Flame Maple and Sitka Spruce with Toredo holes

BR Ukuleles

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If you admire work by Bob Benedetto as I do, this one was inspired by an arch top he build several years ago. I fell in love with it.

I grew up on the west coast of Canada, Toredo worms (actually a mollusc) are so common as to be like fleas on a dog. Any and all wood that stays in the ocean for more than a month will be infested with them. Almost every piece of drift wood on the beach will look like Swiss Cheese.

So, with some Maple that I brought back from a trip to my home town last year, and some Sitka that Alaska Specialty Woods supplied, I built this one as a pure whimsy. Working out bracing and picking the appropriate book match was a bit of a challenge. As well I tried my hand at some Art Deco inspired inlay and a sound port that was a bit more than just a hole cut in the upper bout. I was hoping that it sounded like a uke, but to be honest this was really uncharted waters.

To my great delight it sounds fantastic, and only been strung up for 6 hours

Curly Maple and Sitka with Toredo's-1-2.jpgCurly Maple and Sitka with Toredo's-1.jpgCurly Maple and Sitka with Toredo's-2.jpgCurly Maple and Sitka with Toredo's-3.jpgCurly Maple and Sitka with Toredo's-4.jpg
 
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I can only assume that the statement 'living my dream' actually means what it says for you! It seems like you really do just build these beauties for the pure joy that comes from creating them.
 
If you continue building these consider doing inlays with a naval/whaling motif.
 
wow, that is some stunning work. what is (or would be) the sticker price on this one if you don't mind my asking?
 
That's a really cool looking top. I hope the worms were all gone before you cut the wood (eww!!)
 
I use to work in a pulp/paper mill when I was younger. Logs that were left in the ocean too long would be infested with them. That timber was made into newsprint rather than lumber. Some logs would be nothing more than cellulose sponge and the smell of those toredo's would take your breath away.
 
I use to work in a pulp/paper mill when I was younger. Logs that were left in the ocean too long would be infested with them. That timber was made into newsprint rather than lumber. Some logs would be nothing more than cellulose sponge and the smell of those toredo's would take your breath away.

There was a town in TX between Jasper and Beaumont that had a paper mill. The smell! It was somewhere between dead animal and rotten cabbage. It was so bad closing the car windows didn't do anything. One day stopped at a light I watched in amazement as people bought and ate hotdogs off a cart while breathing this foul air.

To hear that something in a paper mill stinks well... I guess you get used to anything. To think anything can be smelled over that scent ouch.

~AL~
 
Allen your instruments are beautiful. I was going to ask if the holes were toredo fabricated but I see from your website they are. Do they have bogs Down-Under? Bog woods can have very interesting characteristics, like a specific gravity greater than 1.0.
 
Never seen a bog in Australia. I live in the wettest part of the continent, and all we have is some rainforest and streams that turn into ragging rivers in the wet season. However Australia does have plenty of wood species that are far heavier than water and sink like a stone.
 
That's a gorgeous instrument!

Also, I just checked out the gallery at your site...WOW! That Blackheart Sassafras Concert looks absolutely amazing! :iwant:
 
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