Okay, here’s a combination that I haven’t shown before: Curly, old growth Redwood, and spalted, curly, Big Leaf Maple. I used curly Koa for binding and the neck is curly, big leaf maple–it is almost translucent in real life. I think that this is an acquired taste: the instrument is “neutral”: equal highs and lows, […]
Here’s a new Hula Hips, tenor ukulele custom for Ric. He picked out this set of black, tiger stripe Myrtle wood and bear claw sitka spruce for this large body tenor. To compliment the build I used Ebony binding, a figured Oregon Black Walnut neck and Queensland Eucalyptus burl for accents. I’m using a […]
No, it looks airbrushed, but this is really solid Oregon Myrtle. I’ve got a decent stash of this wood and every set has a different look. I didn’t have a customer for this instrument but wanted to see what it would look like finished. I used African Black Limba for the neck and India Rosewood […]
Non-GMO of course! I modified my original pineapple shape to be a little more rounded and finally settled on this shape. This custom tenor ukulele was ordered by Rob. He specifically requested this set of curly Hawaiian Koa and the rope purfling but left the rest up to me. We finished with a vintage-style herringbone […]
So here’s an Hawaiian Tenor Ukulele made with a blond, curly Koa. To spice it up a bit, I’ve added my “tribal gecko” laser cut to the back. The binding is India Rosewood, the accents are Vanuatu Maidou burl, the purfling is red/yellow Maple, and the fret board and bridge are Mexican “Partridge” wood. The […]
A renewed interest in my Hula Hips Ukulele. Now the Hawaiian Ukulele pattern that I developed about 15 years ago is attracting attention. Mark ordered this lovely instrument with specific requests: Curly Claro Walnut Northwest Red Cedar Sound Board Light Curly Koa Binding Koa Neck Guitar Style Head Stock Low “G” tuning Radiused Fret Board I […]
Yikes! Never too much curly Koa! Here is a completed Hawaiian tenor ukulele with the Kauai compression curl Koa that I showed a few posts back. This heavy curl turned out to be a very difficult build but also very rewarding in many ways. In addition to selecting this particular curly Koa, Bob made a few […]
Believe it or not, this Mango I used in this ukulele is cut from the same board as the last two mango ukes posted. You can see how the spalting changes dramatically in just one piece of wood. I still like Mango for Hawaiian ukes. It responds very well to light touch and is usually very warm […]
I’d like to think that that term describes the curly, blond Myrtle wood top on this new Hawaiian tenor ukulele and not a gentleman’s club. Oh well, I’m doing it anyway. This is another of my mixed wood creations: curly black walnut back and sides, curly myrtle top, curly maple neck, ebony bridge and fret […]
This is still one of my favorite wood combinations for the Hawaiian Ukulele: curly Hawaiian Koa and curly Black Walnut. The wood densities are a close match for sound and the color contrast makes for an appealing appearance. I have also used Hawaiian Koa for binding, back strip and neck while the accent wood is Vanuatu Maidou […]
