The Redwood Uke — tyson hand-did

The Redwood Uke | Keeping with the Redwood theme this spring, it's Uke #2 - almost in time for Sara's birthday. A lot of new things on this one that have me psyched out of mind.

I found this spectacular flamed sinker redwood Ukulele top and grabbed it up as soon as I saw it.

In order to keep as much of that redwood visible as possible, I decided to design this uke from the ground up using a Kasha bracing pattern. So before I could do anything else I had to make all new bending forms and molds.

The Kasha bracing radiates out from the bridge/bridge-patch and since the top remains solid along its length (no sound hole right in the middle of the area we need the most strength) everything can be build much more lightly.

The Kasha bracing allowed me to build the Uke without a soundhole on the front. What would normally be a small sound port on the side, now becomes the main soundhole. I am planning to use this design on a guitar. This Uke became a test case for this type of build.

I pulled out all the stops on this one with a bound fingerboard as well. The binding is all flamed mahogany which turned out to be very complementary to the redwood top and rosewood back and sides.