Focused sound vs "Airy" or "lush" sound...

Some ukes tend to give a more focused or clear note separation in sound and some ukes give what I call an "airy" or "lush" sound-

My question to the builders is what is this a function of?

Is it the tonewood that makes the biggest difference or the bracing size, bracing pattern, body depth, thickness of the wood?

I'm sure it is probably a combination of all of them but wondered if you can build into your ukes either "type" of tone?

Thanks for the responses.

Kevdog said:

Some ukes tend to give a more focused or clear note separation in sound and some ukes give what I call an "airy" or "lush" sound-

My question to the builders is what is this a function of?

Is it the tonewood that makes the biggest difference or the bracing size, bracing pattern, body depth, thickness of the wood?

I'm sure it is probably a combination of all of them but wondered if you can build into your ukes either "type" of tone?

Thanks for the responses.

Click to expand...

"Airy and Lush"? I don't know what that would mean. Focused with clear note separation can apply to any wood depending on how things are put together but I tend to think of ukes made with spruce tops as being more focused. Every luthier who builds and has some history of success works out all the rest through their own experience and the woods they use. Most luthiers can work out the tone just by adjusting thicknesses, etc, but it takes time and many builds before this becomes intuitive. There is no shortcut for applied knowledge. Just because you may have read it and understand it in a book, doesn't mean you can get where you want to go.

I guess by lush I mean with a lot of overtones....

In my builds, if you are looking for lots of overtones and harmonics, then it's a softwood top. But that doesn't mean at all that there isn't good note separation.

For less overtones and featuring more of the fundamental note, then it's a hardwood top. And again it can also mean good note separation.

The rest is a combination of all the factors that go into building a top preforming instrument. It's the whole package, and not just one thing. And for every luthier, those things will vary based on their particular style of building, body size, plate arching, species of wood and....well even the finish.

I simply don't buy into the notion that if you want bright and punchy then you need this wood, but dark and moody is what you get with this wood. That's such a simplistic approach to describing the characteristics of what is going on as to be insulting and nothing more than just a bunch of marketing hype hoisted upon the ill informed.

I knew a lush that played ukulele. Must be a limerick in there somewhere.

Allen said:

I simply don't buy into the notion that if you want bright and punchy then you need this wood, but dark and moody is what you get with this wood. That's such a simplistic approach to describing the characteristics of what is going on as to be insulting and nothing more than just a bunch of marketing hype hoisted upon the ill informed.

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Allen, nicely said my friend! There's so much more to it. A myriad of factors, really. One thing I like to talk about is neck stiffness, and how that can also be part of the discussion of both volume and note separation. There are too many factors involved to say it's just the type of top material or bracing, or any one specific thing at all.

Neck stiffness is a huge factor in this.

I know that in my builds prior to using CF truss rods in every instrument, I might struggle to get good note separation and clarity up the fret board. Now I get clients comment that they've never had an instrument before that they could get a nice clean note up at the 17 - 18th fret on a uke.

Allen said:

Neck stiffness is a huge factor in this.

I know that in my builds prior to using CF truss rods in every instrument, I might struggle to get good note separation and clarity up the fret board. Now I get clients comment that they've never had an instrument before that they could get a nice clean note up at the 17 - 18th fret on a uke.

Click to expand...

Phew...I'm glad I'm not the only one who has noticed this. Me too! Ever since I started using the CF, all the notes on the fretboard seem to really pop more than before. It seems to eliminate dead spots, or at least notes that had less presence than the others...all the way up. I've often wondered if I was crazy to think this. Nice to know I'm not alone!

It's true of my builds as well.

Wow, I ended up at this thread in an extremely round about way. But anyways, I was wondering if any of you builders have a theory as to why the carbon fiber truss rod helps with note separation, volume and clarity?

It may be urban legend, but supposedly Jim Olson made a comment about laminated necks many years ago that he felt the stiffer neck resulted in less energy loss in the neck and more translated to the top. So adding more stiffness with CF can only increase that energy transference. I can only theorize, but a piece of wood that changes in dimension along the length will react differently to vibration along that length, which may account for and "dead" spots that might occur. The CF seems to homogenize the wood, and stiffen it at the same time. I have absolutely no science to back that up, so it's pure speculation on my part.