Chocolate Bear Claw Koa Tenor Ukulele

Here’s number 2 for this year:  a chocolate custom Koa tenor ukulele with a bear claw Sitka Spruce top.   This may be the last of some really nice Koa that I obtained on Maui about 5+ years ago. This Koa has decent figure, low density, and really good chocolate browns with a nice sap wood stripe down the back for my petroglyph laser cut.   I didn’t have anything to match this particular back and side set with so I used, as you can see, a nice bear claw Sitka Spruce top.  The purfling is blue/black maple and the binding is India Rosewood.  The accent wood is Vanuatu Maidou Burl while the fret board and bridge are Ebony species.  The neck is Honduran Mahogany.   Gold Gotoh planetary tuners with black tulip knobs are my standard.  Just a little bit of everything I think.  

It’s too bad that the ukulele crowd doesn’t appreciate the use of the classic tonewoods (spruce, cedar, redwood) for soundboards.  I agree that there is a strong desire to differentiate this instrument from the guitar.   I also think that given the right attention in construction the use of these woods can really give an instrument a distinctive sound.  And, with the addition of bear claw figure the instrument becomes even more distinctive and unique.  Go Bear!