#29 Casuarina

The ukulele was one of a set built to emphasize the sound, with no heavy decoration (‘bling’) such as pearl inlay.   It involves what I have learned from previous builds, what has succeeded and what has not worked so well.  I think I have succeeded.  This uke sounds great.  Plenty of volume and sustain, plenty of base (I have it strung with low-G strings), evenly balanced between the treble side and the base side, and it continues to be balanced up the neck.

This ukulele has a streaked redwood top.  The redwood is recycled from wood that used to be water tanks on top of apartment buildings in New Your City.  The streaks result from water staining, and the iron bands that encircled the water tanks.

The back and sides are a wood called Casuarina equisetifolia.  This tree was planted all over south Florida, and it is now considered an invasive species.  It is very hard and heavy, comparable to the ebonies.  This is from some I cut a while back and I think it is a real winner.  (Somewhat difficult to bend however.)  Nice color, nice contrast between the sap-wood and the heart-wood, and even a bit of curl thrown in.

Black-red-black purfling, curly mahogany binding, asymmetric pink abalone pearl rosette, Spanish cedar neck (which is just the name, it is neither from Spain nor is it a cedar, it is really a mahogany relative from Central and South America.)  The fingerboard is another wood native to Florida and the Caribbean, Florida Black Olive (which is not a true olive).   It is this really interesting yellow color, with quite a bit of curl and is fine pored and quite hard, a very nice fingerboard wood.  I traded another woodworker a chunk of casuarina for a chunk of black olive.  The headplate is book-matched casuarina with the “Jupiter” logo.  Bone saddle and black corian nut.

Paua abalone pearl fingerboard marks and fingerboard side dots, “Jupiter” logo on the headstock.

 

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