Making A Ukulele – Part 5

Well, we decided on using Tru-Oil for the finish of our ukulele. First we put a small amount on part of Grandma’s paint job to make sure it wouldn’t mess up that, then we put a thin cloat on with our paws.

Following the instructions, we hung the ukulele from a peg in the workbench and let it dry overnight.

After the ukulele was dry, we lightly sanded the finish with #000 steel wool and wiped it off with a soft cloth. We repeated this six times, although three or four iterations probably would have been good enough.

Next we attached the pegs, making sure we didn’t tighten them to much.

Finally, it was time to string the ukulele and give it a test play! We didn’t like the cheap strings that came with the kit, so we invested another $2.67 and bought some Martin strings. We printed instructions we found on the internet, and attached string 1.

We measured the string heights from the 1st and 12th frets, and discovered we had a problem; the string was too high over both frets. Oh well…we weren’t able to string and play the uke after all. Now we have to file down the nut grooves and maybe sand the bridge riser for each string. We don’t have a fret file, so we are going to gently try folded sand paper first.

To be continued…