NUD Sydow Carbon Fiber Tenor

I just received this new uke in the mail two days ago, and I'm absolutely blown away!!! A few months ago, I was bouncing around the web looking at just about every builder's website I could find. I went on the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii's website and at the time, they have a page with a few links to some of their members' websites, I can't seem to find that page anymore, but one of the links was for Sydow Guitars and Ukuleles. I have looked all over to find more information, but there is very little out there about his instruments. I remember really liking the CRAZY thin profile ukes and guitars he was making.

Just recently, I have really been leaning toward the high end composite instruments, for the obvious reasons that I really don't want to have to worry about them. I love my solid wood instruments, but I really like the idea of an instrument that not only looks and sounds great, but that I don't have to worry about passing around the bonfire or taking on a camping trip. I had forgotten the name of the company that had the really cool thin ukes, and couldn't find it on the Ukulele Guild site anymore. I don't even remember how, but finally I somehow came across it again.

Anyways, onto this instrument. I reached out via the contact information on the website and was contacted back by Steve Sydow's wife, and she said he hadn't made any ukes in a couple years, but had a few that he was taking to shows. Of the instruments he had, I decided to go with this solid carbon fiber front, back and sides tenor with gold wire woven through the carbon fiber, rosewood fretboard (not sure why it's a wooden fretboard, but I'm not going swimming with it), gold jumbo evo frets, nice Gotoh tuners and a LR Baggs/Misi pickup system. Another very unique thing about this build is the bridge, or lack thereof. You'll notice in one of the photos that the area where you'd normally see the bridge, there's more of a bridge bump in the soundboard. Really unique and really cool looking feature with the through bride style.

Now I neither have the recording equipment nor the skill to get a worthy recording of this thing, but the sound is amazing!! And the feel up of the fretboard with those jumbo frets and whatever thick fluorocarbon strings he put on it just feels absolutely incredible. I also have a Blackbird BTU and Clara, and I'd said that I like the feel and sound more than the BTU, and at least the feel more than the Clara, but the Clara and Sydow tenor are both beautiful in their own ways.

Anyways, I took a chance on a company that I couldn't find much information on, and I couldn't be happier. The quality of sound, looks, everything have far exceeded my expectations. If you're interested in one of Steve's ukes, definitely reach out and ask questions, I know he has a similar carbon fiber uke, one with a carbon fiber back and koa front, and another with full koa that is insanely thin and the back is lined with Carbon Fiber. All of his instruments look incredible, and I hope to buy a bass guitar from him some day!!

Hard to see the gold wire in these photos, not a great camera, but this thing just sparkles and shines!!!

That's the neatest thing I've seen all day. All week. Maybe this month. It looks like there isn't a bridge, which is just crazy!

I also think about the Orca (not all Carbon Fiber) and the new Klos. This must have predated both.

You didn't mention a price. Can you give a rough estimate of what one of these costs? And is he willing to make more? I don't ask for me...but Jerry might need 2.

I'm curious about price as well. I don't know why people who present a new uke rarely mention the price. I always say the price I pay for my instruments, gives people a way to make comparisons. With the $1200 stimulus money I just received, I'm going to order a custom long neck bass uke (22.75" scale) made by Bruce Wei in Vietnam for $870 including shipping (he's made me three tenor ukes and one bass uke), ready in about three months. There, I've said it.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
9 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 12 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 39)

• Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
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Congrats on your one-of-kind Ukulele. The bridge is cool. Would love to hear a sound sample.

Very nice ukulele. Shape is very unique and looks very comfy. Can you post a close up of the bridge? Also, link and price would be good. Thanks.

Mahalo for sharing this info.

the website is interesting, and I sent him an email requesting more info.

Hope to hear back from them.

been looking for a longneck Soprano in carbon fiber... my 'grail' uke?

As we Minnesotans say, "Well, that's different." (Though be aware that for Minnesotans that is usually a more polite way to say "WTF?")

Fascinating design. And if he builds any more I sure hope he moves to a Richlite fretboard so as to be able to avoid fret sprout. But such praise from someone who already owns a Blackbird BTU and Clara is high praise indeed.

Here's a few photos of the instruments I was told were available. As far as pricing, I'll provide his standard pricing, although he was able to offer me a discounted price on mine. All carbon fiber is normally $2,000, carbon fiber with koa top $2,200 and all koa with carbon fiber lining the inside of the back is $2,500. All of the options are beautiful, I just really liked some of the unique features of the solid carbon fiber. Hopefully this is helpful.

http://sydowguitars.com/Sydow_Guitars_and_Ukuleles

kohanmike said:

I don't know why people who present a new uke rarely mention the price.

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I generally follow the example of the builder. If their site doesn't mention prices, I figure they'd rather discuss that privately instead of on a public forum.

Congrats, it's really different! I wonder how it sounds....

That's a beauty!

Thanks for link. How is acoustic volume? Very nice comfy looking shape. Interesting that they have CF body and Koa top versions. I didn’t catch first look at your pics that all they made was thin body. Very nice looking. Sound sample or video would be nice to see. Curious of your comments after playing it awhile. Contras again. Very unique looking ukulele. Thanks again for posting.

M3Ukulele said:

Thanks for link. How is acoustic volume? Very nice comfy looking shape. Interesting that they have CF body and Koa top versions. I didn’t catch first look at your pics that all they made was thin body. Very nice looking. Sound sample or video would be nice to see. Curious of your comments after playing it awhile. Contras again. Very unique looking ukulele. Thanks again for posting.

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I look forward to seeing how I like it as time moves on too. Acoustically, it's much louder than my BTU (however, my BTU I should say is somewhat unique, bridge placement moved back and modified fretboard so it actually has a Baritone scale length). The BTU doesn't have a lot of volume acoustically, but I got it for the 13 PIN synth hookup, not it's acoustics. I would say that the volume in greater on the Clara though (the Clara is louder than most ukes out there). Extremely comfortable to play. I should maybe state that the things that I like better about the feel of this as opposed to the Clara are the body profile, the tenor scale length, and I really do like those jumbo frets as well, but the Clara is also a very comfortable uke, especially if you prefer a concert scale. The pickup system is really great too though, and plugged in it's a monster. Sounds incredible plugged in both clean and with effects added. I do hope that at some point I'll have the capability of recording something with it that is worthy of judgement. Anything I could record it with at this point would be distorted at best.

Also, I was just updated on the pricing from Steve, at least on the solid carbon fiber model. Current pricing if he were to build one new would be $2,200. Again, he doesn't advertise pricing on his site, and the pricing I provided previously was based off of another email and the prices he had at the time, but I'm not sure when he last made these available for sale, and I'm assuming those prices were from that time. He has been building guitars exclusively for a couple years now. That said, it does sound like he's willing to build more, but the $2,200 would be the price for a new build.

That looks like a very unique cf uke. I like that the body shape allows for easy access to the higher frets.
How does the weight of the uke compare to some of the others you own?
Can you say more about the 'jumbo frets'? I don't quite know what you mean and how they affect the playability of the instrument.