Please can you tell me of your experiences with Spruce ukes, do they hmmmm your soul?

Leodhas

Leodhas

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I'm getting N.U.F (new uke fever) again, especially as it's coming upto Chrimbo and want to treat myself and I was thinking about going spruce!

However, I am slightly concerned that they may sound a wee bit too acoustic guitarish (don't know if that's a technical term). Nevertheless, I was really hoping for some feedback off folks who have experience with them. I'm either going to get the basic Kala model or maybe try a riptide, other suggestions would go down well. Getting a concert or tenor.

Bloody ukuleles are taking over my life, I haven't bought a guitar in nearly 2 years now, Mad!

Anyway, spruce, good or bad?
 
Sound is all subjective. I love my spruce top and think that with aquilas it really makes a nice bright sound. Try one at the shop first.
 
For me, spruce top = bright sound and good sustain. I like for picking.
Best in concert or tenor (so much "punkly" in a soprano that I have played last year)


For me, Spruce = good. :D
 
Spruce top ukes are great. My favorite being adirondack spruce. Spruce is very responsive, and has a very high velocity of sound (The speed at which the wood transmits energy.). It also has a very high volume ceiling (it's loud)
 
Mim said:
I love Spruce, I also love Cedar! Check out both!
Click to expand...
Same here.

Spruce and cedar are actually the most popular tops for classical guitars for a reason. They are excellent tonewoods.

I have two spruce and two cedar topped tenors. I wouldn't compare them to guitars.

If anything, and these are very subjective terms, I would say cedar sounds bolder/warmer, and spruce sounds brighter/crisper. Both seem louder in comparison to, say, mahogany, which is known for sounding mellow.

YMMV
 
I have a really good spruce top baritone, and the sound is nothing like a guitar. If I haven't played guitar in a while, I'm always surprised how loud and how much sustain a guitar has. The dynamic range is also much greater in a guitar.
 
All my acoustic Ukes are spruce topped, except one. I own a Martin Style 3M which is Mahogany, and it has this amazing bass response that I absolutely love, it is a fantastic blend of all the notes I play with a perfect Ukulele thunk at the end of their lives... but it cannot do what spruce does. In my collection, the Mahog is for tunes that I want to sound old, the spruce for ones I want to sound great. The spruce top has a ring to it that I have not heard elsewhere-something about the sustain...
Imagine of you will all the notes in a chord lining up and shouting out one at a time- that is what Spruce sounds like to me. And that is why there are six within my reach right now.
I have played cedar as well- it is amazing too, but I have yet to buy the one- probably going to say Mya Moe on it when I do.
 
Four of my favorite ukes have spruce tops and I have a spruce top/sycamore body on order at Mya Moe right now. Love the sprucies!
 
Another vote for spruce, I have two spruce topped ukes (one a phenomenal custom plus an awesomely loud old soprano), a guitalele with a lam (I believe) spruce top, a cedar topped soprano uke and two cedar topped guitars; one a short scale classical and the other a short scale steel string. Everybody should have at least one spruce top.
 
My Pohaku tenor's top is Sitka Spruce and I love it! Very different from the Koa and Mahogany tops that I've owned in the past. It is definately brighter, but it's also coupled with Maple back and sides which adds to the brightness.
 
I love spruce too and would say that of the ukes I own (including a koa) spruce is my main player.

Of course it is subjective and depends on what you play, but as I attempt fingerpicking a lot it is my favourite...The koa and mahog being good but I have to be in the mood!

Chris
 
Also love the spruce tops. The tonal balance is more evident and resonant than any other tone wood I have played or owned.
 
However, I am slightly concerned that they may sound a wee bit too acoustic guitarish
Click to expand...

They make guitars out of pretty much any wood that is used to make ukes.
You don't hear guitarists saying "Jeez that Koa guitar might sound like a uke"

I don't really see how it applies the other way round whatsoever
 
kissing said:
They make guitars out of pretty much any wood that is used to make ukes.
You don't hear guitarists saying "Jeez that Koa guitar might sound like a uke"

I don't really see how it applies the other way round whatsoever
Click to expand...

Jesus ! I don't know if you meant to come across as conceited with that statement, but you did pal. Get out the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Most guitarists In my part of the world (that primarily being Scotland and Ireland) do not have guitars made out of Koa. Most players guitars are made from spruce, some cedar but mainly spruce. In the sentence you highlight I was attempting to address my concerns that a spruce uke may lose some of it's authentic sound (for want of a better expression) and possibly have a tonal quality more akin to a travel guitar (for example) than a uke. I stupidly assumed most folks would derive that information for themselves.

Puch ma horne!
 
Sorry, I failed to see how a small-bodied, nylon stringed instrument of spruce top would sound anything like a huge instrument tuned EADGBE with steel strings, a scale length several times as long and the top itself being several times thicker.

Sure, it's expected that both may sound a bit 'bright' and 'projected', but a uke sounding like a travel guitar due to the spruce?
I didn't mean to come across as snappy or anything, but I just found it hard to make the association..


Just to illustrate:

Spruce-top uke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQuLB1czYRI


Spruce-top guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbHfG-CxFrQ


I understand I'm being rather picky... I think it hit some kind of obsessive nerve in my brain, like Austin Powers and the "Mole" guy
 
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Hiya! I have a spruce-top soprano and I love it to pieces. Sounds nothing like a guitar IMO.
I noticed you're based in Edinburgh? If you want to try ukuleles in the flesh there are some really nice music shops down in Newcastle, just a train ride away. JG Windows has a quite good selection, there's one at Monument in the city centre and one at Metro Centre in Gateshead. My favourite is Hound Dog Music that specialises in ukuleles. It's in Monkseaton (Whitley Bay) outside of Newcastle but easily reached by metro (well except sometimes during the week-end as they sometimes do work on the metro line). And if you feel like playing your latest purchase at a local uke club, there's quite a lot of them in town. Make it a day-trip! :)
Good luck!
 
Found it to be a bright experience for me..while I like them on the guitars, for the smaller bodied ukes they seem to not match my personal preference...sorry...
 
It seems to me the builder and design of the uke have more to do with the resulting sound than from what tonewood the soundboard is made.

Just my causal observation.
 
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