Big Island Ukulele Guild
Minutes from 09/08/2018
Aloha guild members. Eighteen members and guests gathered for our Saturday meeting at Tom Russell’s pristine Kona shop.
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Wailoa Update
President Dave Stokes brought us up to date on our Wailoa guild exhibit. He addressed our need for more instruments for the exhibit, so please keep them coming. Bob Gleason is again organizing the show and reports that we can exhibit older or previously displayed ones. Please contact him with an update on what you have available. His email is pegasusguitars@hawaiiantel.net.
Doug Powdrell has inspected and repaired the hangers and backer boards. He will supervise their installation on Monday, October 1st. All instruments will be placed in position the following day. Members can deliver their instruments Tuesday before 1 pm - although earlier would be helpful - at the Wailoa Arts Center, 200 Piopio Street, Hilo.
Kona side builders can once again drop them off at Sam Rosen’s Holualoa Ukulele Gallery, 76-5942 Mamalahoa Highway, Holualoa by 4:30 pm on Monday. Sam will drive them to Hilo the following day. Tear down will be Friday, October 26th. Bob Gleason will send out further details.
Terry Davis is taking point on the opening night food, paper plates and utensils. Doug has lined up volunteers to help prep and serve the food. We’ll also have snacks for the Saturday events.
Rodney Crusat’s wife Kandice created another great looking exhibit poster for us to display around the island. Copies were distributed at the meeting, but you can get a digital copy from our guild website and print your own. Please help us spread the news by posting them.
Jane Klassen is collecting information for the display labels, so forward your instrument descriptions to her at klassenjane@gmail.com
Tad Humble is conducting a kanikapila for the show’s opening night on Friday, October 5th and the following Saturday beginning at noon. All guild members and any interested non-members are invited to play. Tad will send out an opening night playlist to members.
We will have an ukulele building demo by Sam Rosen and Gary Cassel at noon on Saturday, October 13th. Andy Andrews will lead another kanikapila at noon on Saturday, October 21.
And we have already enough donated instruments for giveaways during the entire exhibit!
General News
Tom Russell reports that the guild coffers are sound. And he is again collecting members’ names for nametags. Don’t have one? You can contact Tom via our website.
No news yet about a guild display at the ‘Ukulele & Slack Key Guitar Festival in November at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea. Stay tuned.
Dave concluded the regular meeting by saying that opening night of our exhibit is “so inspiring to see all those ukuleles and the best event of the guild’s year.” Try not to miss it!
Show & Tell Time
During show and tell, Mike Perdue mentioned Oregon Wild Wood, a luthier supply company that is for sale – in case you want to move to the Oregon coast. If not, you can still buy wood from them. Check them out at https://tonewood.com/.
Rodney Crusat offered up two clever jigs - one for the clean plunge routing of bridge saddle slots, including compensated slots. His other jig uses a table saw for consistent matching angles on each side of your fretboards. The photos don’t do them justice, but we may be able to talk Rodney in a workshop to build them.
Dave Stokes offered another approach screwing a plexiglass template to the neck and using a router, bit and bearing to trim the neck to shape.
Tom Russell suggested using blue tape and super glue to hold things in postion while working on them. One strip on a flat surface and one on the object and some super glue in between - easy to remove. He also displayed two jigs to cut neck scarf joints – one with a chop saw and the other with a table saw.
Billy Ralph passed around copies of an article he discovered in the Taylor Guitars magazine regarding its new innovative V-Class Bracing style. See the following link to read about it in the Winter 2018 Wood & Steel edition, Volume 90. https://www.taylorguitars.com/sites/default/files/Taylor_Wood_Steel_Winter_2018_US_0.pdf
Demo - BINDING
Following lunch, Bob Gleason spoke about the purpose of binding – not only to protect the instrument, but to seal any end grain, which cuts down on shrinkage.
Bob presented a great demonstration of cutting channels for multiple strips of binding and purfling, He used a nice routing jig and mount with micro adjustments for fining tuning the channel depth. It’s available from Luthiers Mercantile International. Here’s the link: http://www.lmii.com/products/tools-services/binding-tools/lmi-professional-binding-machine/4277-professional-binding-machine-router-not-included/flypage-noimage.
Tip: Bob uses a foot pedal switch when using a router. Safer than reaching for a switch on a power tool.
After cutting the channels, he sandwiched a Teflon no-stick strip spacer between the binding and purfling before gluing everything in place and holding it all in position with rubbers bands. After the glue dries Bob can remove the Teflon before gluing shell strips into the resulting groove. He made it look easy. Mahalo for the demo Bob!
Our final meeting of the year will be Saturday, December 8th at Woodley White’s home and shop in Na'alehu. Detail to come.
Some members asked about purchasing guild shirts and hats. Gary Cassel located a great shop in Kona that will embroider our logo on shirts and hats, including any that you bring to the shop. Quality Image Embroidery, 74-5563 Kaiwi Street, Suite 138, Kailua-Kona. (808) 731-5534
As always, consider dropping a few lines to Chuck Bennett as he continues his medical treatment on O’ahu. You can reach him at charleswbennett@mac.com.
See you at the exhibit!
Chris Stewart, BIUG Secretar