Marblewood
A wood merchant tried to talk me out of buying some of this South American hardwood, said it wasn't very resonant and wouldn't make a good sounding instrument, but I bought some anyway. It was intriguing and very dense. Rare but not too expensive. Maybe the grain was a little coarse but I finally gave it a try. I'm going to have to call him back. This stuff is amazing. Resonant, easy to bend and uniquely beautiful. I wouldn't want to fill the pores and give it a high gloss finish, but I don't usually do that anyway. The tone is loud and clear. Maybe not as sensitive as some of my tenors but there are ample overtones.
They are supported by a Mendocino cypress top which is cousin to the more well known Monterrey cypress. It's surprisingly responsive up and down the fretboard and also has great headroom for strumming. I made a rosette with some wooden tiles from previous builds that I think enhance the beauty of this tenor.
I decided to use marblewood for the fretboard too since it has the density of some ebonies. I think it's too beautiful for fret markers so I only put some brass and aluminum dots on the side. There's a 16 to 20 inch radius for a uniform string path from the bone nut to the intonated bone saddle in the granadillo bridge. The frets are Evo Gold with rounded polished fret ends.
There's a reinforced side port, a clear pickguard to protect the softwood top, gold Gotoh strap buttons, a bolt on primavera neck and Gotoh UPTL 4:1 tuners with granadillo buttons. There's a urethane film finish to protect the top and the rest of the ukulele has a penetrating oil semigloss finish. it comes with a hard case for $4800. See it at The Ukulele Site. Out of stock
