Electro-Acoustic Ukulele

A Technical Manufacturing Challenge

One third of the AS Design & Technology course was a technical manufacturing challenge: make an object from detailed instructions, or copy an existing one exactly. So when I told them I wanted to make an Electro-Acoustic Ukulele (requiring a complete redesign in order to manufacture without specialist equipment), I was met with a stern warning. There would be no marks for any of the design work. But to me, DT projects were always about a lot more than marks.

The Design

My redesigned ukulele had a wood-turned walnut neck, a vacuum-pressed flexiply body, a resin-cast bridge with an embedded piezoelectric pickup, and a milled acrylic fretboard with craft wire frets.

Although the project was a success, if I'd known at the start how difficult instrument making was, I might have chosen something more conventional — but sometimes it takes a certain naive optimism to push boundaries.