Your Favorite Ukulele Woods Not Koa, Mahogany, Spruce or Cedar?

I'm thinking about my next uke and I realized that all my ukes that are made of wood are made (at least partly) of Koa, Mahogany, Spruce, or Cedar. So, I'm asking everyone, what is your favorite sounding uke costing less than $1,000 that is all wood and does not use one of these woods either for the top and/or back and sides?

To help keep my question on topic, I realize:

• Your opinion is totally subjective and that there is no such thing as "everything else being equal."
• What someone who strums and hums likes may be different than someone who finger-picks and never sings.
• Some builders could take my old shoes and make a great sounding uke (only a slight exaggeration).

Mango comes to mind? How about a nice Mango Pono or something?

Or how about one of those Koaloha "half n half" ukes
https://theukulelesite.com/shop-by/hawaiian-made-ukulele/koaloha-ksnp-00-naupaka-soprano-main.html

If I had my pick I'd go for walnut, heard a guitar with claro walnut top and it sounded fantastic. One of my guitars has a walnut neck and fretboard and it is my favourite. Also walnut can be found locally in the northern hemisphere so there is less of a burden on tropical deforestation.

The builder matters more than the wood. That said, solid maple ukuleles can be surprisingly sweet (not very loud) and sound like sweet butter..

Mango, hands down. I *love* the sound of mango.

With the price constraint, I suggest looking at the Rebel Double Creme mango models. I know Mim has them (although she labels them as "Double Creme Brulee", but I am pretty sure that Rebel just calls them Double Creme) and I think The Ukulele Site also carries them.

I have a concert one (from Mim) that is just delightful. As much as I love it, I may part ways with it soon, as I also have a KoAloha concert mango, and I don't really think I need both. You may recall that Rebel makes the KoAloha Opio line, so the sounds of the two is quite similar. To me, it is kind of a toss-up between the two on which sounds better, although the KoAloha mangos are above your price constraint.

My experience with different woods is a bit limited, but so far I like abs...
anything but spruce.

I would add acacia and rosewood to that list, although the latter is almost exclusively paired with either cedar or spruce anyway. Acacia is fairly similar to koa in terms of looks and sound so I would guess you don't want to consider that.

Mango would probably be the next most popular wood choice. Some very nice mango ukes are made by Pono and Rebel at your price range, as already mentioned. Then again, I don't think they're necessarily that different sounding compared to koa or mahogany, for instance.

Aside from the aforementioned woods, I have two ukes made out of different woods. One is a Cocobolo concert, very pretty and certainly sounds different than most other ukes. I don't know if it's the higher density of cocobolo or something else that makes these ukes sound like they do but the tone is very balanced, maybe slightly leaning to the warmer side, but it's still not muddy. Very peculiar in my opinion, and I like it quite a bit. The other is my custom soprano made out of alder. That's probably something that not many brands or luthiers offer, but then again the sound is fairly similar to mahogany or koa, at least with a soprano body.

Other noteworthy woods might be walnut, as already mentioned, maple, cherry, or maybe a redwood top with some more conventional back and sides. I couldn't point you to a specific manufacturer for those however. Maybe it would be easiest to contact some luthier and ask for opinions.

I'll give you one very specific example of a uke made out of non-conventional woods, the Maestro Guitars all Padauk ukulele: https://www.maestroguitars.com/the_product/ut-pacsbp/
Maestro supposedly make really nice ukes, although I haven't tried them myself. I also don't know if they have a distributor in the US in case you live there.

Sycamore for me. Especially the ones made by Brian Griffin

Myrtle is a lovely wood. Brighter than mahogany. Works well as a solid build.

I have a solid Myrtle tenor made by Mike Pereira that is terrific.* I play it a lot.



And a Kala Elite Custom Spruce/Myrtle tenor that is very nice.

Check out MyaMoe's website. It has good information about various woods and how they fall on the bright to warm scale. It's very general and there are always exceptions.

Sinker Redwood, and others, has had some of the wood replaced by minerals. So it can vary considerably. Don't forget torrefied woods. Some makers and players swear by it.

*Not sure why I can't delete the photo of the four MP ukuleles. I changed my mind and cropped the photo to show just the Myrtle one.

My favorite ukulele is made of London plane which I understand to be in the same genus as sycamore. The last ukulele that I will ever bespeak is going to be a 100% North American build. I haven't settled on my woods, but I think if I had to commit right now I would say it will be myrtle. However obscurity is purity, and if my luthier could suggest something really special, I would completely go for that.

Spalted of any kind. I have a spalted mango with flame mango made for me by Bruce Wei Arts in Vietnam, very nice out of the ordinary design.

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This is Michael Kohan in Los Angeles, Beverly Grove near the Beverly Center
8 tenor cutaway ukes, 4 acoustic bass ukes, 10 solid body bass ukes, 14 mini electric bass guitars (Total: 36)

Donate to The Ukulele Kids Club, they provide ukuleles to children in hospital music therapy programs. www.theukc.org
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Cherry. I had a Pete Howlett cherry tenor... amazing except I can’t play tenor scale anymore. Bonanza long neck concert cherry, too. Same issue. Sold both

I second Myrtle, it is an underrated tone wood in my opinion, both in looks and in tonal properties. Some other choices that can work well, western hemlock, Douglas fir, alder, pine, poplar, birch, narra, mauri (both ancient and modern), and aromatic cedar.

I had a Mya Moe all sycamore that sounded excellent. I have a myrtle tenor and a super soprano in walnut, both sound great.

Pono made a spruce/mahogany tenor that still haunts my dreams. What an amazing ukulele.

My favorite so far is walnut. But, if UAS stirs up again, who knows. LOL.

BuzzBD said:

I second Myrtle, it is an underrated tone wood in my opinion, both in looks and in tonal properties. Some other choices that can work well, western hemlock, Douglas fir, alder, pine, poplar, birch, narra, mauri (both ancient and modern), and aromatic cedar.

Click to expand...

Gee...Wonder what a Martin 3 style would look like in Mrytle?

I had a rosewood with cedar top, it was a great sounding uke . Unfortunately the top cracked and the builder replaced the uke

It's definitely Mango for me! I have several Mango Ukes, and they all please me greatly. I second the Cedar with Rosewood mentioned above. That is a lovely combination.

Love the rounded tone of mahogany, sometimes the brightness of spruce, & the subtle tones of cedar, but my best uke is solid acacia.

Tenor necked concert solid acacia KoAloha Opio.

(I also have a Kala solid acacia concert.)