If you’re a regular reader then you’ll know that I was having a blast at making a cardboard ukulele over the past few weeks. That project is now finished in both senses of the word unfortunately.
With everything complete, the time came to put the strings on. This was always going to be make or break time and I was always dubious about it being strong enough to take the string tension. With that in mind, I put the strings on (without tuning it up) and took some pictures.
This turned out to be a pretty smart move because it turns out I was right to worry about it being able to take the string tension. Unfortunately as I started getting close to the point of it being in tune the neck gave way and that was that. In a strange way it was sort of a relief, I’d kind of expected it all along. I had wanted to record it being played but it wasn’t to be.
I learned loads making the cardboard ukulele and I had no real idea what I was going to do with after it was built. I really enjoyed it and I kind of surprised myself that I got anywhere even close to completing it. At least now I know that I’ll be using the tuners I bought to make a cigar box guitar…
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I'm sorry to hear of your loss. The excitement, the build up and the deflation as you realise your creation is not going to be playable today is soul destroying. I've been there many times! I built five guitars, all taking a lot longer than I thought, and have finally retired.
I don't know about a uke, but the tension on a guitar neck is somewhere in the region of 90lbs. Even if a ukulele was half that, that's a lot of strain on cardboard. I'm sure you'd thought of strengthening the neck with a wooden core. It would be interesting to hear it playing properly!