Ukulele Design and Construction

these book was well written. it cover step by step instructions how to build an ukulele.very nice pic in the and is e-z to understand. all in all in read and nice to us as a construction reference. hope you all enjoy it like i have.

Whoever designed this Uke, has no idea about thicknesses of woods and the resulting sounds. It is WAY overbuilt. The end result was extremely disappointing. Looks great but sounds tinny and no volume.

The pictures are mostly very poor and the text seems as though it has been badly translated. It hasn't been proofread judging by some of the entries.
If you can make sense of such gems as "There is not enough room in the soundhole to use more than 2 clamps so it is important that a 1 inch x 6 inch caul while gluing." and " The width is 2-1/2 inches x 3/4 inches + for both pieces" you are doing better than I am.
Within an hour of receiving this book I got on the net and ordered the Hana Lima book and plans.

This book is a joke

Hello to All,

This book and optional plan is not detailed enough for the fist time builder. It's OK for more experienced people who can fill in the blanks on their own. It certainly could use more details and discussion on design options. Guitar Making Tradition and Technology by Cumpiano and Natelson gives more details - but for guitars. Good Luck!

Simply put, this book is not that good. It tries to be ambitious in covering several different construction techniques, but fails to explain any of those with sufficient detail. The jigs are pictured, but not well explained either, and sources are not given for several important parts. The set of plans is poorly copied and difficult to read, and the book is rife with typos, several of which serve to obfuscate whatever the intent of the author was. I would instead recommend another text, "The Ukulele" by Denis Gilbert is my favorite.