From humid to dryer?

sequoia said:

I think there is a lot of truth to the above. Who has the time to condition wood and cure it properly when you are building in the third world You have the wood then start making ukes. Proper seasoning takes time and in the sweat shops of Indonesia (and South east Asia), who has the time? Time is money. Personally I think building with "green" unseasoned wood is a bigger part of this problem than changes in humidity. That said, take an uke built out of green wood in a humid environment and send it to Arizona and the two problems collide. Hello split backs and tops.

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Hey Red,

I'm going to get all bent out of shape by your use of the term "third world" (well, not really). But good builders are good builders no matter where they come from. I'd imagine Latin America is much better in that regard than Asia; the tradition is just so much longer. Longer than North America, for that matter, by a long shot.

Just this year, as an example, I had a rare oppoutunity to meet one of the top luthiers in Cuba and see his work. Incredible stuff and really inventive variations on standard froms. I know my tropical American woods well enough to know there are materials in Cuba no one knows about, and I saw a couple of them that day - gorgeous! But what he also told me is that the wood he uses was cut by his grandfather, and he cuts wood for his grandson. That's the way a guild used to work in Europe, and if you listen to the Latins (I'm sure there's no prejudice here) they'll tell you the Spanish can no longer build the "true" guitar (though what they mean by that is subject to interpretation).

But this is not to say "Latins Good - Asians Bad". This fellow below is from Indonesia and one of the world's foremost builders. Here's a video somewhat apropos of this thread in that it's a comparison of one of his steel string guitars with an American Taylor:

My Romero Creations Tiny Tenor is made in Vietnam. One of the favored places for handmade higher end ukes. China seems to be on the downslide. It's the high end builder culture vs mass production that gets ya. I've gone through three Kalabrand ukes. Kinda regret all of them.