Chords for Deluxe Travel Ukulele

[Dm] _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Dm] _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ Come with me on a little journey to see how this piece of wood was transformed [Bb] into this.
[N] _
_ Seamless.
_ _ I'm gathering the parts and supplies that I need for my deluxe travel ukulele.
Instead of the normal concert size I'm going to do a tenor size with a 17.5 inch scale length.
Here's the fret template I'm going to use.
This is going to have 15 frets.
It's going to be built with this hunk of walnut.
It's about an inch thick.
I'm going to use some banjo styled gear tuners.
My bridge is made out of aluminum, this polystyrene rod, and a rod piezo.
I have this chrome end pin jack _ _ _ and this chrome turnaround. _ _
I also have these white circle inlays that I'm going to put on the fretboard. _
_ _ _ I've trimmed off the top portion of the board and that will allow it to fit into my miter box. _
I do keep the straight part of the board so that way the frets will be perpendicular to the wood.
_ I've taped the fretboard to the board.
I've also marked out where my fret markers will go.
_ Now I'll put the board in the miter box and I'll use my fret saw to cut the fret slots.
_ All of the fret slots are now cut including the slot for the zero fret.
Now I can cut the rest of the body except for this part here and I'll show you why I'm
not going to cut that until later.
The outside of the body is now cut.
_ _ I use a drill press and a forstner bit to drill out the holes for the inlays.
_ _ _ All of the inlays are now installed.
_ _ I've now drilled holes for the side markers and I'm going to put this side dot material
in there and then trim them off.
I've now installed the side markers.
Once I sand it down they'll look really nice and flush.
_ Okay I'm ready to drill the holes for the tuners and also the turnaround.
I wait to cut out the inside until after I drill these holes so the wood doesn't split
out on the inside.
_ The holes are now drilled and I'm ready to cut out the inside.
_ _ _ The inside is cut out to make room for the tuners and the turnaround. _ _
Here's a piece of angled aluminum that I made for the bridge.
_ _ I took a big piece like this, _ cut it down, and then cut off most of one of the legs.
_ _ Now I just need to drill a couple holes for the screws and one hole back here for the
pickup to feed through. _
_ It's time to carve the back of the neck.
I'm going to use this microplane rasp and also a belt sander to get it nice and comfortable
in the hand. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ I've now drilled the holes for the strings using this little ukulele nut as a guide.
_ _ The bridge is now also drilled.
Two holes for the screws and one big hole for the pickup wire.
_ The neck is now carved. _ _
I'll still hit it a few more times with the random orple sander but at least it's now
in the right shape.
_ _ _ I'm now going to put frets on the neck.
The frets are now in.
I pounded the frets in with this plastic mallet, _ then trimmed off the fret ends with this cutter. _ _
I'm now ready to drill a hole for the end pin jack.
I'll drill a big hole for the jack and a smaller hole from the bridge to my cavity for the pickup wire.
_ The hole is now ready for the end pin jack.
I used this long, smaller drill bit and drilled from here all the way there.
I also countersunk the holes in the back of the neck so that the string nuts will be hidden away.
_ _ The body is just about done.
I'm going to hit it one more time with the random orbital sander and it should be ready
for some true oil.
_ _ _ It's sanded down and it's time for some true oil.
Here is the uke after one coat of true oil. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ I've now put on enough coats of true oil.
Next I'll put on some wax and it will be ready for the hardware. _
It's time to start the assembly.
I fed the pickup wire through the hole.
Now I can solder the pickup to this output jack. _
_ The pickup is soldered to the end pin jack and the end pin jack is screwed in.
Let's test it out.
_ _ Looks like it works great. _
Next I'm going to install the turnaround.
This is a tattoo grip.
_ _ _ The turnaround is now installed.
_ _ _ _ _ Now it's time to install the planetary geared tuners.
_ _ All four tuners are now installed.
_ _ [C] _ [Ab] I [Bb] just installed the backstrap button.
Now it's time for some [Eb] strings. _ _ _
[N] _ _ It now has strings. _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Here's the size of the tenor ukulele compared to its younger brother, the concert ukulele.
_ _ Being so small and rugged means it's perfect for travel.
Let's see how it sounds.
[Gbm] _ _ _ _ [G] _ [Gb] _ [G] _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _ _ [Bbm] _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _ _ [Bbm] _
[D] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _
[D] _ [Eb] _ [Bm] _ [C] _ [Bm] _ [Eb] _ [C] _ _
[D] _ [Eb] _ [Ebm] _ [G] _ _ _ [C] _ [Gb] _
[G] _ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [Bbm] _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ [Gb] _ [G] _ _ _ [Bbm] _
[D] _ _ _ [C] _ [G] _ _ _ _
[Am] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ [Am] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _
[F] _ _ _ [G] _ _ [F] _ _ _
_ [Dm] _ _ [F] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _