Sol's “Hot Chocolate” Koa and Walnut Custom Tenor
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As per Sol’s request this ukulele has a curly Koa top with curly Claro walnut back and sides. Its is an unusual combo. The color of most koa doesn't match very well with walnut and normally you don’t like to break up your koa sets. Luckily I had an orphaned koa top that matched very well with this set of walnut. The koa is not actually two different colors as it appears is some of the pictures. Curly koa will sometimes change color as you tilt it and often the bookmatched tops will only look the same color when viewed straight on.
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The Claro walnut back has great color and nice curl.
The accents are Koa cut from the top.
The tuners are black planetary tuners from Gotoh and we installed a MiSi under saddle pickup for playing in front of an audience.
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The neck is curly black walnut with a carbon reinforcement rod. Two pieces were sandwiched together to give a chevron effect.
The sound of this uke is very rich and smooth. The nickname “Hot Chocolate” really fits.
Since we added koa accents to the walnut, it seemed only natural to add a walnut rosette to the koa soundboard. I was a little worried, but it came out very nice.
The fretboard, bridge and binding are East Indian Rosewood.
Here you can see that the top really is the same color on both sides.
Strings are a Pepe Romero wound low g string with custom high carbon fluorocarbon strings.
