Adding Text/Date to Ukelele...

thecolourbox

Hi all, I'm getting married on the 16th September and I've arranged to join the Ceilidh barn dance band for a song to start the second half of their set which will be great. It's a surprise for the Mrs singing/playing a song that has sentimental meaning to us - Five Years Time by Noah and the Whale, though the wedding date is 11 years to the day from our first date so I've changed the words a bit too be 11 Years Time.

I have a soprano ukulele in dark wood colour (mahogany?) and a few people who know about this have suggested I put the date on the little uke as a momento of the day which does sound great but I've left it a bit late to sort now.

Anybody got any ideas about how I could do it? I'm guessing engraving or burning it on will be hard if I've never done it before.

We do have a Cricut machine which can cut sticky back vinyl which might be an option?



Thanks!

Funkfingers

First attempt manual pyrogravure will look like a prison tattoo. 

I suspect that the occasion in general and you performing a song should suffice to fix your (plural) day in the memory.

Enjoy.

rpr

Water slide decal, letraset ? Some varnish...

paulnb57

How about a small engraved metal disc like a dogtag, double side taped to the back of the headstock or similar…..

WezV

Go with the sticky back plastic as it sounds like its the easiest option for you with the time available.  If you have gold or silver that will look great, but black or white will do.   It will eventually peel with lots of use, especially if its in a place where the edges get caught, so think about placement carefully

printing your own waterslides can be done, but if using a home printer the decal may not stand out well against the mahogany.  works well if you paint the Uke a light colour first and can be lacquered over for longevity.  I don't think you have time for that

pyrography would be a skill to learn, and you don't have time for this if you haven't done it before.

If you know someone with good calligraphy skills , you could ask them to do it with a paint pen, then spray a light coat of lacquer over it

thecolourbox

Thanks all - some good ideas and good points made here. I'll leave the pyromania to the experts haha but will look at what I can draw up for the vinyl for now I think. Though the dog tag idea is a cool one.

Not sure I have the patience (or the printer) for decals though I'm sure that would look nice as well

Funkfingers

WezV said:

… sticky back plastic … will eventually peel

This could be turned to your advantage. Over time, the finish will discolour differentially. When the plastic eventually comes unstuck, the legend will still show in the uke finish.

thecolourbox

Funkfingers said:

WezV said:

… sticky back plastic … will eventually peel

This could be turned to your advantage. Over time, the finish will discolour differentially. When the plastic eventually comes unstuck, the legend will still show in the uke finish.

You sir are a genius

SteveRobinson

You could use the Cricut to make a frisket/stencil and spray through?
https://www.stewmac.com/video-and-ideas/trade-secrets/spraying-a-peghead-logo-using-a-vinyl-frisket.html

Funkfingers

thecolourbox said:

You sir are a genius

Nah. That was WezV.

viz

Saw it in half and count the rings

thecolourbox

Funkfingers said:

thecolourbox said:

You sir are a genius

Nah. That was WezV.

There's room for two geniuses I think. The hive mind.

Thanks all - vinyl is looking likely. I like the spray paint idea but I've not had much luck with paint in the past sadly

BillDL

You might be able to make a miniature ball and chain, have the ball engraved, and chain that to the uke?

thecolourbox

BillDL said:

You might be able to make a miniature ball and chain, have the ball engraved, and chain that to the uke?

I imagine the symbolism of that wouldn't go down too well!

Winny_Pooh

If you want it done properly I'd order a custom rothko and frost decal and a can of clear nitro.
Follow instructions to do the decal on the headstock, then mask off everything but headstock face and add 2 thin and 2 thicker coats of nitro. 

But knowing past threads I suspect you may have an objection to any sensible advice:

"My index finger is too unusually long to apply consistent pressure on a spray can"
"I have to use water on the waterslide decal? I dont like water".
"My dog will bark at the postman and the neighbours get upset"
"I wont have space to store the spray can afterwards" 
"I'm hear a weird hum whenever I face north holding sandpaper"

Funkfingers

Winny_Pooh said:" 

"I hear a weird hum whenever I face north holding sandpaper"

You are Steve Smith or David Warner and I claim my five Guineas.

thecolourbox

Winny_Pooh said:

If you want it done properly I'd order a custom rothko and frost decal and a can of clear nitro.
Follow instructions to do the decal on the headstock, then mask off everything but headstock face and add 2 thin and 2 thicker coats of nitro. 

But knowing past threads I suspect you may have an objection to any sensible advice:

"My index finger is too unusually long to apply consistent pressure on a spray can"
"I have to use water on the waterslide decal? I dont like water".
"My dog will bark at the postman and the neighbours get upset"
"I wont have space to store the spray can afterwards" 
"I'm hear a weird hum whenever I face north holding sandpaper"

Thanks I'll look that up as I may get it done by somebody else properly after the wedding, but for now I'm just putting the sticky back vinyl on the body as it is easily done and easily removed

geetarguy85

You could use a paint pen, but I'm not sure how robust it'll be without some sort of sealer or lacquer over the top.

Re pyrography, I once wrote a message on a drum stick using a cheap pyrography kit from Amazon. It actually worked surprisingly well but I did practice quite a bit on wood dowel and some spare drum sticks. Also, the structure of the wood will have an impact on how well it works. If you wanted to go down that route I'd suggest getting some scrap mahogany to test on.

thecolourbox

Well I've gone for the vinyl! Quite pleased with how it looks though the photo makes it look like I have just photo shopped the lettering on

It should come off cleanly with a bit of determined peeling etc should I decide to get somebody to do it properly afterwards, but for now I'm happy with that. 

WezV

Good job.

Glad it worked out for you.

Whilst wear can be an issue, in real terms you may still be fine with that for years

thecolourbox

WezV said:

Good job.

Glad it worked out for you.

Whilst wear can be an issue, in real terms you may still be fine with that for years

Cheers Wez, yes hopefully it'll stay as it is for a bit at least, but no damage done if not. As Nigel kindly said earlier, if nothing else the day itself and doing this specific song will make the Uke a great musical memento of the occasion and who knows, I may even get the Mrs to learn it afterwards.

Thanks for the info fellas, if I do eventually get the waterslide done at some point in the future I'll post another picture for interest purposes