Christmas Koa Tenor Pineapple Ukulele

Another of my recent deliveries to Hale Ukulele in San Diego is this Christmas Koa Tenor Pineapple Ukulele.

This Koa tenor pineapple ukulele exhibits what I call “tiger curl” .  This type of curl occurs when the wood is cut off perpendicular to the flat surface.  A bit more off the perpendicular and the curl would change to the more “crinkle curl”  type of appearance.  Go figure!

The Koa wood is a touch on the blondish side, so the  blue paua abalone for the sound hole rosette and purfling was a natural.  The binding is my standard India Rosewood but with red/black fiber to accent.  It is getting close to Christmas after all.  The finger board and bridge are Amazon Rosewood–my current favorite with Koa.

I’m getting fonder of this shape.  It might be because this is my fourth revision of the shape and depth.  It actually is not much longer or wider than my standard concert which has made the instrument more comfortable to hold. However, I have made the depth the same as my standard tenor at 3 1/8″ in the lower bout.   It is a hybrid size for sure.  I originally made it with the same measurements as a standard tenor but it just didn’t look or feel right to me.  It sounds very much like the tenor as well, which seems to be a shock to most who give it a try.   It is surprising that Ric at Hale Ukulele gets so many requests for the pineapple shape.  Now the tenor pineapple has become a standard in my build schedule in order to keep at least one instrument in stock.

It is a merry Christmas Koa Tenor Pineapple Ukulele for sure!