wood questions....

Hello All. My first post here on this forum. I am about to start my first build of a concert uke. I build turntables and have some excellent 'scrap' in my shop.

First, I have found 2 boards that might work as neck material. One is flat sawn Mahogany. I have had this board for about 15 years.


Is this a decent neck piece?

or, this Bolivian Rosewood piece, It has been in my shop for at least 5 years.

Is the grain too far off of vertical for a good neck?

I have been lucky enough to have some Koa in my stores.. There was a house built on thge lake here about 30 years ago, all of the interior woodwork is Koa. There is still a big stack of wood left, in storage. I picked up 10 boards or so about 5 years ago. I never anticipated building a ukelele, but cut some of it into veneer for turntable plinths. It is gorgeous, and well suited for this purpose. Currently, it is surfaced to 180 grit from my widebelt sander to between .086 and .090. Is this too thin if carefully used? At this thickness, it is basically flawless. The flitches are about 10" wide x 8' long.
This stuff seems really nice. It has a subtle and consistent curl, and the grain looks awesome to me.



I do have a couple of boards like this one, this is what I was planning on cutting into back, sides, and top. The board is 8' x 10" x 3/4" The curl is like that the full length of the board. It is not the sharpest curl I have seen, but is every bit as good as it looks in the photo. What grade would this be considered? Where can I find info on grading of musical instrument wood.

My website is www.woodsongaudio.com to show a little of the work I do..

Thank you all for creating such an awesome forum. I have spent a small amount of time so far browsing, and look forward to digging deep. I am not in a hurry with this project, but super excited. So far I am planning on Koa back, sides, front, neck still unknown but thinking the above Bolivian Rosewood, or Mahogany. Macassar fretboard, or maybe Gaboon. I want to learn about inlay, and how to do the binding.

Mostly I work with oil finishes, but my background is in finishing. Usually I polish up to about 3-4000 grit, then oil. I do not usually like lacquer because I feel that it is a detriment to the color. I am considering lacquer on this build, or shellac, and maybe oil for the neck/ head.

and what about this Japanese Cherry? would a sane persone build a uke from it?


the potential neck pieces in the above post are 8/4, they are flawless and the grain is consistent all the way through.

Holy smokes! Can I be your friend?

If you are too sane to make a uke from the cherry, you can send it to me!

But seriously, you probably won't get too many recommending the rosewood for a neck but it will make dandy fretboards and bridges. The mahogany can be laminated so that the grain runs more or less vertically in the neck. something like this:



As for the koa, well, you're just in clover.

Some may question my sanity, I don't know. Your wood looks great. I'd use the Bolivian rosewood for fretboards and bridges. Mahogany is pretty well known for being as strong when flatsawn as when quartered, and your stock is so nicely flatsawn that stability shouldn't be an issue. I'd use absolutely any wood on an instrument for myself. It might pay to be conservative with the figure when building for sale, but usually by the end of a build you have a good feel for how an instrument will hold up as far as potential cracking and such from too much weird grain structure (the problem is that by then you've already made promises to your client). If you are worried about spoiling your pretty wood, you might try starting with some less striking stuff, though to be honest I have broken more mahogany while bending than all other kinds of wood combined. Go figure. Koa is usually very cooperative. I'd jump all over the Japanese cherry.

That is some nice koa. Go back and buy the rest of that stack. That Japanese cherry is nice to. As far as the grading of wood goes, its kind of subjective.What some call 3A others might call 4 or 5A.

Unfortunately the Koa stack is not for sale.. The only way I got some was when I told them that I would not accept money for work they wanted done, Koa, or nothing. I can probably get a few more boards, that is all.


The Japanese Cherry is amazing, it was leftover from a turntable project for a gentleman in Singapore. The board was 11' long, almost 3' wide, and completely curly. I counted 135 growth rings from the center. The board I received had the center of the tree, so dead quartersawn. It has similar grain to Black Cherry, but more refined. Super pretty stuff.

My experience with bending Mahogany is that it doesn't like to bend, at least the really ribbony stuff, or quilted.. Koa is pretty friendly. At this point, Mahogany is pretty far down the list for body construction. Too many better options, even though, Mahogany really is one of my favorite woods.

What do you think of the 0.86" -0.90 thickness of the quartersawn flitches? is that too thin for back? for soundboard? If it is braced with intricate bracing (I cannot recall the name of the style that I read about) can this wood be used for ukes without any serious compromise? I wish I had sawn it a little thicker. When I cut it, something in me said that some guitar builder would not be happy at that thickness. It allowed me one additional flitchj for a turntable, which still has not been built as I have not finished with the figured stuff yet, haven't felt the 'formal' urge yet.

For bridges, and fretboards, I have lots of different Ebony 'scraps. I buy whatever I can find of most any Ebony to build plinths from. The falloff is gorgeous. I always immediately coat everything ( Ebonies, some Rosewoods, etc.)in shellac and put it in store.


Why would people not choose Rosewoods for a neck? Please forgive the newbie question.. Stability? too heavy?

Mahogany is not an easy bending wood unless you make a good bender, and then no problem. I like to heat both sides...from the inside usually with a light bulb, and then with a heating blanket on the outside.

BTW, you make plinths for two of the turntables that I have...the Linn and the Thorens 124. I made a Corian plinth for the Thorens, and the Linn is original...for now. I may do another Corian one trimmed with wood, though I'm also considering binding and ab purfling. You could do some outrageous uke/guitar-style trimmed turntable plinths for the high rollers. A 5-K plinth...or a style 45. Killer. Hmmm...

