The fretboard location on the ukulele soundboard was masked off and stripped to bare wood for proper glue adhesion. Next I brushed glue on the uke and underside of the fretboard, bolted the neck on, and clamped them together with cauls on top of the fretboard and under the soundboard.
After the glue dried, I measured the bridge location and found it was about 3/8" longer than where it was designed to be. I thought this was a fatal error and 6 months of work was down the drain. I thought there were two choices. One, place the bridge as measured in its mis-location. It would play ok, but not great and weaken the soundboard over time. The second choice would be to take the back of the uke off and redo the soundboard bracing and relocate the bridge plate...major surgery. I thought about it a few days. It occurred to me that if the neck to body connection was shifted up from the 12th to the 14th fret, the bridge would be at its proper location. Two new necks, fretboard et al would need to be fabricated to make it right. I don't mind additional work because the ukes will play to their full potential. I can use the two already built 12 fret necks for future projects. I spent the morning successfully removing the fretboard with a hot iron and spatula. I am so glad this project has bolt-on necks rather than a glue connection. Later I started on the fabrication of two new mahogany necks.
I discovered how the shifting of the bridge location happened. When I scanned the original plan to make copies, the scanner reduced part of the drawing. Lesson learned, ALWAYS MEASURE TWICE.
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