the Rainbow Ukulele

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

Fred27 — Thu, 19 Sep 2019 10:16:05 GMT

A great build. I especially like that your granddaughter can contribute to how it works. (My kids loved it when they could make suggestions for functionality on a recent project).

I agree a bit of veneer would really improve the look of V2.0 - maybe even some veneer over the front (including the LED ring) if it's thin enough for the light to show through.

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

jw0752 — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 03:25:48 GMT

Hi Frank,

The other guys have said it all. Thanks for allowing us to share in your fun. Oh, one more thing, will you be my Grandpa? Your Grandchildren are going to remember you forever.

John

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

ntewinkel — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 22:13:53 GMT

Hi Frank, this is great!

I love how you built the enclosure for it too, and showing how we don't have to be limited by lack of perfect materials to create something fun!

-Nico

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

ralphjy — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 17:41:54 GMT

Very nice quick build. I’m sure your granddaughter will love it. Especially the ability to customize the music.

I agree that adding veneer would both improve the appearance and durability. I wonder if you could form wood slats for the body like they do for “real” ukuleles. I toured the Kamaka factory in Honolulu. Nowadays they use a lot of specialized tooling including heated formers and CNC mills but in the old days they did everything by hand. Maybe a project for when she gets older.

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

14rhb — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 07:16:11 GMT

[mention:cff82ed12b714001a1ba5205f2cb553c:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] that is really awesome and great write up. I thought you were going to pull the book apart and substitute the membrane switches for better ones etc but it seems the book survived.

You mention the foam board being crummy but at least it kept the finish product to a reasonable weight. I'm sure many of us have built something and at the end realised how 'over engineered' it had become.

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

balearicdynamics — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 06:27:12 GMT

Frank! One of those projects I think you enjoyed making and thinking to the surprise of the young user then enjoyed playing it and made the user happy and a great fan of you. It's magic. And the video is very nice [View:/resized-image/__size/16x16/__key/commentfiles/f7d226abd59f475c9d224a79e3f0ec07-c36d0a3a-6d40-411e-a45c-15332e71bee8/contentimage_5F00_2516.png:16:16]

Enrico

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

shabaz — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 04:51:09 GMT

Hi Frank,

That's a lovely custom toy! Even at three, I bet she'll always remember this. The functioning of it looked smooth, it's not easy to tell that the lighting changes when the sound is played, it looks perfect! Really nice idea with the speaker and lights location, simulating the real instrument.

Regarding the sides, I don't know if sheets of veneer is still a common thing in DIY stores, it used to be popular when I was at school, we used small bits of it to make models from card in design&tech lessons, to look like wood.

Sound projects are such a great idea. I hope there's another Project14 on toys, and on sounds/music.

I don't know if he was well known in the USA, but there was a very famous ukelele player in the UK. Occasionally his movies were on TV, my mum and dad loved them too.

[View:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDIb9OBRCcw:740:466]

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

dougw — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 03:57:18 GMT

Another awesome build. You have some lucky grandkids.

RE: the Rainbow Ukulele

genebren — Mon, 09 Sep 2019 03:13:58 GMT

Frank,

Well done! What a fun toy for your younger grandchild. I am sure that she will have some fun playing with that!

Gene