Okay, little story -- this summer at a family picnic, at a cabin in a very small town in the Midwest...
Cabin was built of found and cheaply acquired lumber. Much of it (timbers/siding/flooring/paneling) was milled and dried on site. I was kicking around some of the still unused logs, and spotted some cedar. http://www.borealforest.org/trees/tree14.htm Uncle Rick was kind enough to offer me a chunk to take home. This is the top wood.
Found some really nice looking oak and decided to have a go with it, and the cedar.
This seems to be the best sounding ukulele I've made so far. Great tone - rich, bright, clear, sustain, harmonics, sweetness. Hard to put down.
Some things I learned:
Cedar can work really well for a ukulele. Even this very soft version, of which I had some doubts.
Oak is an excellent tonewood. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.
X bracing works very well in a ukulele, even in as small as a concert size. I will surely experiment more with X bracing. This ukulele sings.
And some pics:
Cabin was built of found and cheaply acquired lumber. Much of it (timbers/siding/flooring/paneling) was milled and dried on site. I was kicking around some of the still unused logs, and spotted some cedar. http://www.borealforest.org/trees/tree14.htm Uncle Rick was kind enough to offer me a chunk to take home. This is the top wood.
Found some really nice looking oak and decided to have a go with it, and the cedar.
This seems to be the best sounding ukulele I've made so far. Great tone - rich, bright, clear, sustain, harmonics, sweetness. Hard to put down.
Some things I learned:
Cedar can work really well for a ukulele. Even this very soft version, of which I had some doubts.
Oak is an excellent tonewood. I wouldn't hesitate to use it again.
X bracing works very well in a ukulele, even in as small as a concert size. I will surely experiment more with X bracing. This ukulele sings.
And some pics: