Notes and observations

Here are some quick photos of a new soprano i finished recently, this one again in the general style of Leo Nunes. It features dark curly koa back and sides and a Swiss spruce soundboard. It has mahogany body bindings, top purfling, a decorative wood banding style rosette, a Honduras mahogany neck, an ebony fingerboard with ivory position markers, bone nut and saddle and an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins. It is fitted with smooth Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners, strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings and finished in a hand rubbed gloss lacquer finish.

This soprano has a bright, clear and loud voice with good intonation and playability.

Now that i'm almost 61 i've decided its time to start writing my memoirs. Stay tuned for 'Memoirs of a Ukulele Maker', coming to an internet bookstore near you next year. There won't be a lot of information about ukulele making in the memoirs, but there will be quite a few 'Notes and Observations' i've made during the course of my long, interesting and unusual life over the last 6 decades, together with biographical information i'd like to document for family and friends.

I'll have a lovely soprano in dark curly koa and Swiss spruce in the general style of Leo Nunes available in a few days. The price is $1250. Case and shipping are extra.

Here is a quick photo of the internals of a mahogany model A3 14 fret long scale tenor i'm assembling today showing my current tenor bracing style. I use a wide 1mm thick Mediterranean cypress cross brace which runs across the widest part of the lower bout with 3 spruce fan braces (approx 3mm x 5mm). The cross brace is thinned at the edges and helps the top retain the arch carved into the solera. The fan braces are notched where they pass over the cypress brace. They are scalloped on the end near the sound hole and tapered on the end near the tailblock. The top is approx. 1.75 mm thick overall. The sound hole is reinforced with two cross grain spruce patches about 1mm thick. You can see a small piece of wood and screw used to hold the body down on the solera during assembly. It's removed after the back is attached.

After the bridge is glued and before i lacquer the instrument, I'll string it up and give the top a once over with a sanding block thin enough to allow me to work under the strings below the soundhole, and around the periphery of the lower bout. The goal is to optimize the tone and responsiveness of the instrument. Small adjustments can make a big difference to the sound.

The back is braced with 3 spruce cross braces and a 1 mm thick cross grain spruce patch to reinforce the center seam. The cross braces are tapered in profile and their ends are scalloped. The goal is to produce a strong and light structure which is compliant around the edges.

In the general style of Leo Nunes, this new soprano has curly Honduras mahogany back and sides, a California redwood top, a figured Spanish Cedar neck, curly maple body bindings, a decorative wood banding style rosette, a bone nut and saddle, an ebony fingerboard with ivory markers and an ebony pin bridge with snakewood pins. Its finished in lacquer, fitted with ultra-smooth Gotoh deluxe friction tuners and strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings. This instrument has a bright, clear and articulate voice with good sustain, loudness and intonation.

I have a new long scale 14 fret tenor in Indian rosewood and Adirondack spruce coming available. It has a slotted headstock, Gilbert tuners, radiused fingerboard, curly koa binding and an ebony pin bridge. Its a custom tenor I built for a gentleman whose circumstances unexpectedly changed. Its a new and unplayed instrument which I'll be finishing during the next week.

I'll also have a very cute little Nunes style soprano available in the next week. It has curly mahogany back and sides, a California redwood top, curly maple bindings, ebony fingerboard, faceplate and pin bridge. Its looks very elegant and sounds great.

In progress:

A California curly claro and Swiss spruce tenor for a customer in Hawaii. Its sweet !

A sharp red electric 15 fret long scale tenor in the style of a LP Junior for a customer in California.

An all Honduras mahogany custom tenor for an Hawaiian player. Custom scale, custom nut width, special setup.

There are some very interesting things going on these days in the world of technology, where my professional roots lie, and i'm getting more and more involved in a software startup. I'll be turning my building efforts back into a hobby next year. I've learned from the experiences i've documented for you in these notes and observations over the last few years that lutherie makes a great hobby but its logical development as a business capable of providing a living wage, health and retirement benefits etc for a family man changes its character completely and leads to a career managing a woodworking factory and significant artistic and lifestyle compromises. That's not where my interests lie. Faster, faster, harder, harder, cheaper, cheaper.

If you have been talking to me recently about a custom build, best act soon !

I've been watching our fennel plant so that i could document an example of one of the great mysteries and treasures of life, metamorphisis - in this case, of a caterpillar into a butterfly. Having denuded almost totally, but not completely, our fennel plant of flowers and tender branches, the monarch caterpillars suspend themselves in an inconspicuous place by a couple of fillaments of gossamer and go into a state of silent and motionless contemplation, preparation for their rebirth as a butterfly.

After a couple of days, they acquire an appearance remarkably like a fennel flower pod before it opens, or the sheath like part of the plant that covers the bifurcation of a fennel stalk, shown in the photo to the right. Clever fellows. In case you are wondering, the caterpillars left a few flower tops. These will go to seed and provide next year's food and shelter for the monarchs.

