Deep Blue Sea Ukulele - Sold
Sometimes ya just gotta try something new. Here’s another effort at staining quilt maple. This is the Deep Blue Sea Ukulele.
Deep Blue-black stained quilt maple.
Back Story
I’ve always said that I don’t do stains, bleeds, sunbursts etcetera in order to allow the natural beauty of the wood to speak for itself. BUT, I am fascinated by some of the insanely, beautiful, mostly electric, guitars with stained quilt maple tops. Forget your Lava Lamp! I am such a novice at this.
You don’t see many stained acoustics for a few reasons but, my favorite is that IT”S JUST NOT THAT EASY! First you need the right piece of wood that’s going to give you that 3-D experience. Also, the color and pH of the wood radically affect the end color result. Then all stains seem to react differently when applied. Then there’s mixing and samples trying for that perfect look. And then, the actually application itself. Oh, no! It’s not exactly the same! Yes, it can be sanded back but there is only so much wood to work with in an acoustic instrument. I’ve done red, and light blue and both were quite successful. On this one I was aiming at a darkish blue green. Somtimes you just have to go with the flow–it’s kinda bluish greenish blackish.
The Woods
The Back and Sides are constructed with Pacific Northwest Big Leaf Quilt Maple.
You can get lost in the Deep Blue Sea.
The Sound Board is a good example of Alaskan Denim Spruce from Alaska Specialty Woods. This is a tough colored wood to match with anything but it works really well with a stained body of almost any color. This is a “float” spruce stained by metal fittings. These woods retain their rigidity and, like most “water woods”, have great tonal qualities due to their reduced density.
Denim Spruce soundboard.
The whole look.
The Neck is Curly Maple as well. It has a bleed from black to dark blue to black again and has a sanded finish.
Curly Maple neck with bleed stain.
The Fret Board and Bridge are a new ebony-like material from Luthiers Mercantile. With the reduction of quality ebony stocks there are now new introductions to the market with similar color and quality. I thought this would be a good place to give one a try. I believe this might be Maple that is pressure stained and stabilized but I’m not really sure. The color is not totally black but slightly grey similar to the sound board. If I oil the wood lightly it turns totally black.
The Rest of the Build
Gotoh UPT tuners, Romero Flourocarbon low “G” strings, Bone nut and saddle, Richlite ebony bindings, and a Crossrock ABS case.
I think that just about covers the bill. I’d have called this the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea Ukulele but there are some conflicting works of art out there so, for the present, this will be the Deep Blue Sea Ukulele.
