Got Bear!

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…

Curly Maple and Curly Redwood

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…

Bonzer!

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…

Smokin’!

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…

Who are you calling a Heal?

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…

Limba Love

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…

California Curl

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…

Cut, Color and Curl

In the old days (????) this type of Koa might have been common place. Now days it is a rarity to have the privilage to work with this type of wood.   This Hawaiian tenor ukulele  exhibits Koa with perfect Cut--meaning quarter sawn or vertical…

Double Up and Catch Up!

For some odd reason there seems to be a renewed interest in double sound hole and asymmetric sound hole instruments.  After the rapid sale of the last double puka tenor, I quickly got to work on another.   This instrument is a new Koa wood…

Inside the Box, Part 1

No rules, but some basic principles to follow.  My mentor, John Greven, has stated in some of his articles that the premise for bracing may have been more for strength rather than sound.  This subject could be debated for ions and I am…