This is about as 'bling' as I have done yet... too much for many folks.. I love it..

This Santos Rosewood would make nice ukes.. It has a nice chatoyance that is overshadowded by it's darkness This was from a nice 8/4 board I recently sawed into veneers. It is still .110" or so. I have a decent amount left..



My apologies if pics of turntables are not acceptable here.. someone please speak up if so.. I posted because of the wood...

I bought plans for the concert uke from Waverly street Design. Does anyone here have any experience of this design? I already know I cannot follow the plans exactly.. Can anyone recommend a good set of plans? Even if I do not follow them I will benefit from seeing them.

Most of us develop our own plans.

The trick to stringed instrument design is NOT to design a body shape first, particularly if you're doing this for the first time.

Draw a straight line. That's a side view of a string. Add a nut position at one point, then a bridge saddle position at your nominal scale length. Then work the geometry for string break angles at each end, the plane of the fret tops, then the plane of the fingerboard, the actual height of the strings off the body, fill in the saddle and bridge, do a neck side view, then each end of the body. Once you have the geometry worked out in side view, you'll know what you have to work with with regard to the most important parts of the body and you can then figure out body shape, depth, etc.

This system is 90 degrees different from how most folks start designing, and it's a system for getting the real essentials worked out first. You wouldn't design a turntable plinth without first figuring out the cutouts and the tone arm board geometry first before designing what you actually look at. Ditto sensible instrument design. Performance business first, then aesthetics.

Looks like a 10" acetate test disc right off a cutting lathe straight from the mastering studio there... I know them well...

ok, thanks for those bits to chew on.. instinctively I hear what you are saying. Next is to learn what 'string break angle' is... Yes, function first.


I appreciate the 'permission' to design... a question ( of many more) for a concert uke, what is a mean width of the lower portion of the instrument in the general sceme of things? width of the upper section? with of the 'waist'? length of the body from where it meets the neck to the tail? (Are these the sorts of questions that noone will answer? I hope someone will! I am building a uke! and am excited about it. Hopefully my passion will carry over into me learning how to actually play it! ) Thickness of the body at the tail? thickness at the neck? Is the body generally paralell from where it meets the neck, to the other end? I like the curved back, any rules on that curve? What about curved tops? Is that common? I have seen sound ports on the sides, why is this? How might one calculate body depth? and within what range?

Here is a photo of a pretty ribbony Thorens 124, kind of an old school design, one of my first.

You're asking good questions, but the answers are all over the map. Workable uke shapes are much more varied than those of guitars. It will come down to your own personal aesthetics once you get past playing geometry. Just don't overbuild, and be prepared to go too far with making the tops thin and flexible. Once you go too far, you can back up a notch. Nothing like failure to teach you limits. And it's not about specific dimensions; it's about each piece of wood.

Best to get your hands on as many ukes as possible right now. I was fortunate in having three major uke collectors here in Santa Cruz when I started designing ukes...over 750 ukes at hand and some good guidance, particularly from Ukulele Dick (aka Rick McKee) and Sandor Nagyszalanczy. My approach to their suggestions was a bit unorthodox, but it was good enough for them both to wind up as clients.

OH, and if you can wrap that veneer around those corners, you can learn to bend solid wood for ukes!

Love that Art Deco look.

Hi Chris! Fantastic turntable work. Can't wait to see what you do with ukes.

I have a couple of concerts, so I measured them. For the top, it's about 6 and one eighth inches. The waist is five and a qaurter inch and the bottom is 8 and 7 sixteenths.

Just remember that there's as many ways to build as there are builders and to take it easy on yourself and you'll do fine.

If I can do it, you certainly can.

Thank you all for the replies.. Rick, you have excellent taste in turntables... Do you prefer one or the other? or both for different occasions?

Braden, thank you for the measurements, this helps set me free in designing, gives me an idea of when I might be traveling 'outside the fence'.... What about the length of the body, from where the neck meets the body, to the bitter end, how long? Paralell sides? or tapered?

11 and an eighth.

Both concerts are < $200, so they have parallel sides. If you want a bowed back, we used a 25' radius dish. I don't know if that's the standard or not, though.

I'm kind of in the midst of setting up two systems with a bunch of vintage audio gear. My current working system has a couple of custom modded Dyna chassis, ex-PAS preamps that are now monoblocks that are driving a Phase Linear 400 amp. Right now I've got a Sony PS125 turntable on that just because of convenience. Speakers are vintage JBL Horizon L 166. CD Player is Audio Alchemy. Then there's the Synthesis book shelf speakers, the two Allen organ 75 watt KT88 powered monster monoblocks, the DynaAudio transmission lines that need new foam around the woofers, the Grado PS-1 and the Jecklin electrostatic phones, and a bunch of other stuff... Eventually I'll sort it all out and have systems 1 and 2 with some turntable choices. Then there's the Fisher integrated tube preamp and amp, the Heath stereo tube amp, and some other bits and pieces.

Sorry for the detour, folks, but I've been into this audio stuff for a long time! Built my first Eico amp kit when I was in high school. Had one of the early KLH systems right after that, and went to audio heaven when I was working with the Grateful Dead in the early 1970s and was a JBL, Cetec-Gauss, and Electrovoice speaker and McIntosh amp dealer with my first company, Alembic. Good vintage gear still sounds really, really good compared to most of the boring mid-fi stuff out today. Cheap and mid priced stereo has gotten better and cheaper, but not great, and the old top of the line gear still sounds better, tubes or solid state.

Chris, your custom turntables are sweet. Nice work.

When you do choose a template shape, make sure it'll fit in a standard case. Before you build it