by

1
Electric Ukulele Plans
I have made this plan and information available to help and inspire makers in their
endeavours, The purchase of these plans means that you have the freedom to make
and sell instruments to this design with my full permission. My only proviso is that
you give credit where credit is due, an acknowledgement, or link to my site if you
have a website, I can also add your details/link to my website pages and can pass on
your details if you wish as I am focusing on ancient acoustic instruments for now.

Please check out my suggested reading list to help you if this is your first electric
guitar type project, this is important when it comes to the wiring especially.

Neck
Maple neck in combination with a rosewood fingerboard is my preference for
stability. I used a mandolin pre-slotted fingerboard from stewmac for my later ukes
but did hand-cut the slots on some, for example the maple necked ones.
The nut I used was bone, but you can purchase a standard uncut fender nut made of
Corian or Tusq-nut hard plastic as well.
Frets can either be the low profile mandolin ones or modern narrow equivalents.
The dots on the rosewood one is pearl/abalone 4 or 5mm depending on what you
prefer.
The machine pegs are grover mini types used on Tenor Ukuleles, mandolin etc.
I do not use truss rods on the soprano or concert models but you may wish to use
them on the longer necked tenor ukulele. My own preference here is to just use a
rosewood fingerboard maple neck with the option of a carbon rod in the neck for
stiffness. Truss rods that are adjustable on the body end of the neck, following
fender practice. Are best given the headstock size.
To finish the maple necks were sealed with linseed before finishing with Nitro-
cellulose as this pops the colour very nicely and helps the wood age to a nice mellow
yellow over time. French polish is a friendly alternative to use.
Body
Any of the usual body woods, Alder, poplar, swamp ash can be used, though you
should try to avoid extra heavy woods from some suppliers you can get the timber
planned down to thickness ready for jointing, one set of standard electric guitar body
wood should do two electric Ukulele bodies if the supplier has not cut the wood to
any shape.
With my uke bodies I routed the pickup and neck cavities, then the body profile and
lastly the neck cavity.
You can buy from Stewmac the pickup cavity template, though it can be made
yourself from my plans.
After routing you need to sand the body in stages to make a good base for the finish,

2
120 grit -180- 240 to 360 grit, and then lightly damp down and sand again once it is
dry.
If you are spray finishing the body I can recommend a good site that show how you
can finish with spray cans, but please take care and get an organic partical filtration
mask rather than just a dust mask as the fumes are toxic,

http://www.manchesterguitartech.co.uk/kitpaint.html

A safer alternative would be to use a decorative timber and and oil based finish
instead.

Pickguard
I have used both the multi laminate pickguard and the plain black plastic ones, you
can choose from the supplier a host of styles and patterns. If you get your pickup
first you can make the hole the correct size using forstner bits or use a router and
template. Make an MDF copy of the pickguard using a bandsaw to cut close to shape
then a bench disc sander or bobbin sander in a bench drill to sand to size, it needs to
be straight and smooth as any imperfections will be copied on the plastic pickguard.
Standard fender screws are used for the pickguard, the small holes will need
countersinking with a countersink bit, experiment with offcuts first to get the right
depth.

Hardware
The neck plate is 0.080” brass plate, I have used aluminium in the past as it needs no
finishing but brass is harder. If you have a bench drill, bench sander then you should
be able to shape the metal easily after cutting out, but watch out for the heat, wear eye
and dust protection.
(aluminium dust is a component of the solid fuel in the space shuttle boosters, metal
dust can ignite!

The uke bridge is basically a variation of the standard hardtail strat bridge, my
version has string though saddles like on a telecaster, this takes the stress off the
bridge and increases sustain.

My first ones were of aluminium angle section 2” cut down to 1/2” then drilled and
the radius sanded off. I use standard strat saddles.

You can buy ready made top loading uke bridges for steel strings in the USA, I hope
to have my string through ones available commercially soon.

