2019 Clown-Painted Plywood Kit Ukulele




A friend of mine gave this very cheap, plywood "ukulele kit" to a friend of his to paint. It came back painted with this wild clown motif, though it'd never been fine-sanded before the paint (oh no!) and it was missing a fretboard, bridge, tuners, and the neck wasn't attached. Also -- whoever painted it left a "clear" space for the bridge... in the wrong place (oh no)!

My job was to finish it. I put a couple coats of finish on to seal it (though the finish is very rough), fit a rosewood fretboard to it and fretted it, made an oversize bridge to fit the exposed part of the top and get the saddle in the right place, added NOS Schaller tuners, and made a new bone nut and saddle. The end result is a nice-playing little soprano uke with the sound of... a cheap plywood kit ukulele. Oh no (for the third time)!

Fortunately, this is going to get a pickup installed so it will mostly be used through the cipher of a PA system and thus be much more pleasing as an eye-catching little wild-thing that sounds good plugged-in.









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