Moore Bettah Ukuleles
Well-known member
It's rare that I get a chance to experiment much anymore. Here's an uke where it really paid off though. Materials are koa, spruce, bloodwood and ebony.
I moved the side sound port to the lower bout instead of the more common location at the upper bout. As ukulele builders we sometimes blindly follow in step with what has traditionally been done on guitars. On a guitar, you wouldn't want the side sound hole in the lower bout because it would be covered by your arm while playing it. But in a ukulele I think it's the logical location since it's closer to the bridge and that's where the sound is generated.
Also, by moving the sound board sound hole up as high as is practical I am able to move the lower horizontal sound brace higher, thereby increasing the resonating surface by about 15%.
Of course the spruce top doesn't hurt either. The back and sides are from a set of koa that is extremely dense and stiff. Even when thinned to .060" I was getting almost no deflection in the top. I threw the top in the scrap pile and went with a spruce top instead. The extreme density of the back and sides may very well add to the overall effect.
Not surprisingly this uke has exceptional volume and response. I learned a lot on this uke and I hope to be doing more of these in the future.
Thanks for looking. Happy 4th everyone!
I moved the side sound port to the lower bout instead of the more common location at the upper bout. As ukulele builders we sometimes blindly follow in step with what has traditionally been done on guitars. On a guitar, you wouldn't want the side sound hole in the lower bout because it would be covered by your arm while playing it. But in a ukulele I think it's the logical location since it's closer to the bridge and that's where the sound is generated.
Also, by moving the sound board sound hole up as high as is practical I am able to move the lower horizontal sound brace higher, thereby increasing the resonating surface by about 15%.
Of course the spruce top doesn't hurt either. The back and sides are from a set of koa that is extremely dense and stiff. Even when thinned to .060" I was getting almost no deflection in the top. I threw the top in the scrap pile and went with a spruce top instead. The extreme density of the back and sides may very well add to the overall effect.
Not surprisingly this uke has exceptional volume and response. I learned a lot on this uke and I hope to be doing more of these in the future.
Thanks for looking. Happy 4th everyone!
