This Tassy Concert Ukulele went to Hale Ukulele a couple of weeks ago. Tasmanian Blackwood, until recently, is scarce and difficult to get here in the USA. There is some currently available at Hearne Hardwoods in Pennsylvania. My sets were imported by Gilmer Hardwoods in Oregon over 20 years ago. I do not know if […]
By request, I built this Swiss Moon and Koa Ukulele for San Diego ukulele instructor and musician Kev. Kev has written more than a few instructional books on ukulele playing and alternative tuning. He’s quite talented. I’ve told the back story on the Swiss Moon spruce before, but it would be best to visit the […]
Another super tenor ukulele! I received a few sets of spectacular Oregon Myrtle wood from my supplier Vince at Pacific Coast Woods late last year. This is a Curly Myrtle and Bear Super Tenor Ukulele. Oregon Myrtle, like Hawaiian Koa, has many different and sometimes bizarre appearances. These particular sets are curly, have sapwood, have […]
This is a Koa and Bearclaw Standard Tenor Ukulele. The first Koa and Bearclaw Tenor I built this year was a Super Tenor shape. I posted pictures of that instrument here. This set of koa is from my personal stash but I decided I had more than enough interesting and exotic sets to last for […]
It’s mango time again. This new Mango Tenor Pineapple Ukulele is now at Hale Ukulele in San Diego. This ukulele is made out of some of my older sets of mango. There’s a little bit of black, grey and mustard yellow mixed with a bit of curl. It seems that no two sets of mango […]
This alternative wood ukulele is now at Hale Ukulele in San Diego. The Myrtle and Walnut Tenor Ukulele uses some of my favorite non-Hawaiian woods: Oregon Myrtle and Oregon Bastogne Walnut. Myrtle is unique to southern Oregon or Northern California while Bastogne Walnut is found primarily in Oregon’s Willamette valley. Both exhibit great color variations […]
Guilele or maybe just a parlor size classical guitar? Here’s my first 6 string baritone ukulele–the Jaguar Scratch Mahogany Guilele. The back sides of this instrument are made from a special set of Honduran Mahogany with a figure that has been described as jaguar scratch–the Honduran version of bearclaw figure. Some vendors also describe it […]
Len from Hawaii, talked me into making a cutaway ukulele for him. Here’s the result, the Cutaway Koa Super Tenor Ukulele. Len picked this particular set of Koa wood for his instrument–compression curl with Koa blonds and reddish browns. In addition the the red heart abalone back strip I also made the lower bout graft […]
I just love these instruments made from mango wood. Here is a new delivery to Hale Ukulele–the Mango and Pineapple Tenor Ukulele. The wood is nice and curly but I really love the golds offset with the blacks in this particular set of mango. Low density Mango really responds well to nylon string low tension […]
Here’s a an example of what I have been making a lot of this year. There have been a more requests for conventional tonewood sound boards. This is the super tenor Super Bearclaw and Koa Tenor Ukulele. If you follow my posts you know that I favor any wood that isn’t quite normal looking–I’d like […]
