Hana Lima - homework

Saturday in Wakiki most visitors are heading to the beach or boarding buses to go sightseeing or sipping a cold drink on a lanai. Me? I'm doing my ukulele homework on the patio outside of my hostel room. 

The assignment was to sand down the sides and then, the bigger task, to thin the soundboard. Remember how Mike checked the pitch of the uke when we had it boxed and the sound hole cut out?  Now, if we manage to thin the fretboard enough we should get more bass from the uke. 

The goal was to take the spruce top down by about half its thickness but not all over rather more around the edges tapering to the outside. 

This took a lot of sanding!  But eventually the desired thickness was reached. All in all, I think the uke is looking fab even at this early stage. Look at the lovely bookmartched tail end of the instrument: