My Homemade Ukulele - Gary Anwyl's web page of building a soprano ukulele. - link
- Key Strummers Ukulele Building no. 1 and no. 2 Photo Albums: - link
- Ukulele Building Series - (Pegasus Guitars) link
- Building a Ukulele - link
[ Back to Instruments Ukulele Main page ]
Thanks for visiting and checking out my site!
Content is always being added and updated. So check-in often. Thanks, Curt
P.S. You may think from the look of it that Curt Sheller Publications is a slick, profitable business, but it's actually not (maybe a car payment a month, cheap car). I spend a lot and time money creating the content, lessons and books for this site (a labor of love), so if you dig my content and want to see more of it. I could use your help by spreading the word and maybe buying a book or two if you haven't already, to help defray the cost of running the site. Thanks in advance for your help. This is a labor of love and I'd do it even if I didn't make a lot of money, hey I don't!
You can also make a donation to the lesson-site fund. Button in the sidebar of the site.
If I'm not teaching, I'm working on this site and new lessons, books and goodies.
BUILDING.PHP | Updated: Monday, 17th October, 2011 @ 02:01pm