New Ono Walnut Concert

saltytri

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This one is about to leave for its new home. The body is claro walnut with bloodwood bindings. The neck is Honduras mahogany. The cantilevered fret board and the bridge are Macassar ebony. A 16" scale gives a nice tone and bit more finger room than the standard concert scale. The portion of the fret board that overlaps the top is reinforced with carbon fiber to minimize flex. There is also carbon fiber in the neck. The owner chose Gotoh UPTL tuners, which I have come to like a great deal. It's strung with Southcoast Light Mediums, which have a nice sound with good note separation.







 
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Oh my! That is gorgeous. cantilevered fret board. Sound port. What more could you possibly add? I think Moore Bettah style inlays are the only thing left. Seriously this looks incredible. Best looking ukes around imho.

I am curious, do you ever do bound fretboards?
 
That is lovely walnut. Nice work.
 
Gorgeous claro walnut and the bloodwood binding works so well with it. My, my, my . . .
 
Wow that is gorgeous! Love the binding.
 
Beautiful! That is some curly Claro. Congrats to its new owner.
 
Awesome walnut, David. Your ukes are stunning to look at, and I am sure they sound great as well. The bling is in the figure and the combination of the woods that you use. Just very classy looking. I like that.
 
This is the first I've seen of your work (newbie here) and I'm really drooling. This has a modern yet timeless feel to it. I'll be sure to check out more...
 
Absolutely beautiful! I'm a big fan of the 16 inch scale, I have a Newton with it.
Any chance of a sound sample before you send it off to its new owner?
 
Beautiful wood! Amazing work! Really want to hear how this one sounds.
 
Gorgeous claro walnut and the bloodwood binding works so well with it. My, my, my . . .

I wasn't initially convinced about the bloodwood. I've seen so much that is bright lipstick red (not my taste). Once David showed me the combo he was suggesting I went with it. Absolutely love the rosette!
 
I agree, that tone with the walnut works superrbly well together. I think the rosette is quite lovely. Beautiful work, thanks for showing this.

I wasn't initially convinced about the bloodwood. I've seen so much that is bright lipstick red (not my taste). Once David showed me the combo he was suggesting I went with it. Absolutely love the rosette!
 
This is the first I've seen of your work (newbie here) and I'm really drooling. This has a modern yet timeless feel to it. I'll be sure to check out more...

This is the thread that hooked me and a few others reeled me in to get an Ono.

There are some wonderful build threads posted by David:

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?86421-New-Ono-Tenor&p=1393452#post1393452

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?89334-Ono-Baritone-Build-Thread

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?83433-Ono-Myrtle-Concert

http://forum.ukuleleunderground.com/showthread.php?75083-The-Cherry-Bari&highlight=Cherry+Bari
 
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Beautiful uke. What is your reason for using a cantilevered fret board?

The theory is that, since there is so little real estate on a uke top, it might pay to allow more of it to vibrate. This controversial and, like so many things about instrument building, isn't going to be proven one way or the other because there are so many other variables that can't be controlled. We do know that improvements in tone come in very small increments when moving from a good instrument to a better instrument. There is respectable precedent for floating boards in both the guitar world and the uke world. For the latter, look at Rick Turner's Compass Rose designs.
 
I agree and so do I! I was quite happy David was game for doing the sound port. :)

I'm pleased with the sound port. The improvement of sound to the player is very noticeable when the port is covered with tape and then uncovered.
 
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