Mya-Moe Ukuleles Builders’ Blog

We just started our 100th instrument, and I finally feel like I’m starting to master the application of the water-based lacquer.  It’s not as good as nitro, but that is the nature of the product.  It’s harder to apply, a bit more finicky, and it doesn’t give you as “wet” a finished look.  But, given all the positive impacts to your health and the environment, the water-based lacquer is excellent.  So, here’s my process:

*  I use Stewart-MacDonald’s water-based laquer product line.  I tried KTM-9 (from LMI), but it is more finicky.  The big negative is that when you use shellac as a sealer and don’t need a pore filler (such as on spruce), the KTM-9 easily blisters during buffing.  The StewMac products are really solid, and the folks at StewMac have done a lot of testing.  They are a great help.

*  I sand to 180, then mask, then put on one coat of shellac as a sealer.

*  After a quick sanding, I put on StewMac’s water-based (clear) pore filler.  I mix some micro-beads into the pore filler to thicken it a bit.  This is a really important step–it reduces the number of times you need to pore fill and results in a much better surface.

*  One day later, I put on another coat of pore filler thickened with micro-beads

*  One day later, I sand it flat with 320.  I put on 5 coats of the StewMac sanding sealer at 45 minute intervals.  I’m using a Walcom STM HVLP gun and I put on relatively light coats.  I never get any runs or sags, and I overlap each pass of the gun by 50%.  I leave the product in the cup of the gun during the day and clean it out after the last shooting.  I keep the room at about 70 degrees and the humidy fluctuates during the year from about 35% to 45%.

*  The next day I sand everything flat with 320.  This is the biggest sanding day.  I don’t want to sand through the finish and expose new pores, but I want to get it as flat as possible.  Some pores still show up after this sanding.  I think put on another 5 coats of the sanding sealer.

*  The next day everything gets sanded flat, and you shouldn’t see any pores.  I then put on 5 coats of the StewMac water-based lacquer at 45 minute intervals.  Again, the coats are relatively light.  If you get runs or sags, or you see any milky look to the finish, then it’s going on too thick.

*  I wait about 7 days before sanding & buffing.

*  I go right to 1500 grit wet-sanding.  Surprisingly, the surface right off the gun is so good that I can sand with 1500.  This sanding goes pretty fast.

*  Then I go to the buffer and buff with the Menzerna medium, then extra-fine.

With this process, I get a great gloss finish.  StewMac notes that to get as transparent a finish as possible, keep each coat of finish light.

Gordon

So, it’s been about 2 months since we’ve written on our blog.  We’ve been slammed in the ukulele shop!  That’s not such a bad thing.  We love working together in the shop and watching each instrument come together.

In late February we held the first annual Gorge Ukulele Festival (www.gorgeukuleles.org) which was a huge success, though it was also a huge time sink.  We’ve already scheduled next year’s festival and we’ve confirmed James Hill.  Anyway, back to the shop notes…

When Char and I started building ukuleles (we delivered the first one in May, 2008), we built at the rate of 3 per week.  By the end of last year we had 12 in stock and decided to back down production to 2 per week.  Well, by the time our ukulele festival was over (March 1), we didn’t have any instruments in stock!  So, we decided to ramp back up to 3 per week.

When we ramp production up, it consumes a lot of time.  The issue isn’t just that we’ve increased production by 50%, but that we need more fretboards, necks, soundwells, bridges, etc.  And, since we make these parts from scratch in batches, when we ramp up production we suddenly have to make a lot more of those parts.  So, since we ramped up over a month ago, we’ve been spending 7 days a week in the shop.

Now we’ve caught up.  We have 18-21 instruments in process (they take 6-7 weeks to complete);  we have 3 in stock and are adding 1-3 per week (depending upon custom orders and sales);  we have over 30 necks roughed out and 30 fretboards ready.

Amazingly, it hasn’t been a year since we delivered our first ukulele, and we’ll start our 100th uke in 2 weeks!  We’ve decided to make the 100th pretty special, with a spectacular set of wood and abalone purfling around the body and headstock.

After designing the 100th, we’re close to deciding to bring out a new “model” which adds all those aethetic touches to a standard instrument.

