Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

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msloescher
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by msloescher »

Thanks again, morale is climbing
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Bob Gleason
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by Bob Gleason »

I've put a coat of lacquer on the inside of over 600 instruments and nobody has complained about sound deficits yet. When you do a light single coat, I really don't think you are doing much in the way of sealing the wood and I don't see how it can have a negative effect on sound. I do it because I think it looks nice and definitely helps the inside of the instrument retain a cleaner look. Some woods, like spruce, tend to get a little fuzzy in time and they attract dust and dirt leading to a not so clean interior look. I guess it depends on whether you want the inside to be as nice as the outside, and although that is not really possible, I like to get as close as I can.
ChuckBarnett
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by ChuckBarnett »

I am hijacking this thread to ask a question as a newbie. I just used Titebond to glue a label onto the inside back of my tenor ukulele. Can I spray shellac on to the whole back over that label before I glue it on to the sides? The top is already glued onto the sides. The label is laser printed on copy paper.
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MaineGeezer
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by MaineGeezer »

I would think so. Just avoid putting any around the edge where it is going to be glued to the sides. You want the glue to be om bare wood.

Incidentally, your braces look rather hefty. I think you could probably shave down the width of them to advantage.
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ruby@magpage.com
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by ruby@magpage.com »

I might apply some shellac to a label that is not yet installed to see if the alcohol causes the ink to run. I recently made a copy of my logo on an ink jet printer and glued it to abalone with shellac:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruby1638/ ... 488198220/

Ed
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ChuckBarnett
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by ChuckBarnett »

MaineGeezer wrote:Incidentally, your braces look rather hefty. I think you could probably shave down the width of them to advantage.
Thank you, geezer, for paying attention to more than my simple question! Any help I can get it this early stage is welcome! The plan I am working from is from LMI and calls for braces between 1 quarter inch and 5/16 in with. These are 1/4 inch. It might be a little difficult to shave them down as close as the back itself because it would be hard for me to get in there that close with a tool. But I could shave them down otherwise. I just feel a little bit insecure about when to stop, and why. If it were handed to you, what would you do at this point?
MaineGeezer
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Re: Sheen on inside of back and sides— apply finish?

Post by MaineGeezer »

Hmmm...it's difficult to get a sense of scale. I would have guessed they were wider than 1/4'. i think my head is seeing it as a guitar back and mentally scaling the braces to that.

I've never built a ukelele....but they are pretty lightly strung. You ought to be able to get away with fairly light bracing. I successfully use 1/4" wide braces on guitar backs, so I think one can infer that ukelele braces can safely be less. 3/16" should be quite acceptable.

If 'twere me, at this stage of the game I'd probably run a small block plane along the sides of the braces to thin them down to more of an inverted thin V shape. I tend to favor the "tall and thin" approach to stiffness vs. "short and wide," but I can't tell you whether the resulting sound quality supports that way of doing it. Strictly from an engineering point of view though, you can get equivalent stiffness with less material by favoring height over width, and less mass should allow more resonance.

Now, there are folks on here who have built ukeleles and actually know what they are doing. They may have other opinions.

But don't get in a swivet about it. Your bracing will be fine, as is. I suspect the finished product will still sound better than most ukeleles you can buy, especially if the top is done well. And it will give you an exucuse to build another one, to see if it does make any difference. <grin>
Don't believe everything you know.
Anything is possible if you don't know what you are talking about.
When things are bad, try not to make them any worse, because it is quite likely they are bad enough already. - French Foreign Legion
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