After seeing Mike Hawkey's video on YouTube I knew I had to build one of these. So I did. Amateur that I am a lot of things went wrong during the build. Most notably a router mishap led to a weirdly shaped neck. You can also see where I sanded through the top ply on the plywood sound board. I will make another one and it will be better.
The strings are fishing line. I couldn't find the green stuff used on the build in the video, and had some trouble getting the right weight for the tension this high tuning creates. I ended up using 30 pound line for the high E string and 25 for the others.
It still plays as it should. The middle two strings are tuned an octave higher than a standard ukulele so it has a high ringing sound. It's supposed to be strummed very fast, but I can't do that. Its still an interesting sound that would definitely add to any ukulele jamboree.
The second one looks more like a Tahitian Uke, but the Alaskan Cedar doesn't sound as good as the Mahogany.
