George’s Hula Hips Tenor Ukulele
Really! I’ve been busy, but I have neglected my posts. I’ll try to start the catch-up with George’s Hula Hips Tenor Ukulele. George requested this particular set of curly Koa–another from my stash of reclaimed wood from the Big Island of Hawaii. The particular curl of the top and back is a result of the wood not being totally vertical sawn. The result is a more wavy type of curl. Pretty but the panels are more difficult to match.
The binding is India Rosewood with dark blue purfling and blue Paua Abalone.
The accent wood is Black Palm.
The neck is Honduran Mahogany and the finger board and bridge are Amazon Rosewood. George’s Hula Hips Tenor Ukulele also sports a wide neck with 1 1/2″ at the nut. I make the neck just a tinsy bit thicker as well but if I keep the bulk down on the cheeks of the neck then the neck doesn’t really feel big. I can then give the player a little more offset and a little more space between the strings.
The Hula Hips Tenor is about 1/2″ wider in the lower bout and about 1/8″ wider at the upper bout than on a standard tenor. This used to be my standard shape but client pressure requested a more standard shape for most tenor instruments. I think I have said before that the volume of the instrument increases fairly substantially with only minor dimensional adjustments. It took me a few revisions to give this instrument more volume without it looking or feeling ungainly. The end result is an instrument that has more sustain and depth of tone–maybe a more richness of tone. The volume of the instrument is about the same as a standard tenor.
George picked up some Oasis flourocarbon strings (low G) on his latest trip to Hawaii and so we use those on this instrument. Not bad at all!
Some of George’s coments are: “That uke is great!. . .The resonance and sustain that the hula hips shape produces are amazing. . . . A friend flew in from Hawaii two days ago and he’s quite envious. . . . We both thought we had very nice ukuleles that were set up well, but neither compares to this.”