Currently in progress, 3 tenor ukuleles and one parlor guitar, all with redwood tops.
The parlor guitar and two of the ukuleles have an experimental bracing system, called “falcate” bracing, which utilizes curved braces which are built up from laminations of thinner wood. These braces are very stiff, which means they can be made lighter than standard straight wood braces. This allows the top to be just as stiff, but there is less wood mass that the string vibrations need to move, which means more energy can go into moving the top, hence more volume. Tap tones of the bodies in progress are very promising.
One ukulele is walnut, and two are local sycamore, which I really like for the grain pattern. The wood has to be sawn just right to revel the medulary rays which make the pattern. Even a couple of degrees off of absolutely quarter sawn and the grain figure turns into just flecks.
The parlor guitar has sapele sides and back.
