Bird's-eye
Years ago I had the good fortune to find a bird's-eye maple board that was large enough to use for most of the parts of a tenor ukulele. The eyes in this board are numerous and large. There is also a quilt-like figure that adds to the visual impact. I have only seen this type of figure in eastern hard maple though I suppose it exists to a lesser degree in some other maples as well as other wood species. I haven't found any definitive research about how the bird's-eye figure is created only lots of theories. For me the important thing about bird's-eye maple is that it's hard maple and the hard maple instruments I have made have all had robust tonal responses. So it seemed like the right time to try out this board even though I hadn't made any bird's-eye maple instruments before.
The results were much as I had expected. There is a lot of power and beauty in this wood. Along with the Engelmann spruce top the maple supports clear and even tones up and down the fretboard. The note to note separation makes it a joy for fingerstyle players. Fundamentals are pronounced considering the complex overtones and ample sustain. And the response doesn't deteriorate with aggressive strumming. It's right up there with any hard maple instrument I have made.
The finish for the top is a thin film polyurethane to protect the softer Engelmann. The top also has a clear pickguard. The nut and intonated saddle are unbleached bone.
Fret markers on the side and top of the fretboard are brass and aluminum. The strap buttons are gold finished. The one on the neck heel is part of the bolt on neck attachment so it should never be loosened while the instrument is under tension. The frets with polished rounded ends are Stewart MacDonald gold colored alloy.
Tuners are the popular Gotoh UPTL in gold finish. The PHD strings are a proprietary high density polymer for power and feel. The fourth string is a Pepe Romero smooth wound low G. This Ken Franklin Bird's-eye Tenor comes with a protective wooden case. $5200
I was able to use this maple for the back and sides, the headplate and backplate, the bindings, neck, bridge, fingerboard, rosette and custom tuner buttons. The bird's-eye figure shows up best on flat-sawn wood. If the wood has vertical grain you won't see that figure. Instead you see long streaks meaning that the eyes aren't spheres like eyeballs but rather cylinders. This is evident on the back of the neck. The strongest orientation for a neck is with quarter-sawn, vertical-grained wood so the back of the neck looks different than the rest of the instrument even though it's from the same board. I finished the bird's-eye maple with a penetrating oil based urethane and even used it on the fingerboard to help maintain the color over time. I chose a darker section of the board for the fingerboard to contrast with the other maple.
I mentioned that I used Engelmann spruce for the top and I also used it for the braces. The only other woods I used were ash for the blocking, bigleaf maple for the linings and cherry for the purflings.