3
4
Stringing
The tenor necked electric uke is the closest in scale to an ordinary electric guitar fretted at
the 5th fret and that has a similar feel, The soprano and Concert use thicker strings and
plenty of compensation at the adjustable bridge to make things work, but they work better
for strumming/accompaniment rather than lead guitar type of playing.

The choice of whether you use a low G string is a personal one, it does facilitate standard
guitar playing but you lose the re-entrant shimmer for chord work. When changing the
gauge of string you use you may have to move the bridge saddle to compensate, this is
very apparent when moving from a wound string to a plain one or visa-versa.

(Use regular electric guitar strings for all strings)

String 1 2 3 4 -/low wound G alternative 4th

Soprano Ukulele 0.012, 0.016, 0.024, 0.013” plain (light stringing) /0.035wound
“ “ “ “ “ 0.013, 0.017, 0.026, 0.014” plain (heavier stringing) /0.036wound

Concert Ukulele 0.011 / 0.014 / 0.018 / 0.012” /0.028wound

Tenor Ukulele 0.009 / 0.011 / 0.016 / 0.010” /0.024wound

This is just a suggestion, like the normal 6 string electric you can play around with
string makes and gauges to fit your style of playing

Parts:
http://www.stewmac.com
for Pickup cavity router guide, Rosewood Mandolin fingerboard, fretwire, Telecaster
neck pickup, pickguard material, grover tuning pegs, pearl dots, miscellaneous parts
and tools.

Hardware
Ukulele bridges and neck plates (UK)
http://www.michaeljking.com

Electric mandolin supplies, kits, hardware (USA) (Top loading bridges)
 http://www.moongazermusic.com/   

5
Routing
The router cutter here are just my selection to do the work, I recommend going on a
router course or just general woodwork course to learn best how to use these tools
and keep them sharp, For most of the work a router table is the safest way.

Rounding the edge of the ukulele:

I chose a diameter of 18mm/3/4” rounded edge

cutter for comfort

Routing the neck socket

and pickup/control cavity:

A 12mm template bit does the work well but

you may also need an 8mm one for the neck
pocket unless you chisel it square like I did on
mine

Pickguard shape: this laminate trimmer bit

follows the pickguard form(see youtube video)
made of 12mm mdf, the pickguard is taped to
the MDF with double sided adhesive and is face
-down on the router table. I used an 8mm bit
which matched the neck edge radius of 4mm.

Pickguard chamfer:

I used a 45 degree angle and a bearing guided

cutter on the router table. You will need careful
setting up on the table to ensure only the
pickguard is chamfered.

6
7
Wiring
The wiring on this guitar is quite simple, I suggest
keeping to one volume control only, mainly because
of the lack of space. On my first model I moved the
volume knob to the left hand side of the instrument,
this is possible but electric guitar players prefer the
knobs closer to hand, some use them as effects. You
can get diagrams for wiring for most popular makes
of pickups, Seymour Duncan are a very good
example,
http://www.guitarnuts.com/index.php

http://tiny.cc/IuOLK
** note that the ground (back of volume pot)is connected to the bridge by wire

This is just one

example of a one pot,
one pickup diagram,
there isn't a telecaster
one with this
minimal setup,
although it may be
useful to have a look
at the esquire!

8
Links

to calculate custom fingerboard scale lengths see:

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

Lee valley tools (USA)

Grizzley tools (USA)
Axminster power tools (UK)
Touchtone tonewoods (UK)
Stewmac (USA)

Reading List

Here are some books I know to be very useful on a project like this:

Make Your Own Electric Guitar (Covers everything)

Melvin Hiscock

Guitar Electronics Understanding Wiring (pictorial!)

Tim Swike

Guitar Electronics for Musicians (Goes in very deep with wiring)

Donald Brosnac

How to Make Your Electric Guitar Play Great!

Dan Erlewine

Best of luck in your Luthierie, drop me an email with suggestions, questions, Links
or photos of completed instruments!!

Best wishes

Michael J King
April 14th 2009
www.michaeljking.com mjk@michaeljking.com