Old Guitar Converted to Baritone Ukulele

by freeza36 in Living > Music

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Old Guitar Converted to Baritone Ukulele

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My dad's friend recently bought a house to renovate and re-sell, right down the road from ours. We got to go and look through the items that the last family left, and something really stood out for me; a beat up toy guitar. Although it had a couple stickers and numerous dents on it, I decided to take it home and see what I could do with it. After a few minutes, I decided to make it into a baritone ukulele, to add to my collection. The entire project took about 3 hours, most of which was spent scraping off stickers. I used the instructable by tewharau for inspiration. 

The Guitar Itself

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The guitar used is an old First Act guitar, specifically the "First Act Discovery." It has many dings and dents in it. A cheap guitar overall. It also had two large stickers on the front, but for free, what the heck.  

Take the Strings Off

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Unstring the entire guitar, and set the strings aside for later. You may also get new strings, and just throw these ones out.

Remove the Parts

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Take a screwdriver, and unscrew the buttons that hold on a guitar strap. Also, take out the white part of the bridge. Make sure you dont lose the part from the bridge, as it is essential.

Remove the Stickers

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This took me forever to do. One of the stickers came off easily, but the seconed took more than 2 hours of on and off working. This is an optional step, of course, because your guitar may not have any stickers on it. If it does, just remember, patience.

Wipe It Down

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Take a wet washcloth or something similar and wipe off the entire thing. Remove all of the dust and grime that has built up. Then, dry it off.

Re-string It

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Put only the 1-4 strings from a guitar onto the uke. These are the E-B-G-D strings(1st-2nd-3rd-4th.) Put them on the middle four slots in the already made nut and bridge. Then tune the strings.                                            

New Nut?

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I had to make a new nut, because the slots for the strings were too big on the one it came with and they rattled horribly. I made this out of part of a sharpie lid.

Play It!

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You now have yourself a homemade baritone ukulele. Have fun!