Peardrop-style tenor ukulele in meranti wood

A very unusual commission - this peardrop-bodied tenor is for Steve Edwards.

The body is large - 10" across and just over 3" deep. Steve wanted the instrument to resemble a mandola, hence the shape of the body and the soundhole. He also specified a short, chunky neck, which meets the body at the 10th fret.

Steve doesn't like to strum over the end of the fretboard, so the proportions of the body were designed so that the strumming area is well away from the frets.

Woods are all meranti for the body & neck; rosewood for bridge, fretboard and head veneer and the instrument is fitted with an Artec passive pickup and an endpin jack.

It's strung with my regular fluorocarbon soprano strings at the moment so for the video I've tuned it to Bb to keep the string tension sensible. It will ultimately be restrung with Aquillas.
And it sounds huge!

The sound hit me immediately... what a nice surprise eh? I've been thinking of doing one similar to this for myself. What type of bracing did you use? Wonderful looking and sounding ukulele.

What a rich sound- Absolutely gorgeous

A real beauty - looks and sound.

Looks and sounds wonderful Rob. A1

Vic D said:

What type of bracing did you use?

Click to expand...

Thanks for looking / listening folks..

I've notice that this 'shape' seems to produce the rich sound Rob's instrument demonstrates... BTW Rob, I think you are brave spearheading the use of Meranti. I couldn't use it even when I was working as a jobbing carpenter. It's tonal properties are a complete revelation

Damn that sounds great! Steve has gotta love that one.

Not only does the uke sound great, you play it so darn well, Rob!