THE MAGIC MOMENT

IT IS ALWAYS AN EXCITING MOMENT when you finally get the strings on and hear an instrument that you have built for the first time.  Today I had the great pleasure of hearing my first tenor made with a Rocky Mountain Juniper soundboard.  I am thrilled, This is going to be a great instrument!.  I love that the Juniper worked, and that I rescued it from a rockslide on Orcas Island 35 years ago and sailed it home lashed to the deck of my sailboat, and that I have lots more of it, and that this juniper has 560 growth rings across the lower bout, the grain so tight I had to use a microscope to count them.
It sounds wonderful,  deep dark lows, brilliant highs, rich in the mid-range.  
I love the side port, it really sends the sound to the player.  I think I will never make another tenor without one.  
I love the fact that this uke is made entirely of wood that grew within fifty miles of my workshop with the exception of the binding.  Fiddleback maple, Walnut from an old tree on Dupont St., Pacific Yew from our forests, even the boxwood fret board dots from the old hedge on 16th st.
Wow! am I happy tonight, been playing it for three hours and hate to put it down.

And I love the looks of it.  I had planned on keeping it and now I am sure that I will, but this will not be the last of these "Natives" that I will build.  first I will play the dickens out of it to be sure that that Juniper has staying power and no problems.  I think I am on to something here. Maple and juniper. 


following is some of the days work to get to the magic moment

Scraping off the finish for the glue surface

That little green thing is a plastic straw cut at an angle.  Works great to scoop up  the glue that squeezes out around the edges of the bridge.