New LfdM tenors with a twist

DownUpDave

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Luis called me up to his place to look at the new batch of tenors he will be sending off to HMS shortly. He decided to eliminate his usual arm rest, cutaway and slotted headstock. These are upcharge options to his base price so these 4 tenors will be lower priced then his usual ones sold by Andrew at HMS. I have no idea what the difference is in price nor how much they will sell for. I spent two hours with all of these yesterday and there is NO difference in build quality or sound, they are all fantastic.

The four tenors are as follows

*Sinker Cedar and curly Myrtle, warm mellow tone
*Sinker Redwood and quilted Sapelle, stunning top and back woods, warmth with some sparkle.
*Engleman spruce and Paduk, very balanced tone
*Port Orford Cedar and Granadillo, loud and on the bright side


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Wow, I like that Myrtle one with the matching light-colored neck (Port Orford Cedar?).

I see Luis incorporated your bridge design on all four of these…!
 
Sides, notice all have the side sound port. Although Luis eliminated some other features he feels the side sound port is an important feature for sound quality

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Wow, I like that Myrtle one with the matching light-colored neck (Port Orford Cedar?).

I see Luis incorporated your bridge design on all four of these…!

I thought the necks were Port Orford cedar as well, the baritone he built for me has that. But these are Yellow Alaskan Cedar which is in the same family as Port Orford, a cypress and not a true cedar.

Yes I was pleased and humbled to see Luis did use the bridge design I came up with for my 19" tenor, he modified it a bit. He will be using it going forward on future ukuleles.
Luis new bridge on the left, first pic, mine on the right. He has rounded off the points.

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Very beautiful looking ukuleles. I do miss that signature slot mouth. Last time he sent some off to HMS I don’t think I saw them on their website. Maybe they had buyers already or just sold too fast?
 
Interesting, thanks for posting these Dave. Those are some nice looking ukes. I’ve always been interested in hearing how Paduk sounds. I hope that Andrew posts sound samples.
 
Interesting, thanks for posting these Dave. Those are some nice looking ukes. I’ve always been interested in hearing how Paduk sounds. I hope that Andrew posts sound samples.

Paduk is very much like rosewood in tone. This engleman and Paduk sounds similar to my sitka and Amazon rosewood. I owned a Kinnard spruce and Paduk at one time, not sure if you played that one or not.
 
Thanks Dave. I played one of your kinnard's, I can’t remember the tonewoods, it was very mellow sounding and sounded quite nice.
 
Gaw! :drool: Tough choice. I'd probably go with the redwood/sapele, y'know, if I won the lottery. :p
 
Is it my imagination, or are the sound holes larger than most?

Gorgeous looking with impeccable builds.
 
Is it my imagination, or are the sound holes larger than most?

Gorgeous looking with impeccable builds.

Good eye Ken. I have owned four other makes with a sound port and LfdM seem to have the largest. Actually the Blackbird Farallon is just about the same size come to think of it. If you ever drop your Oasis sound hole humidifer inside it's easy to fish out:p
 
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Dave, perhaps Kenn meant the actual sound hole on the front, not the side sound port? The new, round sound holes that Luis has used recently do look somewhat bigger to me than from other builders.
 
Dave, perhaps Kenn meant the actual sound hole on the front, not the side sound port? The new, round sound holes that Luis has used recently do look somewhat bigger to me than from other builders.

I believe you are right, it appears Ken did say "sound hole" and not sound port. Yes they are larger than anything else I own, but the body has more volume, wider in both upper and lower bout than all others.

Sound hole diameter" LfdM =2-3/4", Koolau =2-1/2", Webber, 2", Kimo 1-15/16"
 
Dave,
Thanks for posting. Always interested in LFDM. What kind of strings is Luis using now that Southcoast isn't a viable choice? And what is the width of the nut?
 
Dave,
Thanks for posting. Always interested in LFDM. What kind of strings is Luis using now that Southcoast isn't a viable choice? And what is the width of the nut?

Luis is now using Thomastik CF30 and CF27 for the wound 4th and 3rd, Oasis warms for 2nd and 1st. This is low G of course, his nut width is always 1-3/8" with a 16" radius on the fret board. He can do any custom dimensions a customer wants, with in reason of course.
 
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