Hollywood
Style Concert Ukulele
Built for Tim Lewis aka Nipper
This concert ukulele is being built in the style and
fashion of the vintage Royal Hawaiian ukulele. The Royal
Hawaiian was copied on the mainland under the name of Hollywood.
Although this style of ukulele originated in Hawaii, I enjoy
referring to it as the Hollywood.
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Here's the Honduras mahogany top. The soundhole is cut
and there's a thin pencil outline of the body. There's
no lacquer on the wood yet, so it still looks pretty light
colored compared to what it will be in the end.
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 Same
for the back. This wood has nice even grain. It's from the
same small stack of special wood that Josephine was built
from. |
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 The
sides are also cut and ready to be heated and bent. All
of these wood pieces are thicknessed to a little under
.07" to start with.
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 I'm
fortunate to have a good quantity of Spanish cedar, my favorite
wood for making ukulele necks. I sorted through my stacks
and found a neck blank that matches the wood color of the
Honduras mahogany very nicely. |
 Here's
a view of the underside of the top soundboard. The top has
been braced and the bridgeplate is glued on. The braces
will be shaped and "tuned" before it is glued
to the body rims. The bridgeplate adds extra strength to
the soundboard and is located exactly where the bridge will
be glued on the top of the soundboard. I will also thin
the bridgeplate and taper the edges. The bridge will be
much smaller than the bridgeplate. |
 And
here is the inside of the back of the ukulele. These braces
will also be shaped before the back is glued on. |
 This
picture shows the top plate of the ukulele with with a little
Naptha wiped on; this illustrates what color the ukulele
will be after the lacquer is applied. |
 This
funny looking device is a bending jig. It's shaped like
half of a ukulele. The red sheet is a special heating blanket
that warms the wood to about 300 degrees farenheit. The
wood is flat when I begin. I mist the wood with water, place
the wood between two metal sheets on the top of the blanket
and I then plug in the heating blanket. After a few minutes,
the wood begins to steam and I slowly tighten down the middle
bar that shapes the waist of the ukulele. Then I slowly
pull down each of the two ends until the shape is complete.
I unplug the heating blanket and let the wood cool down
for about an hour before removing it. |
 When
the wood comes out of the bender, the two sides are nicely
shaped. The magic begins to happen! |
 To
ensure that the sides keep their nicely rounded shape, they
will stay clamped in this body mold while they're waiting
for the next step. |
 With
the heel blocks clamped at the base of the neck, this always
looks like an airplane to me! I'm glad it doesn't take off
and fly away. |
 Here's
the rough neck with the clamps removed. The neck will experience
a lot of shaping, scraping and sanding before it assumes
its final shape. The heel will be cut off square and a brass
insert will be placed at the end of the neck. The insert
will hold the neck and body together. |
 Once
again, here are the sides, this time with the heel block
and tail block glued in, and the kerfed lining is glued
to the top of the rims and sanded smooth. Soon, the soundboard
will be glued to the rims. The two blocks of wood and bolts
in the lower bout are helping to keep the nice round shape
in the body while I continue to work on other parts. |
 Now
we're looking at the inside of the soundboard of the ukulele.
The soundhole will have a small ring of black binding that
serves three purposes; 1) It protects the edge of the soundhole;
2) Some builders feel that stiffening the soundboard at
the soundhole area improves the tonality; 3) It's very decorative
and it matches the binding that will be on the top and back
edge of the body. |
 Here
I am checking the size of the binding material, making sure
it fits just right. This soundhole ring pays tribute to
some of the older Harmony, Stewart, and LeDomino models
that had a similar decor. (Some of the old models simply
had a painted-on ring as opposed to this ring which is actually
installed). |
 Now
the ring is glued in. This picture is a good example of
how messy some parts will look while you are building. But
after the glue is well-dried, I'll scrape and sand the ring
area until it's flat, smooth and shiny. |
 Your
Hollywood is spending some time with Craig Roberston's new
Josephine 1K. This Josephine is exactly like the original
but all koa instead of all mahogany. As you can see, your
Hollywood body is all assembled and the binding is installed.
I have begun the wood sealing process and I'll start lacquering
in a couple days. Craig's koa already has a few layers of
lacquer and is waiting for more. The color tone of the Hollywood
will deepen a bit as the lacquer goes on, but won't be quite
as dark as the koa Josephine. |
 And
here we have the back of both ukuleles. They're getting
along quite nicely and have become good friends. |
 Side
view of the finished neck. Ebony fingerboard is on and fretted
and dressed. More coats of lacquer will darken the color
to more closely match the body. |
 Here's
the back of the neck. You can almost see the slight "V"
shape, but it's very subtle. It shows up more in the hand
than to the eye of the camera. |
 The
headstock is shaped like the Josephine headstock. There
is a mahogany headplate on the front to match the body.
The holes for the tuners will be drilled after the lacquer
is complete, otherwise it's more difficult to get a nice
flat surface and shine. |
 The
body is ready for very fine sanding and then buffing. The
buffing will bring out a beautiful shine. |
 The
gloss buffing is complete, the neck is on the body, the
holes are drilled in the headstock for the tuners. |
 I
must say that I make a very nice ukulele but my photography
skills are lacking. Please pardon the reflections on the
finish and frets.
|
 I
enjoy looking at the backs of ukuleles almost as much as
I enjoy looking at the fronts. |
 This
side view is a better angle for my camera. The only thing
I can add is that the ukulele looks ten times better in
person! |
Audio
samples of this Hollywood concert ukulele:
Hollywood
sound sample #1
Hollywood
sound sample #2 |
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