Solo UKT-10 DIY Tenor Ukulele Kit

(4 customer reviews)

$ USD 64.99

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This product is discontinued and is no longer available for purchase. We've left this page up for reference only.

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SKU: SL-UKT-10 Category: Ukulele Kits Brand:

Description

This ukulele kit has everything you need for building your own custom Tenor Ukulele.  This small project is an excellent starter for anybody interested in learning about building stringed musical instruments. You will need only some basic tools and finishing supplies. All challenging wood cutting, drilling and shaping is already done professionally, as well as fret leveling and dressing.

Disclaimer: The neck is slightly wider than the fretboard so once the fretboard has been applied, you will have to shape the sides of the neck to flush it up with the profile of the fretboard.

Secondly, the bottom of the neck heel extends about a 1/4″ past the body once it is applied. This will require you to the cut it down to flush it up with the body for comfort and ease of playability.

Lastly, while the slot has been started for you, you will have to properly cut and shape the nut slot to accommodate the nut.***

Kit includes:

  • Geared tuners with bushings
  • Sapele back & sides
  • Okume Neck
  • 16.96″ Scale length
  • Body Length: 11 1/2″
  • Lower Bout: 8 1/2″
  • Upper Bout: 6 1/2″
  • Black Walnut Fingerboard
  • Nut
  • Spacer
  • Screws
  • Saddles
  • Bridge
  • Strings

Item shown: Solo UKT-10 DIY Tenor Ukulele Kit
Model #: UKT-10
UPC: 842561003720

4 reviews for Solo UKT-10 DIY Tenor Ukulele Kit

  1. jonnymiller (verified owner)

    The lack of instructions made this a bit of a tricky decision to buy, but overall I am glad I did. The sapele of the body looks quite stunning after finishing (I used blond shellac). This was my first acoustic style instrument, but I had made one electric guitar before so I had some experience with instruments, and I had a good deal of general woodworking experience making furniture.

    There were a few issues but I was able to work around them. I found that the neck surface which would have the fretboard glued down didn’t appear to be completely flat. I have a jointer so I was able to flatten it but without one this may or may not have been a problem. I knew upfront from the description that the neck was wider than the fretboard, and that the neck heel needed to be trimmed and this wasn’t much of a problem, I used a spokeshave for most of it and finished the trimming with a chisel. The supplied nut was only the width of the walnut portion of the fretboard, but the fretboard had black binding so the end result is that the nut does not extend the full width of the fretboard.

    From all videos I saw about making acoustic guitars I expected some kind of tenon or bolts or dowels to join the neck to the body but there was none. I even saw other ukulele kits available here have dowels included with pre-drilled holes for installing the neck. I had emailed support asking about this, they suggested that glue should be sufficient since the string tension is much lower on a ukulele, but that reinforcing with dowels wouldn’t hurt. I decided to drill holes for dowels to strengthen the joint just to be one the safe side.

    For the price of the kit, I didn’t really expect the tuners to be very good. There were very hard to turn and almost felt like they were grinding, but after adding a drop of oil in each of the gears and turning them a bunch they started to work much better.

    Overall I think this is a great kit for the price, my biggest concern was the neck butt joint (with no reinforcement) but once I decided to just add dowels everything else went quite smoothly.

  2. fr.records (verified owner)

    I ordered this kit because of the full solid woods. Read the first review which was very helpfull to me. I also put some dowels to the neck joint.
    As in the past I already built a classical guitar this ukelele was not that difficult to me; everything is a bit small so you have to think very well before you start working. Glueing the bridge was a bit tricky because of the small soundhole and where to put my clamps.
    Highly surprised about the result, she looks awesome after using Danish Oil for a finish and the sound is stunning, also nice sustain.
    She stays in tune very well so the tuning gear does the job very well too.
    I’m very satisfied with the result and got lots of compliments from people about the beauty of the instrument.
    Thank you Jonny Miller, your review was very helpfull !

  3. bwills (verified owner)

    I had no trouble assembling this kit. The materials were of excellent quality. I was impressed by the curved back. I kept the finish simple and used shellac. English oil on the fretboard. I just glued on the neck with no dowels, it seems very sturdy and the fit was great. I lowered the bridge by quite a bit and the nut by a small amount. Looks and sounds great. Excellent value. I plan to use this one with a Low G string to complement my other High G Uke.

  4. bwills (verified owner)

    I had no trouble assembling this kit. The materials were of excellent quality. I was impressed by the curved back. I kept the finish simple and used shellac. English oil on the fretboard. I just glued on the neck with no dowels, it seems very sturdy and the fit was great. I lowered the bridge by quite a bit and the nut by a small amount. Looks and sounds great. I plan to use this one with a Low G string to complement my other High G Uke.

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