Do you play any unusual tonewoods?

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I love em all! But I was looking at Pete Howlett's Welsh Yew ukulele.I bet it would have been Robin Hood's choice:)
It seems like there are more and more different tonewoods being used. I like American cherry a lot and mango as of late. Still got keep mahogany and koa as they are so stable and sound so wonderful.Cedar and spruce topps are wonderful too. We did a LoPrinzi Flamenco styled uke with Spanish cypress back and sides. Got anything diff out there? Pono will soon have an all Rosewood model out FYI. Acacia models coming early next year from them too. Ohana will soon have some surprises but it can't be revealed .
 
I have a Lanikai spalted mango tenor I like a lot. The zebrawood looks interesting and Lanikai has some monkeypod models as well that look nice. I'd be interested in getting impressions on how they compare to the sound of some of the more traditional ukulele tonewoods like koa and mahogany.
 
right now my best sounding uke is my redwood top koa back and sides uke.
 
I have a redwood and koa uke as well. It sounds very nice, but after some time with it, I think vintage mahogany or koa sounds best of anything I've ever played. Perhaps after 30 years it will sound that great too, only time will tell.
 
I don't how unusual it is but.....

...my favorite tenor uke is made from flamed cherry.

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That is gorgeous! Flamed cherry or figured cherry isn't too common in the ukulele world. I love the stuff and think it will gain popularity as more people play it. I think the sound of cherry is much like mahogany mixed with some maple qualitys mixed in. Ripe and round like a...Cherry:)
I don't how unusual it is but.....

...my favorite tenor uke is made from flamed cherry.

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Compass Rose makes the prettiest ukes iv'e seen that is a beautiful uke.
 
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Compass Rose makes the prettiest ukes iv'e seen thay is a beautiful uke.

Rick is amazing.

As for tone-woods, I love cherry, maple, koa, and mahogany. I have heard a few solid walnut ukes and hammer dulcimers and they were wonderful. I also have an Ohana SK-22Z here (solid spruce top, zebra-wood back and sides.
 
I have two unusual ukuleles, one made of myrtle and one of spruce and ambrosia maple. They're both gorgeous and have lovely tones. The myrtle concert:

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The maple soprano:

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I have a spalted mango tenor and a gourd banjo tenor as well. In fact, I own only one "ordinary" solid-wood ukulele, a mahogany tenor. Weird woods are cool.
 
Thanks for posting that cherry uke.

One of the most outside woods we build with is our local California Sycamore. I'll dig up a photo.
 
Thanks for posting that cherry uke.

One of the most outside woods we build with is our local California Sycamore. I'll dig up a photo.

Sycamore is so great looking. How would you describe the tone on Sycamore in relation to other more common woods, Rick?
 
I have a Chocolate Heart Myrtle resonator from Mya-Moe that I like a whole lot. Beyootiful, and sounds great, too!
 
From the time I first saw it on my luthier's workbench, I was in love with sinker redwood. As part of a tenor I now own, with back and sides of pau ferro, I think it not only looks wonderful but also has a marvelous sound.
 
The sycamore has (for the lack of a better descriptor) a very airy sound. I personally feel it tilts toward being really good for reentrant tuning where I like some of the other woods better for low G. That's strictly a personal bias.

Ukes do much better with alternative top woods than guitars. Something about the size, the nylon strings, and frequency range makes the "rules of the game" quite different. We've had really good success with a pretty wide range of top woods. The only obvious one we've not tried is rosewood, but walnut, maple, cherry, sycamore, spruce, koa, mahogany, acacia melanoxylon, redwood, and cedar can all work great if properly thicknessed and braced.
 
Brad Donaldson is about to start building me a soprano with myrtle back and sides and a Port Orford cedar top.

Trying to be patient. Trying to be patient. Trying to be patient....
 
Ah, yes, myrtle...the West Coast stuff, not the Aussie timber that is a dead ringer for black cherry. We've used it and it's great...as is the Aussie stuff. Ditto on PO Cedar...a fabulous wood.
 
I have no idea how it'd work as a tonewood, but my dream is to one day have a ukulele made out of Bermuda Cedar.
I might have to go hit some of the carpenters and suppliers to see if they have anything nicely cured to maybe send to a luthier to play with...

Hmmmm...
 
I have played and reviewed a couple bamboo ukes. I have played Thom, From the Flea bitten Dawgs, pecan sides and back w/ spruce top boat paddle a few times. I would love a Purple heart sides and back with a cedar top.
 
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