bigphil
Well-known member
About 12 years ago, I built this car, a 1955 Volkswagen Beetle. It's been a huge source of fun for both my wife and I since. We have a great time cruising around town, taking it to a few shows, and surprising a few tuner cars. It never fails to get attention where ever we go, it's surprising how many people have old VW stories and the car draws them out.
This is a ukulele site though so I won't dwell further on the car except to say it was the inspiration for my new Moore Bettah ukulele. Turns out Chuck has owned many air cooled Vdubs over the years. I had mentioned the idea of doing a VW uke to him a while back and was elated when I received his email asking if I was still interested last February. Of course, I was still interested and we had a trip back to Hawaii coming up in April! Time was tight, but Chuck thought he could finish it by then!
I knew I wanted my car on it and sent him some photos. He was excited about the project but was concerned about how he might accurately depict certain details of the car as inlay. I wanted him to do basically what ever he wanted to as long as the car was on there. He sent me a couple sketches and it was looking great but he was still working through details. I haven't yet mentioned that my wife is in love with Hawaii and we travel there frequently. She would move there tomorrow. Anyway, one night while I finalizing the build details via email she was looking over my shoulder and said, tell him it needs to have something to do with Hawaii. My focus was on the bug but I relayed her idea, I didn't know it but a seed had been planted...
It wasn't long before I received a photo of the top with the rosette and it was beautiful. The same email said he had been asked to build a casket for a member of the Hawaiian Royal Family and he would be setting aside his uke work to focus on that project. The schedule was already tight and he now felt it was unlikely that my uke would be complete by the time we arrived. He was honored to have been asked to do the casket and it was, of course, a very pressing schedule.
Time passed and I could see from his FB posts that some uke work was going on. Others had told me they received weekly updates while their MBs were in construction. All I received was the one photo of the top. I even asked about updates but apparently the "photo Gods" wouldn't allow it. Well as it happened, once the casket was finished, he busted butt to get my uke finished before we arrived. No easy task, since the inlay took him longer than anticipated AND he added features I had previously inquired about but ultimately hadn't included in my order.
The uke is a work of art! The woods and all materials are outstanding and his craftsmanship and artistry are unmatched anywhere. I couldn't possibly be happier with how it turned out. When I opened the case I found the arm bevel was added as a surprise. The headstock inlay depicted the car near the ocean, in a Hawaiian scene that might be any number of places around the islands. My wife's idea put into practice, another surprise! So that explains the lack of progress photos, there were too many surprises to reveal in photos. Now that we've returned home, I can't put it down and the sound is absolutely amazing too!
Here are the details:
Tenor - master grade 5A curly koa
Bindings, fret board, arm bevel & bridge: ebony
Purflings: B/Red/B
Neck Spanish Cedar
Standard head stock design
Side sound port upper bout
Fret board markers: recon stone with beetle at 12th fret: recon stone, brown lip mussel, gold MOP, silver
Inlay: 1955 VW Bug: recon stone, faux ivory, Tahitian black pearl shell, dye impregnated maple burl, autograph wood, corian, acrylic, white MOP, sterling silver
Rosette: Dye impregnated maple burl
Nut & Saddle: bone
Tuners: Pegheds 4:1
Strings: Southcoast Medium with Fremont Soloist low g
Finish: Glossy Nitrocellulose lacquer
If you've read this far, you must share the excitement that many in the uke community do about Chuck Moore's work. The entire experience was great from beginning to completion. Chuck and Bonnie both contributed to making the experience a pleasure for both me and my wife. Now I expect to derive many years of pleasure playing this remarkable instrument!
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