Wondering about wood..

Hey guys, I'm in the process of finishing my first uke, (kasha braced koa tenor) and I wanted to order the wood for my next build. The problem is, I have absolutely no idea where to buy instrument grade wood in moderate to small quantities, around enough to make 4-5 tenors. If anyone could tell me where they usually go to buy the wood for their instruments, or if anyone just wanted to recommend specific types of woods that are more acoustically pleasing than others from your past builds, either would be very helpful.


Bryan

Bryan

There are a number of good suppliers in North America - Notable Woods is a great place. Steve at curlykoa.com has a lot of varied sets of nice koa. I like making one piece front and back so I buy quite a few dreadnought guitar sets - loads of suppliers of tonewoods in the US for this stuff. Peers on this forum will be quick to recommend them.

Can't go wrong with all koa or mahogany. Cherry/spruce, walnut/spruce or, and I think this is the best visually and tonally myrtle/spruce if you want to go the 'guitar' sound route.

Thanks Pete, I'll definitely be sure to check those two places out! I know how much you hate the kasha bracing system, so I feel grateful that such an incredible luthier as yourself is willing to share his knowledge with all of the newcomers to building instruments. It is good to know that people such as yourself, and others in this forum are out there to help us out with any problems we may encounter throughout a build.

There are just so many places for you to choose from, but one that I use regularly because of his fantastic service and willingness to send to Australia is RC Tonewoods..

There is also Allied Luthier, and Todd has been around the business of wood longer than most.

And my very favourite is Australian Tonewoods because he's a great bloke to deal with, but not local to you, however he ships most of his product overseas. Tim also build instruments so knows what he's talking about and selling. If you don't see it, just ask. Been far too busy to update his website for some time now.

Bryan,

+1 on RC Tonewoods, I placed two orders from them in the last couple of months and the service and product was excellent, matched the photo's on his web sight.

For other non tone-wood a great local place is Amazon Exotic Hardwoods in Casselberry on the north side of Orlando. They have and outstanding selection at good prices with out the shipping costs, they are not usually open on weekends though. I try and go there every other month and woodcraft is just around the corner for tools, needless to say it's usually an expensive trip for me...

-darrel