Christmas Koa

Yup, it’s almost that time of the year again, so I’m calling this custom tenor ukulele Christmas Koa.

The Christmas Koa custom tenor ukulele is constructed from some pretty nice curly koa with a really rich red-brown color (my photography doesn’t do justice). To accent the wood,  I used some new and very festive Fuschia colored fiber for purfling.  This purfling material comes from Gurian Instruments of Seattle Washington and is a newer addition to their supply of accent materials.   Michael Gurian, by the way,  is a renowned master luthier and his company provides building accesories to some of the largest and smallest (me) instrument makers in the world.    At first, I thought it might be a bit bright,  but the more I look at it the better I like it and it definitely is something  you will rarely see.  It’s a keeper!

The purfling accents added to the head stock and finger board are now becoming standard in my builds.

The build is pretty standard with a Honduran Mahogany neck–internal carbon truss rod, of course.  The accent wood is blond koa, the finger board and bridge are Amazon rosewood, and the binding is India Rosewood.  GHS flourocarbon strings and Gotoh gold UPT tuners complete the build.

This Christmas Koa tenor ukulele is made for and available at  Hale Ukulele of San Diego.

I always like to know the source and history of the woods that I use in my builds.  This old growth Koa wood is from the Big Island of Hawaii and was purchased by a cabinet maker in Norther California about 25 years ago.  He never used the material and it has been air drying in his shop all this time. My client, Dan, sourced this wood and purchased it  for me earlier this year.  Go Dan!  How lucky can I be?