A few years ago, I built a ukulele out of a cookie tin (and a glass marimba!) for Science Olympiad. Unlike the glass marimba (which shattered on the ride home from the Michigan State Competition T__T ), the ukulele’s still around so I wanted to write a quick blog post about it in case something happens to it (and to help fellow Sounds of Music students!) This was built in a very short amount of time (between Reginals and States), so we improvised with materials.
The materials are relatively easy to get. The body is a old cookie tin we had lying around since we didn’t have cigar boxes for a cigar box ukulele.If you’re going to use a cookie tin, just make sure that it’s pretty durable. Try to use an older one as I’ve found that newer cookie tins tend to be thinner and weaker (to the benefit of the environment I suppose!).
For the neck, I simply bought the cheapest wood at an appropriate size. The fretboard is a sheet of balsawood. It’s definitely not the most durable, but it was easy to sand the positions of the frets in. I only expected to use this for a few months (one season of Scioly), so it might be wise to swap out the balsa for stronger material. The frets themselves are simply nails lying on thier side, and the nut and saddle are made from a chopstick and old wood cooking utensil, respectively. I heard that different materials can make a difference in the sound quality, so it might be worthwhile to look at denser materials like wood or bone.
The fret distances can be easily calculated online, though understanding the math behind it is pretty interesting (and might be tested on the written exam if you’re in Science Olympiad…). This site explains it in detail. Esentially, each fret position should be the distance from the saddle to the last fret x 17.817. We know that raising a note by one octave doubles the frequency. This means that the wavelength needs to be halved. This number (17.817) places the octave at exactly 1/2 way down the string.
The tuning pegs were a bit of a problem since the competition didn’t allow professionally made tuning pegs. Here’s the solution I came up with.
I recorded myself playing a scale and a part of Here Comes the Sun (which was part of the medley we played at competition), but I have yet to figure out how to link it here….