Ukuleles

= Ukulele Serial #1 ===

I built this soprano ukulele as a present for my wife. Shortly after receiving it, she restrung it to be tuned like a fiddle. She’s a fiddler, and was following a recommendation to use a uke tuned like a fiddle to help learn to think chordally. A mandolin would do too, but a uke is more friendly, portable, and easier on the fingers.

 

Features include:

• Four strings with standard soprano scale
• Koa back and sides
• Cedar top
• Mahogany neck
• Ebony fingerboard
• Koa headstock veneer
• Mother of pearl fingerboard inlays
• Hand etched and cut mother of pearl hummingbird inlays on bridge
• Shellac/wax finish

 

= Ukulele Serial #2 ===

This instrument was inspired by a Manuel Nunez soprano uke from my childhood, but is not a copy. Although I built it for my own satisfaction, I played it only a few days before someone fell in love with it and I accepted their purchase offer.

 

Features include:

• Four strings with standard soprano scale
• Koa back and sides
• Spruce top
• Brazilian rosewood fingerboard and bridge
• Mahogany neck
• Koa headstock veneer
• Rosewood binding
• Mother of pearl fingerboard inlays
• Gloss finish
  

 

= Ukulele Serial #3 & #4 ===

These two soprano ukes have quite a story. My friend Scot's dad was a high-school shop instructor. Scot's a woodworker too, and one of his earliest memories is of making birdhouses with his dad. His dad's wishes were to have his ashes buried at sea, so Scot made a lovely box from walnut, padauk, and birdseye maple scraps to contain the ashes til the sea burial could be done.

 

Afterwards, Scot asked me to use the wood to make a ukulele. By adding some mahogany I'd inherited from my dad's stock (who was also a woodworker) I had enough wood to make two ukes. But since the walnut salvaged from the box was too short for a standard soprano ukulele body, I designed a shorter, squatter body shape. Also, in tribute to Scot's dad, I inlaid hummingbirds on the headstocks.

 

I am honored and delighted to have been asked to make these ukuleles, and I had a lot of fun making them.

 

Features include:

• Four strings with standard soprano scale
• Walnut back, top, and sides
• Mahogany neck
• Padauk fingerboard
• Walnut headstock veneer
• Mother of pearl headstock, rosette, and fingerboard inlays
• Rosewood binding
• Glossy lacquer finish by Addam Stark of Santa Cruz