Dark Koa Tenor Ukulele
Dr. Richard wanted a new Dark Koa Tenor Ukulele. He personally picked this set of Koa for the project because of its dark colors and very white sap wood contrasts. This is another of my sets of salvaged Koa wood from the big island of Hawaii. I have said before that some of this salvage wood is not perfectly quartered and so the book matches are not perfect but I am getting colors and grain that are not usually seen in the acoustic instrument world these days and I am more than willing to overlook some of these imperfections.
The wood of this Dark Koa Tenor Ukulele ranges from quarter sawn to rift sawn and includes some very white sap wood with just a bit of spalt. I think, the appearance is both stunning and elegant. Addiditonally, this wood probably comes from old growth stumps and is thoroughly weathered and exhibits natural degradation. If this degradation is not to advanced then the wood will be less dense but still workable. The result is an instrument that responds rapidly to light touch.
Dr. Richard requested that there not be too many features that would detract from the Koa so I used a black/white maple purfling and India Rosewood for binding and accents.
I did add an all Koa neck to this build. The accent wood is figured African Bubinga–the red/brown tones went very well with the Koa. The fret board and bridge are Amazon Rosewood. The tuners are Gotoh UPT’s and the strings are GHS Fluorocarbon, low “G”.
Not a lot more to say. The instrument has abover average volume, warmth and tonal clarity.
