Riptide Uke Bracing

I was in a music store today and saw a few of the new Boulder Creek Riptide Ukes. Interesting design with the small sound hole and a side sound hole. The strangest thing was looking through the side hole, I found no bracing around the bridge plate. There was a brace across the center of the uke, where one would normally be behind a normal sound hole, but from there to the heel block there was no bracing. Before you ask, I saw a tenor, a concert and a soprano and they were all the same. It seemed to me, that without the normal sound hole, you could diminish the need for bracing around that area (where they did have normal bracing) but would still want bracing around the bridge, where all the tension exists.

Any thoughts on this design?

Boulder Creek Tenor Link

http://www.bouldercreekguitars.com/sbs2.html
they try to explain it on their website(i'm not sure if it's the same for the ukuleles though)

Relocating the sounds holes as they do is not a new design. It's frequently used on kasha designs amongst others. For some reason I feel uncomfortable with all that plastic and metal on the sound board. Different strokes.
You missed the most important element however. What did they sound like when compared to other high end ukuleles?

They sounded ok. I think my Kala Acacia sounds much better. They are in the $100-200 range. I wasn't questioning the sound or worth, they are low end instruments and the small front sound hole doesn't offer much projection. It just seemed a bit crazy to me to omit all the bracing at the bridge. I was just questioning this as a design element.

mokai said:

http://www.bouldercreekguitars.com/sbs2.html
they try to explain it on their website(i'm not sure if it's the same for the ukuleles though)

Click to expand...

Their uke bracing is nothing like the guitar bracing. Actually it's mostly not there at all.

If your sound board is thick enough you really don't need any bracing. Obviously it won't sound very good either.

To date, my favorite style of bracing is a simple bridge patch, or sound bar. I tried my share of crazy ideas, many so out of the box, might as well not have a box to begin with. I've also played uke from other builders with different bracing styles. Like the ukulele I build, I almost always prefer the sound of something with a simple bridge patch.