Can't decide on binding for Mya-Moe

Going with curly mango classic tenor - thinking of either walnut or ebony binding for body and fretboard, as I like the idea of something darker than the body color. Anyone have a uke with either of these combinations? Suggestions welcome even if you don't.

I may be wrong but walnut is not always that dark. I would go with ebony.

Ebony, always looks Classy!...

Ebony binding and fretboard, ebony (not rosewood--you have to specify with Mya Moe) bridge...bam! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

Apologies if you already know this. Their Instrument Gallery has the ability to search size, model, back and side wood, body binding and top wood, with any combination you choose or just one feature. It is a DANGEROUS place. It helped me make my final decisions. My personal preference would be the walnut over the ebony binding.

I ordered the high contrast ebony/maple headplate, an ebony bridge and maple body and fretboard binding to complement the headplate contrast theme. It's a tenor with walnut back and sides/Port Orford cedar top, walnut rosette. It will be completed on October 29th.

Rosewood would be dark, but ebony would be black, of course.

I second ray's suggestion about the gallery. I was doing a lot of browsing when I was configuring my mango tenor, and the gallery was a great help.

If you're just going for "darker", everyone of the binding woods will be darker than the mango except for maple... It's just a question of how much darker you want. Blood wood brings out the orange and red in the wood, koa brings out more brown. Walnut brings out more browns and grays, ebony will set off the edges and highlight mostly the darker shadings. At least that's what I saw when I checked out these combos in the gallery.

As far as fretboard binding, if you get ebony binding on an ebony board, it will look like a really clean edged board where you don't see the fret setting on the side. If you want to have a contrasting color, then obviously you'll want to go with something other than ebony.

Gordon has a great video on fretboard binding you can find on the site or YouTube.

Spend some time searching the gallery though. It's a great tool.

brazillian rosewood binding, ebony and sycamore for the BWB purfling

I have indeed perused the gallery umpteen times, and amazingly enough, there appear to be zero curly mango ukes in any size, style or configuration that have ebony body binding. I was actually quite surprised as I really thought this wood with the ebony binding on body and fingerboard would look pretty sharp - maybe I'm in the very definite minority on this one. I also thought of using the same body and fingerboard binding for the soundhole rosette, but wonder if that might be too much?

Also, I assume the fingerboard is ebony by default - is not the bridge as well? So do you have to specify ebony for the bridge, and if so, is that an upcharge?

I'm pretty sure I am going to opt for the headstock wood to match my body wood, which is a $50 upcharge. I realize that takes the signature Mya-Moe pattern out of the picture, but the other choices just don't seem to match up well with what I'm doing on the rest of the uke. I suppose I could go with the custom option of getting the traditional signature headstock pattern but in matching curly mango and ebony, but don't know if I want to spring for the extra dough for that. We'll see.

Eyeguy said:

Also, I assume the fingerboard is ebony by default - is not the bridge as well? So do you have to specify ebony for the bridge, and if so, is that an upcharge?

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Hello. Mya Moe did not have ebony bridges until recently, they used dark brown rosewood bridges. There was a MM uke on here for sale a month ago and it was gorgeous, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the ebony fretboard and the rosewood bridge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS4m5Mwg2Y4
Here's a video--see at 1:00 minute. Ugh! Otherwise, gorgeous!

Whether MM, now that they have ebony bridges, automatically goes to ebony for it, you'd have to ask Char and Gordon. My build info in the gallery (my build starts in Dec 2012) specifies ebony bridge (no upcharge), as I asked them for...check that yours does, too. They sure are good folks at Mya Moe. That's a fact.

I have a spruce and maple Pono "blonde" uke with ebony everything and it's a wower. But, it does have an abalone rosette. Here's photos on HMS:
http://www.theukulelesite.com/pono-maple-pro-classic-tenor-slot-head-cutaway-mptshc.html

You, of course, have to make a personal decision about adding some color and complexity.

in general, the nicest binding for mango body uke in my opinion would be koa or maple.

Problem is with mango there is no standard 'look' under finish...the colour variations are so wide that many options may work for you including walnut (which is darker than koa), rosewood (darker again)or ebony, bloodwood... just about anything!!!!

Start here for some more ideas...
http://biz112.inmotionhosting.com/~...ding=percent&tuners=percent&headplate=percent

I'm a huge fan of ebony....would be my choice

dont think you can go wrong with ebony. always looks good

Thanks folks. Still pondering but leaning heavily towards ebony.

Eugene, Thanks for the link. Not sure why I couldn't seem to get that to come up from their website, but no worrys. Build #760 and #628 are kinda how I envision mine - the wood I've chosen I believe will be a bit darker rather than lighter and I do believe the ebony will go well.

coolkayaker1, Thanks again for the head's up - I'll make sure to ask for the ebony bridge.