Summer Koa Tenor Ukulele - Summer Special--Sold
Summer is here and here’s the first of the season, the Summer Koa Tenor Ukulele. It’s a standard shape.
Crinkle and compression Koa.
It’s all about the Wood
Body: Hawaiian Koa. I haven’t done an all koa instrument in some time. This particular set of crinkle and compression was originally started as a custom build. Well, stuff happens. The sides had some dry rot that made it impossible for me to use as a full thickness (3 1/8″ lower bout) instrument. So the build was cancelled and now what. A thinner body instrument of course. Can’t waste a nice set of Koa. Now it measures out at 2 15/16″. I haven’t built a tenor under 3″ for about 15 years.
Haven’t done an all koa instrument in a long time.
Fret Board and Bridge: Macassar Ebony radiused to 16″ with gold “evo” frets.
Macassar Ebony radiused fret board.
Accent woods and Binding: Masur Birch. Here’s a wood you’ve probably never seen or even heard of. This stuff doesn’t come around that often and, of course, as soon as I spotted it at Tropical Hardwoods I had to have some. Originally I was told that the figure of this birch (probably silver birch) was due to beetle damage but I’m now reading that it is a genetic feature in some species of birch. Makes for some fun looks. I used a little blue and black to set the mood.
Masur Birch binding with blue/black purfling.
Neck: Honduran Mahogany with carbon truss rod.
The rest of the Build
Nut and Saddle: bone stained brown.
Masur Birch and Hawaiian Koa combo.
Strings: Pepe Romero flourocarbon with wound low “G”.
Case: Crossrock ABS in blue.
Crossrock comfort.
Tuners: Gotoh UPT.
And
I guess I’d have to call this a “thinner body” tenor and not a thin body instrument like the one that Kala makes. I believe now that instruments with more total volume do have a bit more richness and depth of tone. They are not necessarily less loud. This particular instrument still has all the tonal qualities of koa with good voice and sustain. Go figure! As I’ve said before, they are all different and that’s appropriate if you have more than one instrument. It’s a Summer Koa Tenor Ukulele thing.
