ukulele

Here are some photos of a new model N4 14 fret long scale concert ukulele I finished recently and have listed on ebay. It features a quarter sawn, air dried Swiss spruce soundboard with a black ring rosette, curly koa back and sides and curly maple body bindings with black top purfling. It has a Spanish cedar neck, an ebony faceplate, ebony fingerboard with MOP face and side markers, and ebony scalloped heel cap and an ebony pin bridge with snake wood pins. It has a 38mm bone nut and a compensated bone saddle. Its fitted with smooth and reliable Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners, finished in a handrubbed gloss lacquer and string with Savarez Alliance KF fluorocarbon strings.

It has a bright and clear voice with good intonation, loudness and playability. The scale length is approx. 409mm (16"), half way between a standard concert and a standard tenor, to facilitate optimal placement of the bridge. Regular readers of my journal will know that this is one of only a very few concerts I've built in the last several years and represents a $1750 retail value.

Here are some photos of a soprano I just finished. It has select curly koa top, back and sides, curly maple body bindings with top purfling, a Spanish cedar neck with a walnut center strip and CF composite structural reinforcement, an ebony fingerboard with MOP face and side markers, an ebony faceplate, a scalloped ebony heel cap, an ebony pin bridge with snakewood bridge pins, a 35mm bone nut and a bone saddle. It is finished in a gloss lacquer finish, fitted with Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners and strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings.

This soprano has a clear and bright voice with good loudness, intonation and playabiliity.

Its summertime in Austin now, the squash plants in the garden are in full bloom and we have a resident frog family who don't stray far from the garden hose tap outside.

Here are a few pictures of a custom model A3 14 fret long scale tenor I just finshed. It features a Swiss spruce soundboard with a paua abalone rosette, toffee colored select curly koa back and sides, curly maple body bindings with black top and side purfling. The Spanish cedar neck is reinforced with a carbon fiber composite structural rod. The instrument has an ebony faceplate, an ebony fingerboard with MOP face and side markers, a sculptued ebony heel cap, an ebony pin bridge with snakewood pins, a 38mm bone nut and a bone saddle.

It is finished in a hand rubbed gloss lacquer finish, fitted with Gotoh UK700 open back geared tuners and strung with Savarez Alliance KF fluorocarbon strings. It has a clear, sweet and bright voice with good sustain, loudness, intonation and playability.

Here are some quick photos of a new model A3 14 fret long scale tenor I finished this week. I features select curly koa top, back, sides, faceplate and backplate, a Spanish cedar neck with a radiused and bound ebony fingerboard with paua snowflake and crown markers, a scalloped ebony heelcap, an ebony pin bridge, ebony binding with black/red top, back and side purfling, paua abalone top and back purfling, a slotted headstock with ebony binding and paua abalone purfling, a bone nut and an ivory saddle. It is fitted with Gilbert zero backlash geared tuners, finished in a hand rubbed gloss lacquer finish and strung with Savarez Alliance KF strings.

This tenor ukulele has a clear and bright voice with good intonation and playability. It is on its way to Hawaii soon.

Here are some quick photos of a new model A3 14 fret long scale tenor I just finished.

This tenor features California curly claro back (one piece) and sides, a Swiss spruce soundboard, a Spanish cedar neck, an ebony fingerboard with MOP markers, a scalloped ebony heel cap, ebony pin bridge, curly maple body bindings, black side purfling, a paua abalone rosette, and a bone nut and saddle. Its fitted with gold plated Gotoh open back geared tuners, strung with Savarez Alliance KF strings and finished in a hand rubbed lacquer finish.

This tenor has a clear and bright resonant voice with good intonation and playability.

That's the very very last of the spectacular claro billet I obtained a couple years ago.

Here are a few quick photos of a custom tenor ukulele I just finished. Its a model A3 14 fret long scale tenor in Honduras mahogany and Mediterranean Cypress. It features a Spanish cedar neck, curly maple body bindings, black fineline side purfling, a paua abalone rosette, bone nut and saddle, an ebony faceplate, a radiused ebony fingerboard with MOP fingerboard markers, a scalloped ebony heel cap and an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins. Its fitted with gold plated Gotoh openback geared tuners, strung with Savarez Alliance KF strings and finished in a handrubbed gloss lacquer finish. This tenor has a clear and bright resonant voice with good intonation and playability.

Here are a few photos of a solid body long scale electric tenor I finished recently. It features an American maple body with a through the body solid maple neck with carbon fiber composite structural reinforcement, an ebony fingerboard with paua face makers and 2mm MOP side markers, an ebony faceplate and an ebony pin bridge with ebony pins. It has a customer designed cherry blossom themed sound hole inlay in Japanese Awabi, figured mother of pearl, paua abalone and black lacquer. It also features a Mi-Si battery free Acoustic Trio@trade; preamp with an LR Baggs under saddle transducer, bone nut and bone saddle. It is finished in a hand rubbed gloss laquer finish, fitted with gold/white Gotoh UK14 geared openback tuners and strung with Worth fluorocarbon strings. It sounds and plays great and is on its way to Japan soon to a very patient customer.

I've been playing around with string gauges on my new sopranino this morning. My standard Savarez string gauges used on a soprano are a little slack on the shorter scaled sopranino.

