Eddie Vedder’s DeVine tenor ukulele is getting a little TLC

02/10/2012 No comments

Eddie Vedder’s DeVine Tenor is back for a little tune up.

After eight years of service, Eddie Vedder’s DeVine Tenor ukulele is ready for a little tune up.

It was really exciting to get to see this uke again. An ukulele that has been around the world numerous times, been played in front of millions of fans and been features in Ed’s solo ukulele album. It’s hard to believe it has been eight years since band mate Mike McCready took home this uke for Ed as a thank you gift.

This was actually one of the first few ukes I ever built and was built before I started using a bridge doctor type bridge system. Without the current bridge system that I use the bridge would have a tendency to pull forward as this uke has done. I will begin the repairs by removing the bridge from the ukulele and building up the back portion behind the saddle. This will give me enough room to add in the stabilizing system inside the uke. After the bridge is put back in place and the top flattened, I will address a couple of small cracks in the top. Cedar tops, as this uke has, are notoriously easy to crack or dent. Although there are a couple small cracks, considering the amount this uke has been played, it is in very good condition.

Eddie Vedder's ukulele in case

Eddie Vedder's ukulele front quarter

Eddie Vedder's ukulele worn top

Eddie Vedder's ukulele front

Eddie Vedder's ukulele back

Eddie Vedder's ukulele backlit

Eddie Vedder's ukulele top

Eddie Vedder's ukulele lights

Abe Galan playing a DeVine Micro Flamenco guitar

02/04/2012 No comments

Here are a couple videos of my good friend Abe Galan playing some flamenco tunes on a guitar I made for him last year. The guitars is a very small bodied cannon made from cypress and carpathian spruce.

DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Finished instruments, Guitars, Videos of people playing DeVine Guitars & Ukuleles none

Muse tenor ukulele is ready for Thailand

01/18/2012 No comments

The Muse tenor ukulele is ready for Thailand

It was a long week of finishing and setup, but the last three tenors are ready to go out into the world!

This first custom uke is a tenor Muse bound for Thailand. I will be attending the Thailand Ukulele Festival with Kimo Hussey, Dan Ryerson and a few other players and builders from Hawaii on February 25-26. This will be the second anual Thailand uke fest and promises to be a great turn out.

This Muse tenor will be made available at the show in Thailand in February after it has been displayed at Kimo’s booth “Ask Kimo” Kimo will also be playing the uke in his concert for the festival. The price has not yet been set for this uke and it will not be sold till the end of the show.

We also recorded a few new videos that will be posted shortly.

muse tenor ukulele back side top

muse tenor ukulele back front

muse tenor ukulele back side

vintage muse tenor uke

muse tenor ukulele back side close

muse tenor ukulele back full

muse tenor ukulele back side half

Here are the other two ukes that were just finished as well. These ukes will be shipping out to Ukulele Puapua today.

kasha uke custom koa front

custom muse koa tenor ukulele

Available guitars and ukuleles, DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Finished instruments, Luthier info and guitar and ukulele building tips, Ukuleles none

Custom ukuleles : Cuban Mahogany tenor ukulele

01/14/2012 No comments

Custom ukuleles : Cuban Mahogany tenor ukulele

It’s finally time to enjoy all of the labor that goes into a custom instrument! After working on this batch of ukuleles for the past couple months, the first one is finished.

This Cuban Mahogany ukulele will be headed for Australia tomorrow morning. This Cuban Mahogany has been a joy to work with. It bends very well, has an incredible tap tone with tons of volume and sustain and is some of the most beautiful material I have ever worked with. The contrast between the Cuban Mahogany and the curly Koa is a great match as well. The nice even color of the Mahogany and the wild curly colors of the Koa make a very nice match. The Cuban Mahogany will turn to a nice dark red color over time making this uke more beautiful over time.

cuban mahogany ukulele front quarter

cuban mahogany ukulele side neck

cuban mahogany ukulele back side

cuban mahogany ukulele head side

cuban mahogany ukulele top side

cuban mahogany ukulele side left crop

cuban mahogany ukulele back right

cuban mahogany ukulele back top

cuban mahogany ukulele vintage

cuban mahogany ukulele side neck

cuban mahogany ukulele side left

cuban mahogany ukulele side tail

cuban mahogany ukulele headstock

cuban mahogany ukulele head

DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Finished instruments, Ukuleles none

Ukulele build : works in progress : Four custom tenor ukulele go into finishing.

01/03/2012 No comments

Four custom tenor ukulele go into finishing.

Over the last week at DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles we put the finishing touches on the four tenor ukuleles before going into the spray booth. Here is the Cuban mahogany muse tenor sanded and ready for shellac and pore filling.

signature fretboard inlay ready for pore filling

cuban mahogany ready for pore filling

After all the ukes are washed with a coat of pale shellac to protect the wood from staining, the pores are filled with a brown paste. with the pores filled and the excess past sanded away the ukes are sprayed with two more light coats of shellac.

tenor neck mud bath

tenor mud bath

tenor heel

Here is a blonde koa uke that will be headed off to Thailand for the Thailand ukulele Festival.

beautiful curly koa ukulele

curly-cuban-mahogany-neck-and-body

cuban mahogany ukulele neck

cuban mahogany tenor ukulele binding

4 tenor ukuleles

DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Guitar and ukulele works in progress, Luthier info and guitar and ukulele building tips, Ukuleles none

Custom Ukuleles : works in progress : binding and logo inlay

12/11/2011 No comments

This week at DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles,

We finished up binding work on all of the tenor ukuleles in this batch. After the binding was sanded and scraped down the bodies were cleaned up to get ready for the necks to be attached. Here are a few pictures of the ukes and their binding.

ukulele with necks on

ebony end graft

front view of ukuleles

cuban mahogany top with abalone

cuban mahogany and koa binding

All of the logo were also inlayed for the tenor ukes. Here, I am putting in the last piece of the logo puzzle. After the pieces are in place, some fine super glue is floated into the pockets to hold the pieces in place. when the fine glue has set, some ebony dust is mixed with some thicker glue and used to fill in the remaining gaps.

ukulele logo inlay

After the black glue is dried, I will plane down the excess material. It’s always a good idea to keep your plane blades nice and sharp.

sharp blockplane blade

koa maple devine logo

DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Guitar and ukulele works in progress, Luthier info and guitar and ukulele building tips, Ukuleles none

Ukulele Build : Installing binding on ukuleles

12/04/2011 No comments

Ukulele Build : Installing binding on ukuleles

It was a very productive week! All of the ukulele bodies are together and sanded and cleaned up. The tail piece was installed on all of the ukes and the bodies are ready for binding.

ukulele binding tail piece

Here are three of the 4 tenor ukuleles with the binding installed. The left is curly koa, the center is the white koa and the one on the right is ebony.

custom ukuleles with binding

Look at that curly koa! This is going to be one beautiful uke. I’ve wiped a little bit of shellac on the back to show some of the curl and color.

mastergrade koa ukulele back

Here are a few of 50 or 60 necks we are working on right now. With ukulele parts like necks, where you want them to look pretty much the same every time, it helps to do them in large batches. This should keep me busy for at least a year or two.

ukulele necks with headstocks

Here is a close up of that blonde uke with the ebony binding. Notice the white/black/white purfling around the ebony.

mastergrade koa ukulele with ebony binding

A quick shot of the Cuban Mahogany tenor with it’s binding.

cuban mahogany ukulele and koa ukulele

DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Luthier info and guitar and ukulele building tips, Ukuleles none

Works in progress : Ukulele necks, neck and more neck! : Fretboard inlay

11/24/2011 No comments

Works in progress : Ukulele necks, neck and more neck! : Fretboard inlay

Lots going on this week at DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles!!!

First off, here are a couple more pictures of one of the finished ukes from the last batch. This is a Tenor Muse modle with the signature DeVine fretboard inlay.

muse custom ukulele finished

devine ukulele end cap

Now that all the ukuleles from the last batch have been shipped out to their waiting owners, it’s time to get back to work on the next batch of custom ukuleles.

Half of the ukulele bodies are together already with 4 more bodies to go. While the uke bodies are coming together, it’s time to do a little more inlay work. A few of the ukuleles from this next batch will be getting the signature fretboard inlay. Here is the first ukulele fretboard routed out and fitting the bamboo inlay. These pieces are so small that every piece needs to be handled with micro tweezers to keep from breaking them while inlaying.

bamboo ukulele inlay

As you can see here, the custom ukulele inlay is very delicate.

laser cut bamboo

After doing a little inlay work. it’s time to head over to the last of the ukulele tops. Here is a concert Kasha uke top almost ready to join the rest of the body.

kasha bracing concert ukulele

This next uke is going to be something very special…

It is a tenor muse model made from some of the most beautiful Cuban Mahogany I’ve ever seen. The curl in this wood is so tight and so deep that it’s almost hard to tell what you are looking at. The top, back and sides, as well as the neck will be Cuban Mahogany. For those of you not familiar with Cuban Mahogany, it is a very rare wood that grows in only a few tropical places. Luckily, Hawaii is one of those.

cuban mahogany ukulele building

Here is my stack of necks for the next year or two. About 60 ukulele necks waiting for their time to shine.

custom ukulele necks

DeVine Guitars and Ukuleles, Finished instruments, Guitar and ukulele works in progress, Luthier info and guitar and ukulele building tips, Ukuleles none

Custom Ukulele : A new batch of custom ukuleles is finished

11/20/2011 No comments

Custom Ukulele : A new batch of custom ukuleles is finished

It has been a little while since my last post. I was just a bit to busy to photograph these ukes as finishing is so time consuming. But, at long last, the ukes are finished!!!

Here is all six of the custom ukuleles I have been working on the last couple of months. Included are 3 tenor muse models, a kasha tenor, a kasha concert and a kasha long neck concert.

custom ukes

Here is one of the darker sets of koa from the batch. I have lots more of this beautiful koa. It has a beautiful clear tap tone and produces a uke that is clear, pronounced and with plenty of volume. This ukulele also has the signature DeVine fretboard inlay.

ukulele fretboard inlay with lights

custom ukulele shadow

The next ukulele is African Blackwood with koa binding. The DeVine lodo on the back is inlayed curly koa and some beautiful european maple that was cut from the first guitar I ever made.