Question on Book Matching

I am ordering my first Uke kit & have been thinking a lot lately about building ukes & how they are constructed. Looking at the Stew Mac kits, the top & back come as a single piece, which leads to the question:

Why book match the back at all?

Obviously you want to get the grain matched up & looking nice, but is it required for any other reasons?

What is to stop you from just cutting out the back in one section & using that, like the top piece is?

I'm not saying anything against it, just wondering why the back is constructed out of 2 pieces, rather than one.

S.

Two main reasons:

1. It's easier to find narrow bits of wood than wide ones.

2. You like the symmetrical grain pattern which comes from bookmatching.

I believe Pete Howlett (one of the finest builders) prefers one-piece tops for tone.

Absolutely no reason why you can't use a one piece. For Guitar making it's much easier to use bookmatched pieces due to the difficulty in obtaining wide enough boards. For Ukulele making that difficulty is much less. Of course you may/may not prefer the aesthetics of a bookmatched set.

I never considered the thickness of the board being used! That makes perfect sense
S.