Interesting video

I am sorry I can't find the link but I was watching an ukulele "documentary" which had the guy from Martin explaining how they got back into the ukulele game and he was talking about way back when his family first started making them and how they tried a spruce top and it sounded all wrong, and then I thought "well I see spruce tops all the time they seem quiet popular" and I was wondering if anyone has a deeper knowledge of this they could share

-b

Some people really love spruce tops, no insight here.

Maybe he meant it sounded all wrong for a Martin uke?

I guess it depends on a lot of things: design, body cavity, bracing, strings and who's playing. And maybe the phase of the moon.

I like spruce for larger bodied-instruments, not sopranos. A bit brash for my ears. I have a lovely spruce-top tenor guitar.

But it's all personal. Anyway, I think I saw that video too, and it might have been on the Martin site. I'll search...

ichadwick said:

I guess it depends on a lot of things: design, body cavity, bracing, strings and who's playing. And maybe the phase of the moon.

I like spruce for larger bodied-instruments, not sopranos. A bit brash for my ears. I have a lovely spruce-top tenor guitar.

But it's all personal. Anyway, I think I saw that video too, and it might have been on the Martin site. I'll search...

Click to expand...

I was researching "ukulele documentaries" when I found it... spent my morning watching a few

As I recall, mostly from reading, when Martin started making ukuleles they basically just scaled down guitars, and were not satisfied that first year or so with the bracing - and, I would guess from the video you watched, the wood choices, which worked fine for guitars. FWIW, I have a Martin guitar with friction tuners.

I think some design changes and string choices today make a lot of woods potentially good choices, especially since we all seem to have a different idea of what is good. Like BBQ.