For a soprano, I use (A,E,C,G) the Savarez KF52 (.0205"), KF66 (.0260"), KF74 (.0291") and KF62 (.0244") (approx. the same gauge as a standard Worth CM fluorocarbon set, but the Savarez KF fluorocarbon compounds are a little harder and give a brighter tone).

For the sopranino, (A,E,C,G) I find that KF66 (.0260"), KF74 (".0291"), KF86 (.0338") and KF62 (.0244") give a nice tone and feel.

All of these custom gauge Savarez strings are available from Stringsbymail.com on their Savarez Alliance KF specialty singles page in 1 or 2 meter lengths. Players might like to experiment with variations around these gauges to customize the tone and feel to their own preferences.

Here are some photos of a new custom soprano I finished recently. It features California curly claro back and sides, a Swiss spruce soundboard, curly maple body bindings with b/w/b top purfling, a decorative wood binding rosette, a Spanish cedar neck with ebony fingerboard and MOP snowflake position markers, an ebony faceplate, scalloped ebony heelcap, ebony pin bridge with snakewood pins, a bone nut and an ivory saddle. It is fitted with PegHed™ geared tuning pegs, strung with Savarez KF fluorocarbon strings and finished in a gloss laquer. It has a big, clear and resonant voice with good intonation and playability. Its on its way to Thailand soon !

If you are curious about my choice of props for the photos, I've been cooking a number of Thai and east asian recipes from the excellent and highly recommended book 'Bowl Foods' this year.

Here are some photos of the 1st sopranino i've built. It has a scale length of ~288mm (~ 11.3") and its design is based on a version of my model N5 soprano, scaled down by approx. 12%. The first photo shows it (on left) with a N5 soprano for size comparison purposes.

It features select curly koa back and sides, a Swiss spruce soundboard, curly maple body binding with b/w/b top purfling, decorative wood banding rosette, ebony fingerboard with MOP snowflake markers and 2mm MOP side markers, ebony faceplate, scalloped heelcap and pin style bridge, a bone nut and an ivory saddle. Its fitted with Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners, strung with Savarez KF fluorocarbon strings and finished in a gloss lacquer finish. It has a big and clear voice for such a small instrument, with good intonation and playability. If you are curious about the props in the photo, I've been cooking Thai food a lot this year !

This sopranino is available for $1150, including a hard shell case. Shipping is extra.

On the left, a model N5 soprano ukulele in California curly claro and Swiss spruce. On the right, a model N6 sopranino ukulele in select curly koa and Swiss spruce.

Here are some quick photos of a custom tenor ukulele i finished yesterday. This is a model A3 long scale 14 fret slotted headstock instrument in master grade California curly claro and Swiss spruce. It features a figured Spanish cedar neck, radiused fingerboard bound in curly koa with paua abalone snowflake and crown fingerboard inlays, curly koa body bindings, claro rosette, faceplate and backplate, paua top purfling, back and side fine line purfling, an ebony pin style bridge with snakewood pins and a bone nut and saddle. It is fitted with Gilbert zero-backlash geared tuners and a Mi-Si Acoustic Trio™ battery free preamp and Baggs under saddle pickup, finished in a hand rubbed clear lacquer and strung with custom gauge Savarez KF fluorocarbon strings. It has a big, open, clear and articulate voice with good intonation and playability.

This tenor's rich, dark and complex character is rivaled only by my new bottle of Pappy Van Winkle 23 year old Family Reserve bourbon ! Its on its way to a very patient customer in Hawaii soon !

Here are some quick photos of a new soprano i just finished. It has select curly koa back and sides, a Swiss spruce top, Spanish cedar neck, curly maple body bindings, top purfling, paua abalone rosette, ebony faceplate, ebony fingerboard with MOP snowflake face markers and 2mm MOP side markers, bone nut and saddle and an ebony pin bridge with snakewood pins. Its finished in a hand rubbed gloss lacquer, fitted with smooth and reliable Gotoh Deluxe friction tuners and strung with custom gauge Savarez KF Alliance strings. It has an articulate and clear voice with good loudness, playability and intonation. Its on its way to Boston soon !

I have recently emerged from a period of creative destruction with a completely reorganized workshop in which i can actually move around, see and open the windows (yes its 72F and sunny here today :), and get work done without stumbling over myself. I tossed quite a few of my old body molds and bending patterns, had a few ebay sales to get rid of stuff i collected in previous lives, inventoried all my wood sets, strings, tuners, pickups etc, build a new workbench and so on and so forth. I now have a super nice California claro tenor for a customer in Hawaii on the bench getting rubbed out and set up (finally !), two nice koa and spruce sopranos hanging, lacquer drying, one for a customer in Boston and one for general sale (check back next week or email if interested), and I am in the middle of building a nice solid body long neck electric tenor with shell cherry blossom inlays around the sound hole for a very talented young Japanese artist/performer.

And ... I still have the mahogany tenor shown in the following entry for sale. I've probably made fewer than 6 of these over the last few years. Its a nice one.

Stay tuned !

Here are some photos of a new all Honduras mahogany model A3 14 fret long scale tenor. Spanish cedar, ebony, ebony, ebony, snakewood, curly maple, Savarez strings, Gotoh UK700 tuners, lacquer - Its a nice 'un !