TODAY I laid a strip of masking tape across the widest part of the bout and got out my 10 power hand lens. Under a bright light I counted ten growth rings and made a pencil mark on the tape, again and again until I had marked across the width of the tape. Mighty hard on the eyes, but i think I have an accurate count. Uke #39 has 405 growth rings, Uke #37 has 401. Whew, I do it with every cedar top uke and then put the number on the label inside. This is truly remarkable old growth cedar. Just think , it took over four hundred years to grow just 8.5 inches. the width of the uke. This cedar has 47 growth rings per inch. If the tree was four and a half feet thick that means it was 1,410 years old when it was cut 100 years ago. Just think, that wood is 1,500 years old and still sings, When you play an instrument made of wood like that you are hearing the music of the ancients. Who was the emperor in Rome when that tree was a seedling, Kind of takes my breath away.
