Which tonewood do you like. Hawaiian Koa, Curly hawaiian Mango, Ziricote, pheaseant

tangimango

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 26, 2013
Messages
811
Reaction score
1
Location
Honolulu/Hawaii
i personally like the sound and look of hawaiian Curly mango.
but man pheasant wood looks really really nice too.
my friend will order a custom ukulele soon and that was his choices.

just curious what others thought of these tonewoods.
 
Last edited:
I really like the look of natural curly maple, it's supposed to match sound very well with Indian rosewood, I have a custom with those woods coming this week.

BWA gypsy done 5.jpg
 
i personally like the sound and look of hawaiian Curly mango.
but man pheasant wood looks really really nice too.
my friend will order a custom ukulele soon and that was his choices.

just curious what others thought of these tonewoods.

What does your friend's luthier recommend ?
 
Mya Moe is building a tenor resonator out of quilted maple for me. Lil Rev has one that is a stunner.
I like koa, i have 3 Kamakas. I also like tasmanian blackwod.
The Blackwood makes exceptional tone in the hands of a skilled luthier.
 
Last edited:
I'm traditional, Koa or Mahogany...
 
I have acacia, cedar/rosewood and quarter sawn mahogany. I love all three of them and for different reasons, as each instrument has it's own unique sound. For pure sound satisfaction, I'd say my choice would be the cedar/rosewood.
 
Each of the tonewoods you like have a beauty of their own and also impart a different colour to the tone of the instrument. But this is very luthier dependent- what 1 builder achieves with one tonewood, another may not. Best is to discuss with your builder!
 
My favorite has long been Ligna mane...aka Morning wood. It's getting more and more rare, but I found some last week.
 
My favorite has long been Ligna mane...aka Morning wood. It's getting more and more rare, but I found some last week.

:rofl:

Looks wise I love spalted maple, but I haven't tried nearly enough ukes (especially solid ones) to tell you what sound I like yet.
 
My favorite has long been Ligna mane...aka Morning wood. It's getting more and more rare, but I found some last week.



Haha...good one Rick....i think....:)
 
Mya Moe is building a tenor resonator out of curly maple for me. Lil Rev has one that is a stunner.
I like koa, i have 3 Kamakas. I also like tasmanian blackwod.
The Blackwood makes exceptional tone in the hands of a skilled luthier.

My experience with reso guitars leads me to believe that wood choice for a reso is more esthetic than tone affecting. Both spider and biscuit cones pretty much dictate the tonal quality of a reso. In fact, both my production 6 string square neck spider cone as well as my pricey custom 8 string square neck spider were built with laminates. Now that I think about it, my National Estralita biscuit cone is also laminate.

Not to suggest that you will not end up with a beautiful and great sounding reso, just that the wood won't be the primary determinant of the sound.
 
Last edited:
My experience with reso guitars leads me to believe that wood choice for a reso is more esthetic than tone affecting. Both spider and biscuit cones pretty much dictate the tonal quality of a reso. In fact, both my production 6 string square neck spider cone as well as my pricey custom 8 string square neck spider were built with laminates. Now that I think about it, my National Estralita biscuit cone is also laminate.

Not to suggest that you will not end up with a beautiful and great sounding reso, just that the wood won't be the primary determinant of the sound.

I agree. But that maple is beautiful. I mistyped yesterday, it is actually quilted maple. My other resonator is a big rusty that looks like it was hand hacked out of home depot plywood. It sounds great and always draws attention when I take it out in public.
 
I agree. But that maple is beautiful. I mistyped yesterday, it is actually quilted maple. My other resonator is a big rusty that looks like it was hand hacked out of home depot plywood. It sounds great and always draws attention when I take it out in public.

Yup. Both quilted and Birdseye maple are among the most stunning woods to grace stringed instruments. I owned a Birdseye Tacoma mandolin for nearly 10 years and then the finish began to fail. Tacoma had, at that time, just been bought out by Fender who put the brand on the shelf. Fender agreed to honor Tacoma's lifetime warranty, but after having my instrument in their TN custom repair shop for nearly 5 months, decided to restructure and closed the shop. Since they had no mandolins in the price range of my Tacoma and were now unable to refinish mine, we negotiated and they sent me a new $1,200 Princeton tube amp in trade. Not as pretty as my maple Tacoma, but sometimes you gotta change with the times.
 
I'm a big fan of koa but coming a close second, for me, is mango....delicious sounds for my ears!
 
Tenor - rosewood and spruce
Concert and soprano - rosewood and cedar

I like the more complex guitar sound from these woods than the traditional koa ukes i have played. YMMV
 
I really like the look and tone of pheasantwood. I recently sold my Kepasa pheasantwood tenor here on UU...that was the hardest sell I ever had to make, as it was my best sounding uke.


It's been so long, I forgot what morning wood looks like...:eek:
 
Last edited:
My favorite has long been Ligna mane...aka Morning wood. It's getting more and more rare, but I found some last week.

I'm guessing that Ligna Mane has less movement than most other woods and thus an easier build, Rick?

I once asked a luthier for a ukulele made from Ligna Noche, or Nightwood, but when I showed him my curly wood set, he said it would be too floppy for a solid build. He said he would have to add extra bracing and animal glue it directly to my topwood; I informed him that I was raised in a God-loving home and the mere mention of his unorthodox bracing made me sick, thank you. He went on to say that, since I stored my wood in a very humid environment, it would likely shrink once built. He taught me that shrinkage might adversely affect playability, and we certainly want to avoid that. He said my set seemed small to him, perhaps he could manage a sopranino from it; I told him that I always thought of it as a tenor set, if not a small baritone. He laughed. In any event, he recommended that I air it out for a while, let it breathe, which I did since he's the expert. If that'll stiffen it up and avoid bellying, I'm all for it.

In the meantime, I begged him for anything that might work right away with my low G string. I was desperate for something with a tight waist and perhaps a side sound hole. I hate conflict, so I asked for a zero-fret model and to avoid friction pegs.

He told me he could do all that, but that I should go with Bubinga. I asked him why, and he said that it's because he likes to say Bubinga. Boob-ing-a. He gave me a little pronounciation lesson and insisted that I hold my mouth a certain way when I said it. He assured me that it would have a sweet voice, a thin neck, would play fast and loose, and that I'd want to strum it all day and night. The luthier said that he does a light application of Tru-oil on the body, but his signature piece-de-resistance is a French polish for the headstock. That sounded irresistible! He said I'd fall in love with it once it opened up and I put a strap on it.

He cautioned that it would cost a lot of dough, so I asked that he include a genuine fur-lined case. He declined, saying that foam-lined is nearly as real, plenty adequate, and gives almost the same feel.

Almost the same feel! I said to him: "What are you? Some kind of pervert?"
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom