Tenor Ukulele build

Anyone without children can look away now. When I was making the kit guitar for last year’s challenge my grand daughter asked whether it was for her.



I’ve decided to make her something for her 5th birthday, which is at the end of July. Whilst she might aspire to an electric shred machine what she really needs is an acoustic, and preferably a four string. A tenor ukulele looks the right size, and I might even get it into guitar tuning. I downloaded a set of plans, but once I started adding up the cost of wood I realised that it might be more sensible to buy a kit. After all, it might not last until Christmas. You know my experience of Chinese kits, but let’s give it a second go. There’s rock bottom price kits made out of basswood, here’s kits from sapele faced plywood, and there’s proper kits costing £60 to £600. I’ve gone for the middle ground.



The first challenge is the gap between the top and sides. It looks as if there’s a woodchip holding them apart. I can cut this out and squeeze the sides together.



The first decision is whether to bind back and front. It’s a child’s instrument, and binding would give some protection against the inevitable bangs. The bracing and kerfing aren’t perfect, but should be strong enough to accept a binding channel.



Thoughts?
Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
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