pic of tenor uke

I wanted to share a picture of the tenor uke that my husband (thistle3585) made me.

I wish my partner make and gave me ukes! You are very lucky.

Helluva guy. What kind of wood is that??

That is a beautiful instrument!

It is lovely. Congratulations on both counts! How does it play (the uke not the husband)?

Beautiful! I see you are a mando widow, do your husband build mandos too?
He does fine work, I wish I had the patience & skill to make a beautiful instrument with strings, any kind.
Steve

My husband plays well with others! Yes, he builds mandolins too. The tone of the uke I would consider quiet which I really enjoy. He used a couple of different woods which I'm sure he will add his input to the conversation soon.

You are a lucky lady. I own one of Andrew's electric mandolins, so I know first-hand how talented he is. BTW, I love your username. It describes my wife as well.

looks very nice. We need more photos!!

Very nice...please post a few more pictures

Noooooooooooo, if I wanted to post pictures of it I would have. I don't go to your knitting sites and post photos of your tea towels.

This was my first acoustic tenor. I built it for her birthday and I did pretty well and was only late by two weeks. Unfortunately, it only has two coats of amber shellac on it so I was going to finish it after she played it awhile. The top, back and sides are curly redwood and the neck is mahogany. The fretboard, binding and headstock are rosewood. There is a dancing bear on the headstock. I wanted to put mud flap girl on it but she thought the one on my mandolin truss rod cover was in poor taste. Honestly, I wouldn't build another one from redwood. It has no volume which is what she prefers so I can't say it turned out all bad. It bent easily but its so soft that its really easy to nick and dent the wood. I would discourage anyone from choosing redwood. There are a couple things that need done along with a couple coats of finish. I need to dress the frets, repair a spot in the rosette and put some decent strings on it.

No, I don't play well with others. Although I am a referee, I think I've racked up the most penalties this year on my hockey team.

Thistle, I love the look of the redwood in this uke, but I can imagine it being so soft that it dings up relatively easily being a problem. A beautiful instrument nonetheless, and she is lucky to play such a gorgeous ukulele

That's some gorgeous redwood and a beautiful uke. The one uke that I've built with redwood was on the quiet side, might have been louder if I had thinned the top down like a spruce top but I was chicken, it's really soft and easy to dent and the dents don't very heal well with moisture and heat. I read that you just don't want to thin it too much. Still redwood is beautiful and has a nice tone once it opens up.

thistle3585 said:

Noooooooooooo, if I wanted to post pictures of it I would have. I don't go to your knitting sites and post photos of your tea towels.

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That made me laugh out loud. It's a lovely uke! Maye try one more redwood, but make it thin--built for sound, but not necessarily to last?

Dancing bear? Could it be another fan of the Grate Garcia?? Maybe combine the redwood top with a hardwood back and sides for more volume. It's a very attractive top, but I'm not sure I'd use a softwood for sides and back myself.

You should marry the guy.