Make Your Own Ukulele: The Essential Guide to Building, Tuning, and Learning to Play the Uke (Fox Chapel Publishing) Easy Steps and Detailed Plans, plus Advice on Design, Acoustics, & Wood Selection

Anyone can learn to make a ukulele! Inside Make Your Own Ukulele, you'll learn how to:

• Design your own ukulele
• Choose the right wood for construction
• Complete an easy soprano ukulele project, "The Boxer"
• Build a professional-grade ukulele
• Set up and play your new uke

It's no wonder that the popularity of the ukulele is quickly rising. It's a versatile instrument that is easy to play, yet can also handle complex chord patterns.

A good quality handmade ukulele has beautiful tone and is a delight to play, but can also be very expensive to buy. Thanks to Australian ukulele enthusiast and woodworking expert Bill Plant, you can learn how to make your own!

Inside Make Your Own Ukulele, author Bill Plant breaks down the construction process into easy steps, with useful pointers on design, acoustics, and wood selection, plus sage advice on setting up, tuning, and playing your new instrument.

You'll find complete building projects for two different skill levels, accompanied by clear instructions, demonstration photographs, original drawings, and detailed plans.

For beginning woodworkers, start with the simple box-shaped ukulele that anyone can make with basic hand tools. For those looking for a more sophisticated project, instructions are included for making a professional-grade, solid-wood soprano ukulele, complete with traditional rope binding around the soundboard.

Also included is a beautiful color photo gallery with inspiring examples of ukuleles from a variety of makers. Entertaining sidebars, tips, and trivia throughout the pages take you inside the culture of the growing ukulele community, adding a bit of extra fun to this great project book!

Bill Plant is a woodworker from Australia where he has taught furniture design, joinery and general woodworking at a local college (Goulburn Ovens TAFE). He also teaches private classes. He has been published in Australian Wood Review, Australian Woodworker, Practical Woodworking (UK), Good Woodworking (UK), and IO magazine. He has written brochures for Mitre 10 (an Australian hardware chain). He has a degree in fine arts including photography and has studied writing.

Bill has taught over 300 people how to play the ukulele and has started several ukulele groups. When he is not surfing in South Australia or touring the desert, tropical rain forests, beaches and reefs you'll find him in his shop playing or making ukuleles.