The wood used in this concert ukulele came from multiple sources. The top board is a creamy Alaskan yellow cedar from my uncle, Gerry VanNess, as is the ebony used for the saddle and nut. Black walnut appears in multiple places (back & sides, soundhole rosette, fretboard, face plate, binding, neck, and strap buttons) and is from my favorite local source, Omaha Wood Co. (https://www.facebook.com/omahawoodco/). The wenge bridge also came from the Omaha Wood Co. For better contrast, I ebonized the black walnut binding around the body and on the fretboard. The Douglas fir (tentative ID) in the neck came from my in-laws house in Kailua, HI. Wenge in the face plate, tail stripe, and fretboard inlay is from a local woodworker’s shop.
For a variety of reasons, I’ve started making string-through bridges, rather than tie-bar bridges. A tie-bar bridge is just that: the string is tied to the bridge. A string-through bridge, on the other hand, passes the string through the bridge into the interior of the ukulele. I slip a small glass bead on the string and then tie a knot in the string. When under tension, the glass bead is snugged firmly against the top board (or, more accurately, against a bridge plate glued to the underside of the top board).
The ukulele is numbered 2411-11 on the label.
The components are:
Alaskan yellow cedar top (2-piece)
Black walnut back (2-piece)
Black walnut sides (2-piece)
Black walnut body binding (ebonized)
Douglas fir and black walnut neck
Black walnut and wenge face plate
Black walnut fretboard with wenge inlay separating the fret markers (5th, 7th, 10th, 12th, and 15th frets)
Black walnut fretboard binding with unspecified softwood fret dots
Wenge bridge with Alaskan yellow cedar inlay
Ebony nut and saddle (compensated)
Wenge tail stripe
Wenge heel cap
Black walnut sound hole rosette
Black walnut strap buttons
Alaskan yellow cedar dust and epoxy headstock logo
Graphtec tune-a-lele tuners
Uke-logic fluorocarbon strings (soft tension, high G, “Sandia” pink carbon)
Tru-Oil finish
Weight: 16.8 oz. (477 g) (with strap buttons)
Nut width: 38 mm
String spacing G to A: 30 mm
Sound sample of the intro & outro to Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s version of Over the Rainbow and Aloha ‘Oe (Queen Lili’uokalani)
