Monthly Archives: June 2018

Updating The Neck

I have made a huge mistake

Clamping The Neck

When the only tool in your toolbox is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. When I started working on the 8-Bit Ukulele, my main tool was the laser cutter at CRASH Space. I mean, the whole point was to make a laser cut ukulele, inspired by Ranjit Bhatnagar’s 8-Bit Violin.

A violin neck is a very different thing from a ukulele neck, and I struggled with how to make the neck for quite some time. In fact, I set the project aside for years because I was stuck on this one bit.

I ended up laser cutting birch plywood slices which I glued together to build up the neck. I designed two different length pieces and side bits which could make the square head design. It seemed like a slick solution. And, again, laser cutter.

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Source Files

The 8-Bit Ukulele is an open source instrument. The back bears the Open Source Hardware logo, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as it is normally used for electronics hardware, but there is no common open source mechanism for musical instruments, and the OSHW project was the closest thing I could find. The source files are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

The source files can be found on the Files page.