Soundhole sniffing...

[Mike $]

Too bad, you missed out! As a long time guitarist pre-uke, I loved sniffing guitar soundoles too. Lots of different aromas from the different tonewoods. Why do you think they call it rosewood? Sniffing old vintage ukes like Martins takes me back in time, like memories of your grandmother's house when you were a small child.

...and how did you know my grandmother?

 

[KevinFL]

I sniff my sound holes, always have. It started with guitars. I think the best smelling uke I've got is a Loprinzi with spruce top and Spanish Cypress back/sides. Out of this world.

I've cut and split a lot of wood on our property and although it all smells good, the cherry is the best. It's excellent for smoking meats. After the last hurricane came through this past August I had a lot of damage to clean up. A fire was going non stop for over a week and lots of limbs and excess trees I just didn't have time to cut and split went in the fire. My wife was outside one day and said she thought she smelled my pipe. It was the cherry branches on the fire giving off a delightful aroma that filled the property.

 

[uke_away]

I’ll admit to it...only with my Martin. Someone said there is a Martin smell...and they were right. There is nothing else like it...and I would tell anyone that owns one to actually smell the instrument. My S1 is Mahogany.

I agree. I don't own a Martin uke, but my mahogany and rosewood guitars are fragrant, particularly the latter.

 

[boisedave]

My mom was a uker. She played a Vega bari, not the Arthur Godfrey model. She was a teenager during WWII, when I guess she got the uke. It smelled like mahogany, of course, but so much else.
It had a humongus crack on the lower bass bout. Three or four inches long, and I could almost stick my pinky finger through as a little kid. She said she whacked somebody with the uke.. the implication was always it was my dad-to-be.. that caused the damage.
So old mahogany. And both of them smoked, so that. But I swear I remember the Atlantic Ocean, and sweat, woodsmoke and spilled gin. Her raccoon coat.

 

[surfink]

Koa smells much different than Sinker mahogany... Just sayin'