NUD, eBay buy from Bruce Wei, paddle island motif.

During my recuperation period from open heart surgery (7 weeks ago and doing very well), I've been surfing eBay often looking at the listing of tenor ukes. What motivates my UAS is seeing something different than I already have. If I find one, I go for it, but since I only have room for eight ukes in my humidified shelf cabinet, I have to get rid of one when I get another.

I saw this Bruce Wei made solid acacia koa paddle uke with island sound holes for $220. I don't have a paddle shape and though I did get a brown burst island sound hole from Bruce a few months ago, I decided I'll replace it with this paddle version and give the brown burst to the UCLA/Mattel Children's hospital music therapy program for which we play every few weeks.

I usually have Bruce custom make a uke, but this one fit the bill pretty well, especially the figured acacia koa, though the inlaid fish on the fretboard is not something I would not have chosen, but I can certainly live with it (maybe the women in my group will find it alluring).

It has lot's of projection and sustain, feels and sounds very good. I already added black strap buttons to match the black tuner knobs.

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8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. http://www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos

CONGRATS on your NUD!

Looks great Mike!

I like that shape too.

Also, glad to hear that your recovery is going well

Congratulations. Also, glad to hear surgery went well. Can you post picture of back of ukulele and neck joint. Also, I’d be interested is a close up of the main body and neck. The island sound holes look cool. What squiggle down the centre of book match front. Is that rope in law. Nice ukulele.

Thanks guys. I'm actually back playing bass uke with my group and uke on Sundays in the park. Here are more photos. The center line looks more like chevrons to me, but maybe that's considered rope style. It's built very well, fit, finish and seams are clean and solid. The neck heel is wide, made it easy to install the strap button.

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8 tenor cutaway ukes, 3 acoustic bass ukes, 8 solid body bass ukes, 8 mini electric bass guitars

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children's hospital music therapy programs. http://www.theukc.org
• Member The CC Strummers: https://www.youtube.com/user/CCStrummers/videos

Congrats, Mike. I really like the Island soundhole and the wood grain is very striking.

I took a chance on a Bruce Wei that ended up being $159, shipped. I was a little spooked into buying as there was a thread on UU suggesting that Bruce wasn’t going to keep making ukuleles. My Bruce Wei is a Concert scale acacia with f holes. I’ve been keeping watch on the ukulele as there were reports on the web about problems with Bruce Wei instruments over time—but the ukulele has made it through the winter with no problems and minimal humidity care on my part (I keep a humidifier with the ukulele in a soft shelled hard case).

It has a thinner body than most of my similar ukuleles and isn’t as loud as most of my ukuleles but it had a really nice sweet tone—and mine has minimal bling. No regrets. And I’d recommend one to others.

First of all, glad to hear the recovery is going well.
Second, you wanted different, that sure is different!