Actually this is heavily spalted, curly Hawaiian Mango. This appearance comes with decomposition of the wood. Spalting can be a highly desirable characteristic because of the unique appearances it can create; but, too much of a good thing and it becomes unuseable–this is close. If you have followed my posts you might know that I have an itch for […]
Just another day in puka paradise! Not a highly figured koa, but nice. Double puka’s seem to work as well as the side concert sound hole design, although I can only speculate as to why. I used Hawaiian Mango for binding accented with rope-style purfling. I’ve been using a lot of the Mango binding lately […]
Here’s a killer piece of curly Oregon Myrtle–it really glows! Of course, my supplier only has one set for top only and only big enough for a soprano or concert. I had to have it! I have used this wood as the sound board on a concert ukulele with a complimentary back and sides of […]
Here’s a new completion: tenor Koa ukulele (see Cut, Color and Curl post) with a nice bear claw Sitka Spruce top with Paua Abalone purfling. Accents are Vanuatu Maidou burl–love the burl. Binding is curly maple and that theme is replicated in the laminated neck: baked curly maple with Koa/curly Maple/Koa “T” band. The finger […]
Freshly glued up here’s another unusual combination: Old growth curly redwood sound board, curly spalted maple back and sides. All accents are curly Hawaiian Koa. The neck is also curly maple with internal carbon fiber truss rod. The neck and bridge are India Rosewood. I’ll give it a couple of more days before I put […]
This amber/golden wood is Narra (a pterocarpus species) from northern Australia and Southeast Asia. It is rarely seen here in the US and even more rare to be used for a musical instrument. The tap tone is very similar to rosewood varieties. I don’t have a ton of this wood, so I have used sparingly for the […]
Here’s another all Oregon Myrtle tenor ukulele. I wasn’t too sure what this would look like because of the darker blushes in the wood. Once I got sealer on the instrument, I was pleasantly surprised with the result. I especially like the chocolate spalting on the the front and the back. I used curly Oregon Black […]
I’ve been adding lower bout “heal grafts” to my instruments since I first started building. Now I know that this has nothing to do with sound or construction quality, but it is one of the things that you would expect to see on a custom acoustic instrument and it definitely adds a more custom and […]
Karen fell in love with the Limba. She requested that the instrument not have too many frills, but concentrate on the beauty of the wood–beetle holes included. So here we go: African Black Limba body and neck, Ebony binding, radiused Ebony finger board and bridge, Vanuatu Maidou burl accents, LMI gold evo frets, Gotoh 4:1 […]
No I’m not talking surf dude! I got my hands on some killer Redwood top sets and there are no two alike; and, each one really is killer! I didn’t know what to pair this wood with so my first endeavor was to go with the tried and true California Claro Walnut. I didn’t want to […]
