Cherry for necks?

tms

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Hey Guys,

I'm starting out on my first, from scratch, ukelele, and I've milled the top, bottom, and sides from koa, but I'm still deciding on what to make the neck out of. I have one piece of cherry that is flat sawn but could be ripped and matched with a thin piece of walnut in it. But I'm worried that cherry might be too heavy. Has anyone else used cherry for the neck of a koa uke?

Thanks,
Tom
 
I've built two ukes with Cherry necks. They are too heavy in my opinion, but the sustain is noticeably of greater duration. Both of those ukes I built were entirely of Cherry (not Koa). Why am I capitalizing Cherry and Koa? I have no idea. :)
 
Cherry is heavier but like Matt said, the sustain is pretty wicked. I dont know from experience in ukes, but in acoustic guitars its pretty common to see great sounding cherry instruments in the Appalachian area.
 
I've just fiished a couple of ukes with cherry necks. I love the sleek, tactile feel of it.

It is very unforgiving when it comes to sanding out scratches though, but repays the effort IMHO.
 
I always liked working with cherry. I haven't built a uke with it but I'm wondering if you wouldn't lessen some of the weight by cutting a channel and installing a CF rod? May just be a trade-off. The one thing I did notice was that anything I made out of cherry would darken considerably over time, especially if exposed to UV. You might want to consider that aspect when combining with other woods. I've got a uke with a mahogany flat-sawn neck that was pieced together. You probably don't have to worry about a neck like that bowing later on.
 
I made a couple of ukes from cherry. Neither one had a koa body, so I don't know what they would look like together. The cherry I used carved well and darkened after finish to a real deep red. I didn't notice it being heavy. It's a pretty small piece of wood so it might be a little heavier, but so what?
Doug
 
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