New koa tenor uke. Just finished. Last uke was an archtop.

Garry Petrisic

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Photo0951.jpgPhoto0952.jpgPhoto0953.jpgPhoto0949.jpgJust finished a new tenor uke. Some pics for comment. Sounds great, yet to be set up. letting it weather a bit before final sert up. made from Koa sourced from my good friend Kim Hancock in Australia. He loves Hawaii as I do. The neck is Queensland Maple with Koa head veneers from the back and front offcuts. The bridge is Queensland Walnut overlaid with Mango. It has a side hole in the upper bout which allows the strings to be knotted and pulled therough the bridge. Raised finger board allows freedom of movement and 14 fret to body allows full use of fretboard although I am not talented enough to use it. Unique bracing design is one I found on the net for a guitar designed my Mottolo.
Mahalo
Garry Petrisic.View attachment 43161
 
Awesome! Looks keen.
 
Cool. Do you actually feel the difference with a raised fingerboard? With the scale so short, I'm curious. Either way, good job.
 
Damn! That is a beautiful uke! Bet it sounds great with the bracing design.
 
Aloha,
Very nice, love the shape of the soundholes...............congrats..........
 
Thanks for the positive comments. The bracing design is very simple. copied from a design I found on the net by a luthier named Motola (I do not know if I spelt it correctly.) Yes it does sound good, but will be better as time goes on as Koa needs to age.
Mahalo
Garry
 
I love your soundhole too! seems we both had the same idea. I do not put sound holes in the middle any more. The sound hole is always in the middle in a position where you need to brace it up for support. When the sound hole is moved to the top bout, the amount and style of bracing can be reduced to give more freedom to the whole top.
Mahalo
Garry.
 
Fantastic looking Uke' pal, and I absolutely love the headstock. I'm a sucker for tapered headstocks, I don't know why more manufacturers don't use a similar design, it just seems to improve the aesthetics of an instrument.
 
Thank you Big Kahuna. I think it is better for the string pull being relatively straight onto the nut as well. I use the same on all my guitars as well. I used it on my tenor archtop and kept the template to use on all future ukes in slight size variations.
Mahalo
Garry.
 
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