Strap Button Install on Recording King RU-998 Resonator Ukulele

Drill press project is on a temporary hiatus while I attended ukulele camp and while I did a few projects for friends who are also clients.

Here's one of interest. This is a Recording King RU-998 resonator ukulele. Not dissimilar to the legendary Dobro resonator guitars, only it's an ukulele!

This particular one is (duh) chrome; there is another model that is champagne colored. I have another friend who owns one of those and she loves it. Both models are made of bell brass.

This puppy was in The Dungeon for some strap buttons. After uku camp, a whole lot of folks realize they need a strap, and of course that means they need buttons to attach it to. And in this case, I put the buttons on.

The uku has a very cool vintage-style logo on top of a plastic pearl headstock lamination. (Some folks call this 'mother-of-toilet-seat').

Here we have the business end. A single-cone resonator.

Detail of the bridge and the 'biscuit' it's mounted on. As we'll see in a minute, the biscuit is attached to the cone with a screw.

The string vibrations drive the bridge, which in turn drives the cone inside the resonator via the biscuit. All of this makes it louder than a standard ukulele, and it also gives it the characteristic cutting, trebly resonator tone.

I need to make sure there is a safe place to drive the end button in to. On normal ukus and guitars, there is an end block to screw a button into. There should be something similar here, but I want to be absolutely sure.

So I loosen the strings, and set about removing the resonator. There are 10 or so screws around the perimeter of the cone cover.

Here's the cover removed, and we can see the spun aluminum cone. This is what makes all the magic happen.

A closer look at the bridge and the cone.

The bridge is glued to a slot in the biscuit, which in turn is attached to the cone. The strings drive the bridge, the cone vibrates. This is exactly like the mechanical part of a loudspeaker.

The cone, by the way, just sits on a flange in the body. It's not physically attached in any way, so it just lifts off.

This is the bottom side of the cone, showing the screw holding the biscut on. This one was a bit loose and I tightened it up. If it's loose, it may rattle and it will also affect volume and tone in a negative way through loss of vibration to the cone.

But here's why I opened it up. I needed to ensure there was a good solid surface to drive the end button into. And there is, you can see the pine (?) block that runs across the body between the neck and the end of the ukulele. Perfect.

I measured and made a center mark on the end of the body. Then I made a small dent with an awl to give me the location for the hole.

I absolutely didn't want to scratch the chrome plating on the body if the bit slipped, so I put masking tape on to protect it.

Here I am drilling the pilot hole. Note the depth marker!

Then screw in the button. (I left one step out that I'll show on the other button in a minute).

The finished button...not hard but does require some care. This button is ivoroid - looks like ivory but it's plastic I believe. Good choice for this uku.

And boy is that thing shiny or what?

Now we move on to button #2 on the side of the heel. I'm more confident drilling into mahogany!

Here's the part I left out above. This is a little thread device for the button. It just cuts threads into the wood. It's turned with the brass fitting on the end - I use a 10mm wrench.

It may not be necessary, but I feel like it adds a bit of precision to the process, especially on a hardwood like this.

Here's the finished button.