Redwood Koa Tenor Ukulele

Here’s a combination of woods that I haven’t used previously:  Redwood and Koa.  This Redwood Koa Tenor Ukulele didn’t start out this way.  It was supposed to be all Koa, but things happen.  I had been eyeing this curly redwood top for sometime and decided that now was the time.

redwood koa tenor ukulele

Curly Redwood soundboard

Curly redwood is notoriously brittle and wants to break along the curl lines.  I think that I have overcome this problem with a modified bridge plate.  I have done this several times before on other instruments and it seems to work okay.

redwood koa tenor ukulele

Red/black purfling

I used red/black purfling to accent the instrument but left the rest of the build standard with India Rosewood binding, Amazon Rosewood finger board and bridge, Maidou Burl accent woods, Honduran Mahogany neck and Gotoh UPT tuners.

redwood koa tenor ukulele

Maidou Burl accents and Gotoh UPT tuners

The sound of the redwood koa tenor ukulele is warm and vey large but with good note separation–definitely nahenahe.  A great instrument to play softly and accompany voice.

redwood koa tenor ukulele

Lots of curl to keep the eyes busy