#12 Oz Tenor Harp Ukulele
Roger Pierce
I finally finished my tenor harp ukulele. Zebrawood back and sides, Sitka top, Wenge bindings and trim. The fretboard is 19" scale, low G tuning, and the harp strings range from 20-23". I had fun with the Larry Robinson inlay course on this one using shell, silver, recon stone and various wood, including poplar burl. The Yellow Brick Road is paved with tiles from a log of stacked yellowheart and black veneer. I had to make a custom case to fit it, also.
Rich
JohnParchem
JohnParchem
Robbie O'Brien
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Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2022 15:20
To: Robert O'Brien Guitar Building Forum <obrien...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: #12 Oz Tenor Harp Ukulele
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bkcarnett
Paul McEvoy
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Mark Garster
Beautiful!
On Mar 19, 2022, at 5:20 PM, 'Roger Pierce' via Robert O'Brien Guitar Building Forum <obrien...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I finally finished my tenor harp ukulele. Zebrawood back and sides, Sitka top, Wenge bindings and trim. The fretboard is 19" scale, low G tuning, and the harp strings range from 20-23". I had fun with the Larry Robinson inlay course on this one using shell, silver, recon stone and various wood, including poplar burl. The Yellow Brick Road is paved with tiles from a log of stacked yellowheart and black veneer. I had to make a custom case to fit it, also.
I am very pleased with the sound. I am still learning how to play it and tune the harp strings for songs in different keys, but the resonance is amazing compared to any of my other ukes. I couldn't attach a video, so I will post a link to a Youtube clip.
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Ramon Tristani
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Thank you,
Ramon E. Tristani
Dan Solomon
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Roger Pierce
Thank you all for the kind words. It is my new favorite instrument.
Brian – I have about 200 hours into it, including 20 to build the case. I started it in August. That includes lots of time repairing my friend’s mistakes.
Paul and Ramon – A luthier friend shared a plan with me, which I modified quite a bit for this one. I added about a ½” in length and width of the lower bout, increased the scale length to 19” and stretched the harp arm to match, added the bevel, cutaway, and side soundport, and changed the shape of the bridge and pegheads. I would be happy to share my plan and some build details. I am partway through building another that I plan to string as a baby baritone, DGBE. With the same 19” scale length, I think it will work fine. Strings By Mail helped me plan the harp string gauges.
I had a hard time finding a top set long enough, about 23” on the harp side. I finally found a nice set for a harp guitar that was 36”, from Gilmer. I was able to get tops for 2 harp ukes from this, by cutting a foot from opposite ends before joining the 2 sides. I resawed the zebrawood from a nice quartersawn board I found at a Rockler store, so the length was not a problem.
Roger Pierce
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From: Paul McEvoy
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2022 7:12 PM
To: obrien...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: #12 Oz Tenor Harp Ukulele
That's super cool. Amazing work.
Is there a harp uke plan available?
What kind of back and sides set do you use? Do you need an oversized set?
On Sat, Mar 19, 2022, 20:00 bkcarnett <bkca...@gmail.com> wrote:
Wow Roger, that is incredible. How long have you been working on it? Can’t believe all the beautiful details! Congrats,
Brian
On Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 4:48:07 PM UTC-7 Robbie O'Brien wrote:
Yippee Ki Yay Caramba!!!!
Beautiful!
Robbie
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From: 'Roger Pierce' via Robert O'Brien Guitar Building Forum <obrien...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2022 15:20
To: Robert O'Brien Guitar Building Forum <obrien...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: #12 Oz Tenor Harp Ukulele
I finally finished my tenor harp ukulele. Zebrawood back and sides, Sitka top, Wenge bindings and trim. The fretboard is 19" scale, low G tuning, and the harp strings range from 20-23". I had fun with the Larry Robinson inlay course on this one using shell, silver, recon stone and various wood, including poplar burl. The Yellow Brick Road is paved with tiles from a log of stacked yellowheart and black veneer. I had to make a custom case to fit it, also.
I am very pleased with the sound. I am still learning how to play it and tune the harp strings for songs in different keys, but the resonance is amazing compared to any of my other ukes. I couldn't attach a video, so I will post a link to a Youtube clip.
--
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Rob McAllister
Roger Pierce
Hi Rob
Most of the challenges in this build were of my own making, with a little help from Robbie’s friend.
The mold and forms were pretty straightforward, but be careful to keep it strong/stable where the harp arm leaves the neck heel. Also, be careful that the width of the flat where the neck joins (between the harp arm and the cutaway, if you use one) is exactly the finished width of the fretboard at that point. I had to rebuild the neck block for that problem after it and all the linings were installed. I also had to be careful that the harp arm and neck ended up properly spaced apart at the pegheads. The arm can flex around until the top and back are attached.
The vertical trim between the top and back bindings was a little tricky to figure out, but came out well.
I couldn’t fit a router close enough to the harp arm to cut a mortise like I hoped to do, and didn’t want to try to do it just with saw and chisel, so I opted for a flat butt joint with a bolt. Seem to work fine, as the harp arm angling away there helps keep it aligned.
I highly recommend that you read John Parchem’s blog about his harp uke build. It was very helpful. There is a link on the forum to it if you search harp ukulele.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I can hardly wait to get back to work finishing my baritone version, but I need to take a little break on behalf of the shop widow in my house. I got pretty obsessed with this build.
Good luck.
Roger
From: Rob McAllister
Sent: Sunday, March 20, 2022 1:41 PM
To: Robert O'Brien Guitar Building Forum
Subject: Re: #12 Oz Tenor Harp Ukulele
WOW Roger! Absolutely stunning!
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pstreit
Gary Zamis
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Nicholas Peshman
drbrucet
Ramon Tristani
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