"Sea Glass" Ambrosia Maple and Denim Spruce Tenor
Currently for Sale at Island Bazaar in Huntington Beach, CA
Sold
Click on pictures to enlarge.
My wife calls this ukulele "Sea Glass" because the ambrosia markings remind her of the worn down glass pieces she would find on the beach as a child.
The spruce on this top is from a log used to float a house boat on a remote Alaskan Lake for several decades. The grayish tan color with the orange band is a result of minerals from the water and iron nails and straps used to fasten the logs seeping into the wood over time. The result is a top that has the character of spruce with the added ability to be pushed hard without losing its tone.
The fingerboard and binding for this uke are Royal BlackwoodTM. Royal Blackwood is actually Purple Heart that has been treated to be black all the way through. Truly black ebony is hard to find these days and Royal Blackwood is just are hard and bends easier. The bridge is Gaboon ebony.
The rosette and binding are Paua abalone.
Strings are Pepe Romero Low G with custom fluorocarbon for the C, E, and A strings.
The back and sides sides are a nice set of curly ambrosia maple. The ambrosia effect is caused by beetles that bore into the wood that carry the ambrosia fungus. The fungus causes the blue/teal colored streaks.
The neck is curly maple reinforced with a carbon rod.
The tuners are black Gotoh planetary tuners.
The headstock is curly maple.
(note: I normally don't cut the strings to length until the uke is ready to leave my shop.)
The accent woods are California buckeye burl. Builders are starting to use this wood (after it's stabilized) for electric guitar bodies.
I liked it because the slight bluish green color matched with the ambrosia streaks.
This is Chad doing a sound sample. We used a cell phone and it is not the best.
There was actually a lady and her husband sitting in the back of the store waiting for a ukulele group to start.
After hearing Chad play samples for 3 different ukes, she came up to us and said she wanted to buy this one for her husband.
I told her she had to wait a couple days because I wanted to show it to some of the performers at the LA Ukulele Festival, but now it belongs to her husband.