Australian/New Zealand Luthiers Forum

This one is for Yuki "Honey" Toda from Bosko & Honey.

She plays tenor and was in need of a new instrument after the Airline broke her last ukulele on one of their tours.

This one is from the paler off cuts from recent Baritones I've built. Honey's English while quite good, isn't totally fluent. So Bosko told me that she wasn't fussed about fancy wood. Just wanted an instrument that sounded and played great. Her last tenor had a Red Spruce top and she really liked that type of tone, so as I had just recently got 20 Red Spruce top sets in and picked this one out because it has some nice color and just a magical ring when tapped.

It needed to be 17" scale length with a low G. Access to the 12th fret would be nice because some of their music required harmonics to be played on the 12th. As well, installing a good pickup was requested, as so much of their act now requires movement away from the microphone that they have been using.

I had her measure up some ukes that she liked the neck and string spacing on, so most of the design brief was set. The rest was up to me. I was very fortunate in having Honey come by the shop when it came time to shape the neck. I had it to the point that it fit my hands, but we spent another hour shaving more away here and there getting it so she was happy with it's feel. It ended up quite different to what I had started with and I'm really pleased with the shape. I'll end up taking a template of this one so I can reproduce it later.

This is what I came up with.

Back and Sides - Blackwood
Top - Red Spruce (Adirondack)
Neck - Spanish Cedar
Fret Board - Gidgee with 12" radius
Bridge - Gidgee
Head Plate - Ebony
Rosette - Koa
Finish - Mirotone
Tuners - Hipshot Open Geared 18:1
Pickup - MISI under-saddle with preamp
Strings - South Coast Ukuleles MM-FW

Lovely job as usual Allen, really like the headstock shape with those tuners.
Are the "baron river" and "honey" inlays? very neat work if they are.

The Barron River is a screen print with pearl paint. I've been looking at so many ways to get a label or logo on the headstock that didn't take as much time to do as build the instrument. I'm quite happy with this. "Honey" is laser cut and then filled in with coloured epoxy.

I forgot to add a better shot of the headstock.

Hi Allan
Realy nice work, a credit to you
Regards Steve

Another stunning uke Allen, well done. Honey's a very lucky lady.

I'm sure that this uke will result in a string of commissions for similar instruments. It truly is a thing of beauty.
Miguel

Very nice Allen. Love the rosette. The Red Spruce top will no doubt make a fine sounding instrument.

Cheers

Alan

Barron River is now the one to chase in Ukulele fit & finish.

What kind of a dye can you use with epoxy or colouring agent? Aniline Dyes? Looking very very Schmick there Allen!

I've used Black aniline dye on several occasions. This was done with the same pearl screen printers ink that I used for the headstock. Doesn't sparkle as much as it's buried in the epoxy, but at least the color is close.

Gorgeous looking uke Allen. From the facebook pics she looks delighted with it.

Congratulations.

Regards

Honey is an absolute delight. She has infectious enthusiasm and everyone around her just feels better about life. And that's what's so special about ukulele's.

Plink..Pling..hear Honey sing, an amazing combination of craftsmanship Allan, will only enhance the duo performance of Honey & Bosko, with instrumentals like ' Odyssey ' & the encapsulating voice of Honey on ' Sunbird ' & Tuck me in, the woman is one cheeky artist.

Kudos to you Allan, locally made & played...Great in the sunshine state!!

Gaz

Hey, it helps that they live within spitting distance of the Barron River too.

There's a lot going on with this uke and it's all so understated! Just beautiful!