In the future...

Apparently there is an old wives' tale that oak 'absorbs the sound' and therefore won't be resonant.
Stupid. But relaying stuff like that lets people feel smart, and so it keeps going around.
 
Oh gosh! PETE! Are you forgetting that when I came to you asking to commission a uke built of all UK woods in 2011, you said No?

I had to go to 2 other builders - one in Sweden/Sven and one in the UK/Rob and I ended up getting ukes from each.

I think you are right that wood choice is changing but there are European builders who've been using alternatives for the last 5-10 years.

I like the way they're also all helping each other.
:)

I think the future is varied and hopeful. :)
mx

As it becomes more apparent that the use of tropical hardwoods for musical instruments is unsustainable, the use of our local woods will be more frequently seen. Start making a stock of them now before they get priced out of the market. Walnut is a good place to start and here's why:

 
Does walnut work well for complete instrument bodies, or is it better to pair with a different wood for the soundboard?
 
I don't remember Mary. Some of the first Pete Howlett named ukes back in 1995 were walnut and yew... Besides, things have changed so much. I'd still be building mainly koa instruments if the market wasn't so strangulated by CITES and greed.
 
Does walnut work well for complete instrument bodies, or is it better to pair with a different wood for the soundboard?

In the very distant past I made a couple of all walnut dulcimers and the instruments were not a great success. The sound was a bit tight and constrained and frankly disappointing. This might have had nothing to do with the wood but how I built the instruments. Still, if I was going to use walnut (and I love walnut), I would use a different wood for the soundboard. Walnut makes a great back and side set but maybe not so much as a soundboard. It seemed to lack pop and projection and like I said, it was dark and tight sounding. Doesn't mean it wouldn't work but that in my hands it did not. If I built such a beast today, I would use a spruce soundboard or something a bit more responsive.
 
When I read threads like this I think of the poor Portuguese immigrants in old Hawaii cutting cane, dreaming of home. They think a bit of music from home would be nice. They scrape together some local wood and cobble together a pale imitation of a cavaquinho. It sounds OK. Not like the ones from home, but OK.
The locals pick them up. They don't know what a real cavaquinho sounds like. The music grows to the new sound.
New experts arise.
New truths are established.
No doubt new woods will be found. Old woods will continue to used.
 
Does walnut work well for complete instrument bodies, or is it better to pair with a different wood for the soundboard?

I use walnut a lot but only for back/sides of instruments.
Let's bring a bit of numbers into the game. average density of Koa is near 0.58 Kg/M3. Average weight of walnut is . . . . near 0.58 Kg/M3. Given that there are variations in the properties of koa and variations in the properties of walnut there's absolutely no reason why walnut should not sound as good as koa. Unless you know the particular property of walnut that doesn't make it sound good? People go by the name of the wood far too readily and yet they seem totally oblivious to the fact that any wood type has a fairly wide variation in density and variations in other properties. You end up with silly generalisations that are near meaningless. It's very much like the spruce v cedar debate. It's a generalisation, especially when I have examples of spruce that feel and weigh very much like some cedar. Generalisations don't work for individual pieces of wood though.
 
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The last two posts were very well put. But please keep quiet about local woods.... I rather all the trees in a far off tropical island were all used up instead of in my back yard
:)
 
Oh gosh! PETE! Are you forgetting that when I came to you asking to commission a uke built of all UK woods in 2011, you said No?

I had to go to 2 other builders - one in Sweden/Sven and one in the UK/Rob and I ended up getting ukes from each.

I think you are right that wood choice is changing but there are European builders who've been using alternatives for the last 5-10 years.

I like the way they're also all helping each other.
:)

I think the future is varied and hopeful. :)
mx

My guess is that over the years Pete has built many Ukes in many different materials, and that his use of alternative materials and body shapes has evolved during that time as his confidence, capability and experience increased. If your aim is to build the best instrument possible for a commissioning customer then surely you will restrict yourself to the materials and methods that you, at that point in time, have confidence in - a safe and perfectly practical course of action. Of course a Luthier might specutively build other Ukes as experiments to offer for sale or scrap dependant on the quality of the build or outcome.

That Pete is now saying something different to the past suggests to me that he’s ‘big enough’ to change his mind and that he now has the additional information to justify it. Surely that can but be applauded.
 
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thanks for mansplaining.
good to know i can always count on this forum on UU for that!

:)

My guess is that over the years Pete has built many Ukes in many different materials, and that his use of alternative materials and body shapes has evolved during that time as his confidence, capability and experience increased. If your aim is to build the best instrument possible for a commissioning customer then surely you will restrict yourself to the materials and methods that you, at that point in time, have confidence in - a safe and perfectly practical course of action. Of course a Luthier might specutively build other Ukes as experiments to offer for sale or scrap dependant on the quality of the build or outcome.

That Pete is now saying something different to the past suggests to me that he’s ‘big enough’ to change his mind and that he now has the additional information to justify it. Surely that can but be applauded.
 
I haven't seen any use of persimmon for fret boards or bridges. My father had a set of 1 - 4 drivers in his golf bag with persimmon heads. It is certainly dense enough.
 
I haven't seen any use of persimmon for fret boards or bridges. My father had a set of 1 - 4 drivers in his golf bag with persimmon heads. It is certainly dense enough.

Yes, persimmon could be the ultimate fretboard material. Hard as hell. Tough on tools I'm led to believe. Janka hardness (2,400) less than ebony or rosewood surprisingly. The most alarming aspect though is its purported characteristic of drastic shrinkage. Drastic shinkage of a fretboard might be problematic. Hello protruding fret edges! Well seasoned I suppose could counteract this effect. Below a quote from the Wood Database:

Persimmon wood is heavy, hard, and strong for a temperate species. It has excellent shock and wear resistance, but has a very high shrinkage rate, and may experience significant movement in service.
 
Persimmon wood is heavy, hard, and strong for a temperate species. It has excellent shock and wear resistance, but has a very high shrinkage rate, and may experience significant movement in service.
I guess I have to store some billets for 5 years or find an aged stash.
 
I haven't seen any use of persimmon for fret boards or bridges. My father had a set of 1 - 4 drivers in his golf bag with persimmon heads. It is certainly dense enough.

My Pisgah Banjo has a persimmon fingerboard and tone ring. Great stuff.
 
My last two tenors were Black Walnut and Spruce (Sitka) and I plan on doing Black Walnut & Engelmann soon.....I absolutely love the combo as the sound is very full and rich, highly recommended...and they are locals that were sustainably harvested (the black walnut not sitka).
Funny thing is that this is locally harvested wood (New Mexico) and the grain pattern in these particular boards are strikingly similar to your OM...I did not get pictures of the other but this one is close as well....IMG_0065.jpgIMG_0062.jpg
 
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My last two tenors were Black Walnut and Spruce (Sitka) and I plan on doing Black Walnut & Engelmann soon.....I absolutely love the combo as the sound is very full and rich, highly recommended...and they are locals that were sustainably harvested (the black walnut not sitka).
Funny thing is that this is locally harvested wood (New Mexico) and the grain pattern in these particular boards are strikingly similar to your OM...I did not get pictures of the other but this one is close as well....View attachment 105454View attachment 105455

Nice looking uke. I especially like the end graft. Very different and well done. Any pictures of the top?
 
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