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Guys out of my scraps I'm building a uke it'll be a concert size and will have a 3 piece willow top with rosewood back and sides. I'm yet to make a mold and bend the sides, but I'd like to ask how you should brace and voice the tops.

Thanks

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

John,
I recently got the Scott Antes concert uke plans and they show 2 fan braces with an optional 3rd brace between them. Also, one cross brace in the upper bout and one below the sound hole. There is also a bridge plate. The braces all look too thick to me so I am going to make them smaller. This will be my third uke so I am still a beginner. Hope this helps. This is my first post but have been lurking since April 2008. Lots of good info and nice people on this board.
Doug

I agree, that Scott Antes tends to be overbraced as does the Hanamlima plan. I use three fan braces. You can see some progress pictures of bracing in my journal.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

On concerts I used two VERY small fan braces.

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John Mayes
http://www.mayesluthier.com

are you not using willow for the top on this uke.

if so i know theres hardly any string tension but thats a very very soft light wood maybe you might want to think about over bracing slightly and taking wood off as you see fit as you get a feel for how strong the top is.

Joel.

At last year's GAL conference Bob Gleason shared his five fan braced ukes. He passed around before and after brace shaping examples of tops. Even after brace shaping, the tops were pretty stiff. As he clearly has a ton of experience here it is worth considering his approach. He did say that he builds for long term strength rather than optimum tone.

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GEO
perpetual beginner

I am building an eight string uke for a friend. He says eight strings are traditionally played so hard they almost could be considered a percussion instrument. Tongue in cheek obviously. But that said, I think going with a five fan braced top is not a bad idea. Opinions?

The instrument will be entirely of Koa, I've got lots of thickness to work with, so I can make the top almost any thickness. I just want it to hold up to the eight strings as well as the more percussive nature of the play.

I've thickneses the top and it feel just a little stiff at 95 thou, but I want to leave a little thick for final sanding, so it side bending next.

_________________
Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes

Couple of things guitar builders tend to do when building `ukulele:
Overbuild (especially steel string builders), and put a marker dot on the 9th, instead of the 10th.

Your top can come WAY down - closer to .075. I think Rick (Turner) has gone as thin as 1/16" on some builds.

There are a handful of builders I know that do a 5 fan brace (I'm one of them). I think David Hurd also does it, as well as Casey Kamaka (on his customs that I've seen). Oddly enough, the factory Kamaka's have 3 fan.

BTW, I'm talking Tenors.

I'm not sure what the plans you have show, but on a Concert, I would imagine the bridge patch being fairly thin.

Hope this helps.

Aaron, as to plans I have some soprano ones which I've just enlarged 20% so it makes the most of the wood I have, and that falls into the size of concert ukes, I'm loathed to take the top thinner at the moment note it's willow, not spruce or mahogany/koa type, though I'll brace it lightly.

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Formerly JJH

I learn more from my mistakes than my successes