Footnote: apologies for the quality of the photos. I don't have a macro lens. These were shot with a Nikor 50mm 1.8, which has a minimum focusing distance of about 18".

The Monarch butterflies came thru central Texas on their way north from Mexico this spring and left their eggs in the fennel plants. They hatch into colorful caterpillars which feed on the fennel flowers and tops. We'll have clouds of monarchs this summer, and they'll pollinate the fennel before heading south in August. Here's a photo of a monarch caterpillar on a fennel branch entwined by a morning glory vine native to our area.

Here are some photos of a model A3 14 fret long scale tenor ukulele i finished recently. It features Brasilian rosewood back and sides, an Adirondack spruce top, a Spanish cedar neck, a radiused and bound rosewood fingerboard, a rosewood bridge with ebony pins, a bound rosewood faceplate, top and side purfling, and a paua abalone rosette and fingerboard markers. It is fitted with Gilbert tuners with ebony buttons, finished in a gloss lacquer finish and strung with Savarez strings.

It sounds sweet !

Here are some quick photos of a classical guitar in select Indian rosewood and red cedar I finished recently. It has mahogany bindings, top purfling, a Honduras mahogany neck with an ebony fingerboard (650mm), a Indian rosewood bridge and a bone nut (52mm) and saddle. It is fitted with deluxe Gotoh matte gold tuners, finished in lacquer and strung with D'Addario J45 composite strings.

This guitar has a very balanced and clear tone, with solid, somewhat gravelly bases and clear, bright and slightly assertive trebles. Intonation, playability and loudness are good. It has a lot of presence with body effects providing an interesting moody and dark feel to the tone. In the right hands, it can soar !

As part of a rare end-of-month/2010 recession special, I am offering this guitar on ebay with no reserve, together with a new lattice top tenor ukulele.

After binding the headstock on this custom Brasilian rosewood tenor, I cut the mortice ramps. Here is a photo of the tools used. From the left is a tsukinomi (Japanese push chisel), a Chirozuru Sadahide kiridashi (Japanese woodworker's knife), a cedar pencil, an oirenomi (Japanese bench chisel) and a 270mm dozuki (dovetail saw).

This tenor is nearly finished now. I should be tuning it up next week !

Here are a few photos of a long scale custom soprano ukulele i've finished recently. It has an Adirondack spruce top, Indian rosewood back and sides, curly maple body bindings, a 14 fret long scale Honduras mahogany neck, a radiused ebony fingerboard with ivory position markers, a decorative wood banding style rosette, an ebony faceplate, an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins and a bone nut and saddle.


It has a gloss lacquer finish, is fitted with PegHed™ geared tuners and strung with Worth strings. It has a Mi-Si Acoustic Trio™ battery free pickup with a Baggs UST installed.


It sounds sweet and plays well.

I have half a dozen new custom instruments just oh so close. During the last few months I've been building four tenors, a soprano and a classical guitar and they are all just about ready. I'll be publishing photos here when each is ready to ship, one at a time. One of the downsides to building 6 of anything that requires a lot of attention and work is that its a long wait to experience the reward of seeing and playing the finished instruments. In the future, i'll probably go back to building them one or two at a time.

Here are photos of the first model A3-L 14 fret long scale lattice top tenor. It features select curly koa back and sides, an Adirondack spruce top, a figured Spanish cedar neck, curly koa bindings, side and top purfling, a decorative wood banding style rosette, an ebony fingerboard, ebony pin bridge, ebony faceplate and a bone nut and saddle. It is finished in gloss lacquer, fitted with Gotoh UK700 gold openback geared tuners and strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings. It has an articulate, detailed and resonant voice with excellent clarity and sustain. You can read about the construction of the lattice braced soundboard in recent journal entries here and here.


We're been having an unusually perfect spring this year. That is a pleasant change, as normally the central Texas spring lasts about 3 days and quickly flees in the face of an overly long and torrid summer. This year we had a month of spring. Frequent rain and pleasant temperatures brought an end to the multi-year drought we've been experiencing. The plants love it. I've found it a serendipitous time to build.


Stay tuned for photos of more sweet custom instruments appearing here over the next couple of weeks.

I found a little time today to make some progress on my lattice bracing experiment. Here is a tenor ukulele top with the lattice bracing installed. The Adirondack spruce top is 1.5mm thick. The bracing is German spruce, 3mm wide by 5mm high on 40mm centers. I used a small foam roller to apply glue to the bottom of the lattice, placed it in the correct position on the top, and applied pressure using several Klemsia clamps through a small sheet of 1/2" plywood over a 1/8" thick sheet of rubber until the glue dried. When dry, i cut the scallops.

It'll be interesting to see what it sounds like. This top is going on a 14 fret long scale tenor with koa back and sides. Stay tuned !

I have instruments for Gary, Shawn, Erme, Hirohiko and Wayne in progress this month, plus a couple of experiments with lattice bracing on a tenor ukulele and a classical guitar.