Silky, Curly Maple and Curly Koa Concert Ukulele

I’m so excited! My website is re-written and seems to be working smoothly and this is the first post on the new site.  Life just doesn’t get much better.

Silky, Curly Maple and Koa Concert Ukulele

Today, I am showing a Silky, Curly Maple and Curly Koa Concert Ukulele.   Ninety percent of the instruments I make are Tenor, but recently there have been more request for concert ukulele.  If you have followed my posts,  you already know that I have no boundaries when it comes to “mix-and-match”.  This concert ukulele shows, in my opinion,  a  great balance of color and tonal qualities. I’ve had this set of curly maple for some years and the watermark stains in the wood are not what you might usually see.  I also like the honey color.  Because most ukulele enthusiasts do not like standard tonewood tops (spruce, redwood, cedar) I decided use  this unmatched Koa top.   I didn’t overdo the accents, so a maple/black purfling and backstrip seemed to be a natural.

Koa Concert Ukulele

 

Note:  I have added side binding purfling as well–new for 2016 for standard builds.

The rest is pretty standard in this concert ukulele:   Honduran mahogany neck with carbon fiber truss rod, India Rosewood binding, Amazon Rosewood finger board and bridge and Vanuatu Maidou Burl accents.

Curly Maple Concert Ukulele

Now,  the break from the normal is that I have used GHS flourocarbon strings  on this instrument but they are Tenor, not concert, and I’ve used Sarah Maisel’s low “G” as well. This low “G” string measures about .036″ which is a couple of thousandths larger than the PHD low “G”.   This has given this smaller instrument an unusually warm tonal quality and more voice than I expected. Go figure!

Silky, Curly Maple and Koa Concert Ukulele

I delivered this instrument to Hale Ukulele last week and it’s already gone.   Sorry!  I hope that I can find some more of this “look” in Maple and Koa for future builds.

The new owner sent me this comment:  “I got the koa/maple concert today.  It is fantastic.  Sounds way better than any tenor I own or have played (and I’ve played them all!)”

This kind of feedback makes being a luthier very worthwhile.