Milo and Red Spruce Concert Ukulele
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 7:50 pm
This is the first concert I've done in quite some time. Seems that everyone want's larger instruments, but having been sent 3 sets of Milo from Hawaii and asked to provide some feedback on its characteristics, I thought it was time I built one.
This wood when freshly milled has some extraordinary colors from rich plum, mauves, brown and tan. After a bit they mellow out and loose some of that vibrancy, but they still display a reddish hue. It has a sweet smell that I quite like, but others have told me that they don't.
To me, almost everything about its characteristics are very muck like Blackheart Sassafras. It's very fine grained, reasonably easy to bend, but will want to straighten out on you if you let heat get back into the piece. I bent this set by hand on the hot pipe to get a feel for it. I would imagine that going with a heat blanket wouldn't pose any problem at all. There was no tendency for it to want to fracture on the very tight bends on the waist and upper bout on this instrument.
It runs through the drum sander very well, with virtually no tendency to clog the paper or burn.
Pore filling is easy, as it's very fine grained with small pores. It only took two sessions to fill this one for a gloss finish.
It's a little reactionary to swings in humidity, and unbraced plates will display a bit of movement. But that could just be these particular sets, as they are not dead on the 1/4. In either case, it's not an issue once braced and the box closed up.
From the little I could find out about using Milo in a uke, the consensus seems to be that it won't work well as a top. And I would totally agree about this. The tap tone like Blackheart Sassafras is pretty uninspiring. So I paired this one up with a Red Spruce top. Red Spruce has everything going for it that I like in a soundboard, and on this instrument, it works very well. The tone is a bit hard to describe, and as I've used Red Spruce a lot and know it pretty well, none have sounded like this instrument. So I have to assume that the back and sides are altering the tone to a degree I haven't experienced with other builds.
I would describe to tone to be sweet, full, well rounded with a quick attack that you get in the smaller body instruments, and a long sustain. But there is something else about it that I just can't put my finger on. Maybe Liam can, as he had a bit of a play on it a day after the strings went on.
Anyway, enough of that and on to the details
Back and Sides - Milo
Top - Red Spruce
Neck - Spanish Cedar
Fret Board - Gidgee with 12" radius
Bridge - Gidgee
Bindings - Blackwood
Purflings - black /red/black
Rosette - York Gum Burl
Head Plate - Jarrah
Tuners - Grover
Finnish - Mirotone 3220
Strings - South Coast Ukuleles - LMU
This wood when freshly milled has some extraordinary colors from rich plum, mauves, brown and tan. After a bit they mellow out and loose some of that vibrancy, but they still display a reddish hue. It has a sweet smell that I quite like, but others have told me that they don't.
To me, almost everything about its characteristics are very muck like Blackheart Sassafras. It's very fine grained, reasonably easy to bend, but will want to straighten out on you if you let heat get back into the piece. I bent this set by hand on the hot pipe to get a feel for it. I would imagine that going with a heat blanket wouldn't pose any problem at all. There was no tendency for it to want to fracture on the very tight bends on the waist and upper bout on this instrument.
It runs through the drum sander very well, with virtually no tendency to clog the paper or burn.
Pore filling is easy, as it's very fine grained with small pores. It only took two sessions to fill this one for a gloss finish.
It's a little reactionary to swings in humidity, and unbraced plates will display a bit of movement. But that could just be these particular sets, as they are not dead on the 1/4. In either case, it's not an issue once braced and the box closed up.
From the little I could find out about using Milo in a uke, the consensus seems to be that it won't work well as a top. And I would totally agree about this. The tap tone like Blackheart Sassafras is pretty uninspiring. So I paired this one up with a Red Spruce top. Red Spruce has everything going for it that I like in a soundboard, and on this instrument, it works very well. The tone is a bit hard to describe, and as I've used Red Spruce a lot and know it pretty well, none have sounded like this instrument. So I have to assume that the back and sides are altering the tone to a degree I haven't experienced with other builds.
I would describe to tone to be sweet, full, well rounded with a quick attack that you get in the smaller body instruments, and a long sustain. But there is something else about it that I just can't put my finger on. Maybe Liam can, as he had a bit of a play on it a day after the strings went on.
Anyway, enough of that and on to the details
Back and Sides - Milo
Top - Red Spruce
Neck - Spanish Cedar
Fret Board - Gidgee with 12" radius
Bridge - Gidgee
Bindings - Blackwood
Purflings - black /red/black
Rosette - York Gum Burl
Head Plate - Jarrah
Tuners - Grover
Finnish - Mirotone 3220
Strings - South Coast Ukuleles - LMU
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- milo_concert_top_2.jpg (47.78 KiB) Viewed 25546 times
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