Neighborwood 2
Once again I'm using two very local Ukiah woods for a tenor ukulele. The forest red gum eucalyptus grows next to our house and my next door neighbor's California sycamore was cut down to improve his view. In my first Neighborwood ukulele I used the sycamore for back and sides with an Engelmann spruce top and forest red gum appointments. I decided to be more adventurous this time with forest red gum for the back and sides. Ours is a tall tree with a nearly three foot diameter base. We would never think of cutting it down, but a few years ago a large limb had to be removed that was encroaching on the house. I milled and stickered the log for future use. I've used it for bindings, bridges, rosettes and fretboards but this was my first use for back and sides. Tans, browns, pinks and maroons offer a wide range of its colors. I've tried to use all of those in this build. Forest red gum is quite dense with a deep tap tone similar to some ebonies. There is a unique richness that it supports making this a special tenor.
I generally use some species of softwood for the top. I've found that there is a better tonal response for my building style with softwood tops as you play up the neck. But for this tenor I decided I would give the neighbor's sycamore a try as it's fairly light in weight for a hardwood. I was hoping for musical as well as visual beauty. I adjusted the Engelmann spruce bracing to compensate for some added weight and thinned the top as much as I dared. It still ended up a little heavier than most of my builds but the result was surprising. It's a warm balanced sound with rich overtones that enhance a strong fundamental response even up the neck. Makes me want to build with more sycamore tops in the future especially with such a beautiful look.
I decided on an oval soundhole without a rosette but bound with forest red gum and simple purfling lines. This way it doesn't compete aesthetically with the beautiful sycamore top. An oval side sound port reinforced with a lamination of maple and brown veneers adds to the player's listening experience.
For a cohesive look I also used sycamore for the neck, backplate and heel cap. The neck has an integrated aluminum strap button bolted into a sycamore heel block. There's another bolt inside the body attached through the block into the neck heel. The two bolts make for a solid connection and excellent transfer of string energy. The fingerboard is bound in forest red gum with maple purfling and aluminum fret markers.
As usual my tenors have linings that are not kerfed. The laminated bigleaf maple is carved-in-place and notched into the neck and tail blocks. I suppose they could have been sycamore. Next time.
The bindings are forest red gum with maple and brown wood veneer purflings.The headstock and bridge are forest red gum. There is an unbleached bone saddle that is fully intonated for low G and an unbleached bone nut. Frets are nickel silver with polished rounded ends. Strings are Jason Arimoto PHDs with a GHS winter silver wound low G.
Gotoh UPT 4:1 planetary tuners in brushed aluminum have shop made custom forest red gum buttons.
There is a high gloss catalyzed urethane finish with a clear pickguard. This unique Ken Franklin tenor comes with a robust Gear Lux wooden case for $6100.
