Mahogany Flea

Boozelele

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Anyone own a Mahogany topped Fluke or Flea? I was thinking about the Flea and wondered if there is a noticable improvement in sound on these little beauties.

This may have been discussed earlier, but I'm an old man, and I get confused, and I am not smart enough to use the search function. :confused:
 
I was a little disappointed to learn that the mahogany is laminate only. If they really wanted to make a difference in the sound, they would have made it solid, in my opinion.

Of course, I've never heard one in person... I just think the difference is probably more aesthetic than anything.
 
I think all the woods on Flea/Flukes are laminate. I saw a Koa Fluke last weekend and it looked to be a laminate. But the one factor you have the realize about them is that the laminate is the thinnest I have seen on any uke and those instruments have the very free moving soundboards as a result of the wood thin wood and large soundboard. They are designed to make the most out of laminate and give you a ton of volume and sustain. A solid soundboard would need to be substantially thicker and you'd lose those characteristics. These ukes are designed incredibly well to do what they do, but a serious modification like wood three times as thick would probably be a detriment to their sound.
 
The mahoggany is lamintate but the koa is solid. My teacher owns one and he managed to crack it by dropping it so it is not quite as durable as the others. As to sound, I've never played one of the koa's and one of the laminates back to back so I really can't say.

One thing that Fleamarket will do for you if you are interested is to make a custom Flea or Fluke with any piece of wood you supply for the sound board. That's how this http://fleamuseum.blogspot.com/2007/07/sinker-flea.html got made.
 
The Koa top is certainly solid.

I would have bought the Mahogany Flea from MGM but there was no sound sample to judge it by.
 
I saw one at the NAMM show, it sounded very nice and I thought the top was beautiful.

Yeah they sure look cool. I have a fluke, But no flea....I may need one. (but I think I'll wait till after the Mainland pineapples arrive) :D
 
I just recently bought a Mahogany Fluke Tenor with the Rosewood board. I really love the sound. I owned one of the regular flukes before and I was not really impressed with the sound. There was something too "toy-ish" to me. But this Fluke that I just bought sounds really good for a laminate mahogany. It's nice and bright and the intonation is impressive. It's so good it has cured my UAS... at least for now.
 
I'm awaiting a Koa Flea. I think its arrived in the UK so maybe just a few more days wait weh hey:D
 
I didn't know that! I'd love to have a mango one made (drools).
I just had a sinker redwood one made (not the one linked to below). The cost is the cost of the wood (which you provide) plus $25 over the cost of the koa and has the same specs as the koa. You also have to have the wood thicknessed by Mike DaSilva, which is an additional $50. So basically I paid $100 over the cost of the koa.

Here's the result:

http://www.ukuleleunderground.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14200#6
 
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