DewGuitars
Well-known member
Please choose! Multiple choices allowed.
Please choose! Multiple choices allowed.
it has to depend on what the choice for the back and sides is.
Do tell...
The point of this is to hear suggestions and preferences.
Thanks!
For instance, some woods go together visually and some don't. Some colurs jar a little bit.
More importantly though, some wood combinations seem to work tonally better than others. I have never seen or played uke with a mahogany top and maple back and sides. There is probably good reason fro this: it could look horrible and maybe not sound so good either.
In my opinion (others may disagree), a spruce top really works well with koa or maple back and sides. A cedar or redwood top seems to work well with mahogany, myrtle or rosewood back and sides. Solid koa or solid mahogany are classic.
Just a few ideas.
Here's a mahogany/maple combo for ya: http://www.boatpaddleukuleles.com/forsale.html
I always thought it was a little bit whacky, but Boatpaddles of all sorts certainly seem to get positive reviews.
For top wood on tenor, I like cedar. My understanding, though, is that softwoods don't typically produce the best sounds on smaller ukes. All my sopranos have been all mahogany or just laminates so I can say from personal experience.
Thanks all for your input. I actually have a few sets of wildly curly redwood that would look stunning against any of the back choices listed in the poll #1 for the back and side set. It would look pretty awesome with Koa as well. If anyone thinks that would be an attractive choice, please post here to let me know.
I'll be keeping these polls open for another week or so (I set it for 10 days) to get help me make some final decisions on the ukulele to travel across the planet for reviews.
Structural, some curly redwood can be problematic on an uke when it is sanded to the thickness required. Remember, the curl you see in wood is actually portions of end grain. (Think of curly grain as looking like a sound wave.) In one extreme case of failure that I've personally seen, the top failed when the bridge broke away, taking a large portion of the sound board with it. Choose your wood carefully, as I'm sure you would (or wood!)
Any curly wood can be problematic for steel string tops. I once had a blinged out 30's Martin guitar made of very curly Koa come into to my shop for some "adjustment" as they put it. The top was so far gone, I could serve soup from the dip in from of the bridge. It measured a good 3/4" in depth. The bridge was a whole !/8" tall with no saddle and the action was 1/2" above the 12th fret. I though I might have been able to re-brace the top but after looking inside, someone had already done it, very poorly. After quoting them a price for the repairs, they said thanks very much and walked out the door. I have to say, I was glad, what a nightmare. I know this is blasphemy, but I am beginning to hate the look of curly Koa. I like Koa, but the curly stuff is the sh--s. There, I said it!