Good Grief!

Janko

Janko

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A question for anyone who knows? Sitka Spruce ! Great for making the top of a Ukulele and it is abundant. That's good. ...But!

I hate the color. It is so plain ..or...it is tiring because all I ever see is spruce top and Mahogany sides. The same old same old color. I think that comes from seeing so many Sears or Wal-mart type guitars all my life.

Any way there seems to be no way to change the color of spruce short of painting it.

Does a Spruce top really make such a noticeable difference in a ukulele when compared to say, maple or some thing different with some color??

Curious also ...if spruce is so good then why does no one make a solid spruce body?? At least then it would be an interesting awe full.
 
Get yourself some bearclaw Sitka spruce, that will liven things up somewhat. Sitka makes an excellent soundboard, but there are certainly alternatives. As for an all spruce uke, it is not going to bend very well, I've done an arch top out of Alaskan yellow cedar that has straight sides in a trapezoid shape. That would work OK. Generally speaking, the builder makes more difference in what an instrument sounds like, than the wood used.

Brad
 
Thanks a million Brad

I looked up Bear Claw Spruce on the internet and it is great. What an awesome pattern. I just have to find some now for a reasonable price.

There seems to be no problem for the lumber yards to bend Spruce. At least trying to find a straight 2x4 when ya want one seems a real chore. :)

Thanks again and have a great day.
 
Finding bearclaw Sitka at a reasonable price may be difficult. It is highly desired as a soundboard material. I bought my last bunch of it at the GAL convention in 2008, got several mandolin wedges for $35 to $45 each. I was the first customer at the table when they opened, 20 minutes later it was all gone.

Brad
 
IANAL (I am not a luthier) so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Janko said:
Any way there seems to be no way to change the color of spruce short of painting it.
Click to expand...
Any wood can be stained. Look at the Ramirez line of classical guitars, they are known for an orange hue that is not natural to the woods used.

Curious also ...if spruce is so good then why does no one make a solid spruce body?? At least then it would be an interesting awe full.
Click to expand...
Spruce is a softer wood well suited to tops because it vibrates well. You want a harder back/sides for stability. Back/sides do not contribute near as much to the overall sound as the top does.
 
Here's the Bearclaw Sitka soundboard Brad was talking about on a uke that he built for me. The claw marks make for a really striking look with a lot of light play on the wood. The back and sides were Oregon Myrtle a really nice harder tone wood that you are just now starting to see...say at NAMM this year. It sounds as nice as rosewood looks better than some KOA (think shades of gold and chocolate with flames in it).




 
Last edited:
Ukeffect said:
Here's the Bearclaw Sitka soundboard Brad was talking about on a uke that he built for me. The claw marks make for a really striking look with a lot of light play on the wood. The back and sides were Oregon Myrtle a really nice harder tone wood that you are just now starting to see...say at NAMM this year. It sounds as nice as rosewood looks better than some KOA (think shades of gold and chocolate with flames in it).
Click to expand...

Are the top and back both one piece? Or is that top book matched?
 
Spruce is used as a top wood on guitars, mandolins, violins, etc. because of it's high strength to weight ratio. Other woods are often stronger for the same volume of material but are significantly heavier. Spruce is also available in large knot free pieces. It is certainly not needed to make a fine sounding ukulele, in fact many people prefer the sound of hardwood tops. As stated above building methods have more to do with the sound of a ukulele than the woods used.(within reason) Spruce can be hard to stain due to it's pronounced winter/summer grain pattern with a marked difference in hardness and thus dye absorption. It isn't used as a body wood because it is relatively soft and therefore suseptible to damage, difficult to bend without cracking, and would be a waste of it's best properties. Or at least that's my opinion.
 
Maybe you've seen a violin before? They are (almost always) made with a spruce top and maple sides and back. OK, but the most common colors are in the range of light amber to reddish brown... not the natural colors of spruce and maple. The secret is that they are varnished. Our own varnish recipe is an alcohol-based mixture of shellac, copal, sandarac, mastix and a little terpentine.
 
If you read up on spruce, it's actually supposedly good for steam bending, so it should be fine in that regards, but it is a very soft wood, and while a finish will help protect it, traditional uke finishes such as oils/shellac/nitrocellulose lacquer are not the best at protecting a surface from dings and scrapes. Modern oil based poly is pretty tough, and some water based, while not quite as tough, offer UV protection for the wood, too. I think you could build a uke out of it, but it would be prone to dings and cracks.

You can read up on tonewoods and what's nice about spruce here.


post script: I agree, spruce isn't much to look at.
 
Thanks for the helpful links and all the info people.

I actually saw (on Internet) two photos of guitars with Bear Claw Walnut and also Bear Claw Cedar. I probably don't have to tell you how beautiful they looked.

Anyway... my next question would be..... All the wood suppliers I have found only sell TOP wood in two chunks so then they have to be joined together to make a Top.

Doesn't that make it really difficult if not impossible to match up a pattern like Bear Claw ?

Ukeffect? if you're still paying attention to this thread. Does the Bear Claw top in the picture of the Uke you posted above us have a joint? Was it hard to match up because it looks flawless?
 
Ukeffect's instrument has a two piece top. It is relatively easy to bookmatch flattop bearclaw wood and have the patterns match, it is more difficult to do for arch top instruments.

Brad
 
Buy dreadnought size tops which you can often get 9.25" wide - very useful for the one piece tops I prefer. With grain lines varying across the width from heartwood to sap it is possible to get a 'graded' top with tight lines on the treble for stiffness and wide on the bass side. You can also get equally wide back and side material if you are doing a hardwood/spruce combo. No centre seam means no joint failure if you are sending your stuff outside your country as I do. I know it is a different aesthetic using one piece tops and back but I don't have any problem squaring that circle... I also use bookmatched pieces when requested - this too has its own appeal.
 
Pete Howlett said:
...With grain lines varying across the width from heartwood to sap it is possible to get a 'graded' top with tight lines on the treble for stiffness and wide on the bass side...
Click to expand...

Pete, that's a good point - we'll have to try that some time. When we've used one piece tops before we've generally tried to either find a piece with even grain or one with a lot of figure, but increasing grain tightness from bass to treble... that's just cool!
 
Does anyone know if " A GRADE" wood is good enough for a ukulele Top? It sure is hard to find the right wood for making Ukes here in Canada. I don't know why. I think we have some trees here.

If I go with AA or AAA Grade then buying the wood to make my first Ukulele will cost around 200 bucks! Jeeezzzzzzzzzz! ouch! not counting any thing else. It's not even worth it. The world is supposed to end in 2012 ... lol.
 
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