Project UKE - Part 3

I gave her a name today....

Gypsy.

It seems fitting for some reason. IF it all works to plan, she'll be a 'travelling' uke. She's small enough to be thrown on my back and taken to parties and festivals and stuff even when I'm riding Phoenix.

Oh.... Phoenix is my motorbike for those of you not in the know.

Hmmmmm, note to self.... must actually TAKE self to places and parties and stuff in the future!

Slowly but surely different bits and pieces are arriving. Some stickers here, new red carbon strings there, a new strap one day, more stickers the next. I'm buying BULK sticker packs for her. I'm hoping that among all the crap stickers, which I'll use as the 'base', I'll get enough decent ones for the main over layer.

Well.... that and I'm already thinking about my NEXT sticker-bomb project, so any excess shouldn't go to waste.

Oh.... and I got some black tuning pegs as well, I'm hoping they'll contrast nicely with the red strings and the stained timber of the body..... hoping.

All masked up and about 3 coats of varnish in.... 😊

New strings itching to be fitted.

And new strings... fitted.

New black pegs to contrast with the red strings.

Plus a flash new 'cartoony' type strap as well 😃

A veritable plethora of stickers

Luminous tape in it's 'natural' habitat.

Up until this point, it was easy... well, relatively. Sanding and buying shit I can do. All you need to REALLY remember when you're sanding timber is to take it slow and easy and to ALWAYS go with the grain. If you go across the grain, you scratch the fuck outta the timber and it takes forever to sand it smooth again. I decided to only sand the main body of her as the neck and fret were in pretty good nick*. 

Oh, and never EVER try to remove the wooden bridge, not even with a rubber headed mallet. They're glued on pretty well and you might just kinda split a small section off and have to glue it back on. But I'm not that fuckin' stupid to try. 

Well...... not to try again 😒

Then.... it got interesting. Now, I've done my fair share of Decoopage decoupage in the past, but sticker bombing is a bit more precise. Especially around corners and over edges. And Gypsy, being a Soprano uke, has a LOT of tight corners and edges. 

Quick uke lesson here folks. Ukes come in four basic sizes. From smallest to biggest - Soprano, Concert, Tenor and Baritone. Most folks use either a Concert or a Tenor. My other uke, Calamity, is a Concert. She's about 59cm (23 inches) long. Gypsy is 51 cm (20 inches) long. That means her body, the actual section that was 'bombed' is only 24cms (9 inches) in size. 

And no ladies... that's NOT an exaggeration 😉

Yeah so, with her being so 'small', it made bending the stickers over and around her edges and corners a bit problematic. I was trying to cover all the exposed timber, and I got pretty close too. Next time I'll probably take a bit more time to choose stickers with narrow sections that'll be easier to wrap around the tight contours.

Her back all done

Both sides.

Before I got to the luminous tape stage, I filed the edges of the back/sides in an attempt to smooth out the rough sections where the stickers didn't quite fit smoothly. It kinda worked.

Glow-in-the-dark trim for 'safety'

Gypsy's not perfect, but then again, neither am I.... so we kinda fit pretty well together.

Now.... who knows how to play 'Smoke on the Water'?

*For those folks reading this not in Australia, 'nick' means condition. Don't ask me why, or when... or even who. I'm normally a bit pissed when I write these things. It's helps me with the putting of the word things togethering.