It snowed up here (we’re at 2000′) on April 1st, but today we’ve got sunshine and 60 degrees, so maybe spring is here finally?

We’re off to Eugene to see Jake Shimabukuro on Tuesday.  We’ll go to the NYC Uke Festival at the end of May, and then back here for the Portland Ukulele Festival in mid-June.

Thanks to all the people who play and love our instruments.  We’re having a blast continuing to make and hopefully perfect our ukuleles!

Gordon & Char

We’re in the process of building our 100th instrument–something I couldn’t have imagined a few years ago.  But, we have yet to build a “perfect” instrument, and right now I’m not sure we ever will.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about “perfect”.  It is one of the few words that is an absolute.  Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and “perfect” is certainly subjective.  But, for the person doing the judging, “perfect” is an absolute.

For our instruments, I have an incredibly high standard.  Every instrument has some slight flaws and I know where they are in every one.  Of course, I won’t let them go out the door if those flaws are anything more than the most minor aesthetic issues (maybe a pore that went unfilled, or a blip in the purfling).  But, they are less than perfect.

There are so many aspects to an instrument:  acoustics, aesthetics, playability.  And, within each of those areas there are many factors.  Add onto that that we’re dealing with wood, which always has “flaws” (mostly I think of them as features).

In life, I’ve found myself pursuing different hobbies, but then tiring of them when I reach a point of knowing all I can know about them.  After building nearly 100 instruments, what I don’t know about them seems like a much bigger body-of-knowledge that what I know about them.  Every day is an adventure, and I learn several new things every day about wood, our process, finishing materials, and acoustics.

But, isn’t that what makes a pursuit fulfilling?  Why bother do it if you can master it quickly?  I seem to constantly wrestle with the balance between challenge and perfection.  I think if we built a “perfect” instrument, the challenge might no longer be there.  So, in some ways I guess I hope we never achieve perfection.  But, the idea of building (and selling) imperfect instruments is somewhat unsettling.

I guess at the end of the day what keeps me motivated is that our musicians and players seem to love what we’re making.  I hear from at least one of them every day.

Enough introspection, I guess.  Time to drop off a lap steel!

Gordon

How are these three items related?  Not at all, except that we’re working on them all currently.

The 6-string ukulele is coming along very well.  The instrument is in the finishing process and should be strung up in about 2 weeks.  We had just made a custom resonator with a 1 1/2″ wide fretboard (at the nut), which is the width of the 6-string, so that exercise saved us some time.  Over the weekend we built a custom bridge to accomodate the extra strings with the correct string spacing.  And, we’ve assembled the string sets–a custom set of all nylgut Aquila strings.  One advantage of the Aquila’s is that they are a slightly smaller diameter (for a given tuning) than the D’Addario strings.  So, when we go the the 6-string where we need a low-A string (the octave pairing in the #1 string position), we can get a nylgut version in the Aquila whereas the D’Addario would be a wound string.  Can’t wait to hear it!

After finishing 50 instruments with KTM-9 (water-based lacquer), we recently switched to ColorTone’s water-based by StewMac.  The topcoat seems to be harder than KTM-9 (in a good way) and it seems to buff out better.  In addition, the topcoat flows out so well that we start the wet sanding process with 1500 grit, saving time and trouble on the buffer.

With KTM-9 we used epoxy as the underlying pore filler.  But, we never were completely satisfied with the process and fiddled with it quite a lot to optimize it.  Even then, epoxy has some downsides (such as the relatively long cure cycle).  So, as of this week we’re going back to the tried-and-true water-based pore filler.  Pore filling is a chore, and it’s one of those things that just require experience.  When this is all done we may just write a book on the water-based finishing process!

We’re also changing the process for bending our wood binding.  From the start of the ukulele building, we’ve used the bending iron to bend the binding and put it on in one piece.  We recently decided to add bloodwood to our binding options, and when I tried to bend it with the iron it shattered.  So, we cut the binding in half and successfully bent it on the side bending machine.  As you might expect, the binding came out of the machine so cleanly and bent so well that we’ve decided to use this process on all the binding.  The instrument won’t come out any different, but it will make the binding process just a bit cleaner and easier.

Ok, back to work!