I WAS ALL OUT OF SPRUCE BRACING MATERIAL and besides I was itching to show the boys at Pacific Rim my new two string bass that they provided the wood for. I took a drive up the beautiful Skagit Valley to their factory near concrete and cherry picked the most beautiful tight grained brace material you can imagine from this pile of riches. Got enough bracing for the next fifty instruments now.
I snuck a couple of pictures of this incredible operation for you. How is this for a band saw?
And look at the blades, sharpened and waiting to be changed into the saws. Sure makes my puny little band saw look sad.
Back at my humble workshop I am starting a new build of three tenors. one of them will have a back of this unusual maple,tiger stripe maple sides and a fine grained Juniper top. Probably a walnut neck and Pacific Yew fretboard. This Ukulele will have back and sides of some very nice E. Indian Rosewood, a top of Redwood and probably a mahogany neck. Not sure about the fretboard yet but probably ebony. | Here is the Juniper top for the maple uke just described. I am curious to see if it will sound as good as the first Juniper instrument I recently made. I love the color, the tight grain and the uniqueness of the wood. Here is the juniper top for the third instrument. It will have Cumuru back and sides and maybe an Alaska Cedar (yellow cedar) neck. Kind of a special gift uke made with the decking scraps from my daughter's new summer home, and a stub of a Juniper limb cut on their property. An Island Ukulele. |
So I am onto another build. It always seems to happen that just as I get well into the French Polish phase of the previous build I get the itch to start another. The four concerts will be ready to string up and sell in another ten days and by that time I should be well into these three tenors.