I just posted a photo of a tenor I'm almost done with in the shed thread and it got me thinking about starting a new thread about building with local species. I appreciate the traditional ukulele wood choices and I love exotic lumber as much as anyone, but the more I build the more I find my own personal interest tending towards using wood that's local to me. I guess I just get a level of comfort knowing I can see trees of these species out my own back door.
The tenor I posted in the other thread is walnut and adk spruce with a hard maple neck that has some cherry and walnut laminations. Maple fingerboard and bridge. I find this to be a good middle of the road slightly bright but not too piercingly bright tone combo. I'd like to try an all cherry body, or cherry with cedar top, to have an option with more warmth. And I have a big log of crab apple drying which I want to try as well once it's dry in a few years. No idea what that will sound like. I have ash, beech, aspen, and oak trees on my property too but none cut yet. Lots of choices, I could probably build for the rest of my life and not try them all.
Is anyone else focusing on local species?
The tenor I posted in the other thread is walnut and adk spruce with a hard maple neck that has some cherry and walnut laminations. Maple fingerboard and bridge. I find this to be a good middle of the road slightly bright but not too piercingly bright tone combo. I'd like to try an all cherry body, or cherry with cedar top, to have an option with more warmth. And I have a big log of crab apple drying which I want to try as well once it's dry in a few years. No idea what that will sound like. I have ash, beech, aspen, and oak trees on my property too but none cut yet. Lots of choices, I could probably build for the rest of my life and not try them all.
Is anyone else focusing on local species?