There is no reason to be that complex. Cigar box guitars are a very deep rabbit hole that I would bet your son would enjoy to study and from the study work out the design that you could cut out on the Glowforge. You don’t mention how old he is, but if old enough to watch YouTube or work in inkscape the pride in achievement cannot be underestimated and could change the arc of his life.
2 Likes
Thank you. My son is 50 (!) and a very accomplished musician. He has, however, no craft skills and has never even heard of Glowforge. We have a GF at our shop (www.p98a.berlin) and have some experience making things from wood and acrylic (https://www.p98a.com/shop/goods). This is not how we generate our income – the laser is just my private indulgence, but as a guitarist i can appreciate what it takes to make an instrument. Meanwhile, I am very happy with my Martin guitar 00028 from 1976.
2 Likes
Very cool to have such a collectors piece.
My mother tells the story of how the family had inherited an original Stradivarius and her mother gave it away to a woman she met on a bus who said her son was wanting to learn the violin. Her parents were like that. You can ask any Medical person about the Gelpi Retractor that her father invented and took no money and only asked that it be given his name.
Your website is very interesting with not just a few posters I might wish to have as well. I wonder if your magazine would make an issue of the artisans still hand building musical instruments…
1 Like
I’ll swap you whatever you want for the Ukulele plans!
And as far as the magazine goes: we haven’t had an issue for over a year, but the next one will be about Craft. I have great piece from Tony Mann (a Brit who taught in Canada and went on to make toys) where he explains the difference between Art and Craft. And at p98a we do what we call Hacking Gutenberg: we use old printing presses from the 20s and 50s with polymer plates which we make directly from digital data. Try to get craft out of that “self-made" corner
3 Likes
Hi @erik2 and thanks for your compliments. There are a few reasons why you would not want to use my svgs. For one, it is a prototype and a lot of errors in the design were fixed later as the project progressed. Parts needed some filing and finessing here and there. Two, if you and your son are accomplished musicians I do not think the proofgrade draft board that the plans are designed for will satisfy your ears. It’s not awful - but compared to even the cheapest ukulele my daughter has, it has no resonance at all. It does have a unique sound that I do not entirely hate, but it would be the perfect ukulele to play when you don’t want to make too much noise 
. I’ll get around to posting a video of me playing it so you can hear for yourself - a lot of people have been demanding that. Three, the design as a whole was meant to be implemented in an environment where traditional luthier tools are not available. Compromises to the longevity, playability, on top of sound quality were made for this purpose. If I were to sell a ukulele made from this design, I would have to charge something that would be on par with a mid level ukulele from Kala. The Kala will sound much better. And they’re having a sale on many models.
Honestly, I could not possibly match the sound quality and playability you could get from one of these. At least not for now, and certainly not one made out of draftboard. I am not just saying this out of humility. It is my intention, as stated above, to continue working on Glowforge made/assisted ukuleles to get to a point where I can have something I can be proud of - that is to say, something I can give to a professional musician so that they can use it in a performance. I’m not there yet, but stay tuned as I work my way down “the rabbit hole” as @rbtdanforth would say.
Finally the maths for the fret spacing is available for anyone from Stewart-Macdonald as they have a fret position calculator online. Just plug in the number of frets you want, your fret scale length (metric or imperial), select what type of instrument you are making, and voila - you get your fret spaces. It even gives you the bridge position with proper compensation.
https://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator
Anyway I hope this was helpful and I regret that my design is not quite up to scratch for general consumption.
At your service,
Hide
6 Likes
Then there is this…
1 Like
Wow!! I’m super impressed! I have never played the Ukulele but this concept has me wanting to tackle making one and trying it out just for the challenge. I have a lot of experience in Adobe Illustrator (I’m a creative director at my day job) but, I don’t know where to begin as far as planning out the shape, length of the walls, etc. Is there a resource for the basic plans of a generic ukulele design that I can start from?
2 Likes
Hi @erich. There’s a few out there but this site has the most comprehensive set of plans. Not only do they have plans for instruments, but also plans for tools and jigs. I would say for traditional building those tools, especially the side benders are instrumental - pardon the pun:
http://ultimate-guitar-online.ultimate-online-services.com/zencart/
I used their plans as a base and adapted it to my purposes. As an important general caveat, never accept any plan is accurate. Always check dimensions given vs. the measurements you make in Illustrator and correct accordingly. Check fret position on the plan against something like Stewart-Macdonald’s fret position calculator (a free resource on their site). As for the build process, I would look at Mya-Moe’s YouTube channel. Check out their “birth of a Mya-Moe” playlist. For some reason it’s out of order but you will get to see the process of building a ukulele from start to finish in excruciating detail. For a “quick” overview I would check out Stephen McLean’s YouTube channel:
His “How to make a ukulele” playlist is invaluable:
As for the rest, give Google a workout. There’s a lot out there. Cheers.
8 Likes
Awesome, thanks so much for the info. Looking forward to trying it out. 
Erich
2 Likes
Absolutely incredible. What a great project. I would love to think I could make this, but I just don’t see getting the frets in there, and the tuning keys… And I definitely don’t have enough clamps. 
WOW…!
3 Likes
Haha. Ohana makes a great kit that takes care of all that - only trouble is it doesn’t fit in my 
I wish I had seen your project before I started mine. Love what you have done. I especially like the neck. I used fusion 360 to design mine. I am coming from the 3d printer of designing. I also chose to use 1/8" plywood. I like how you put so many locking holes to help line it up.
I haven’t finished yet but I am getting close.
1 Like
The only ukulele I’ve made was 3D printed. 
1 Like
Welcome to the community- I’m sure you’ll find heaps of good information here.
One gentle note — it’s against the forum guidelines to ask for the files used in “Made on a Glowforge.”
Cheers!
3 Likes
You’re in luck though, I don’t know if related to the OP, but there’s already a pattern available on Etsy 
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1043334618/soprano-ukulele-diy-laser-cut-design?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=ukulele+pattern&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&sts=1&organic_search_click=1
3 Likes
Welcome to the forum.
As others will let you know, it is against forum rules to ask for files. No big deal, lots of us made the same mistake.
https://community.glowforge.com/faq
3 Likes
My bad everyone. Sorry for breaking the rules. Lesson Learned.
1 Like
We almost all do it at least once
4 Likes
No worries. I should also add that the forum ban on file requests is not an open invitation to direct message the author 
5 Likes
Oh, yes. I’m going to have to look at this. I bought my son a tenor uke as I thought it fit his voice (baritone) better than his soprano. Making one is going to be a must .
2 Likes