“West Coast” Shamel Ash and Curly Claro Walnut
Tenor
For Sale at Island Bazaar, Huntington Beach, CA
Sold
Click on pictures to enlarge.
This build started as an ukulele for Island Bazaar but ended up more as a custom. I had already started this build when a nice lady called me looking for a walnut tenor. I told her she could have input on the build and if she liked the result she would have first right of refusal. She could buy it from Island Bazaar or if she didn't like it, it would go up on their wall.
I'm calling it "West Coast" because the Ash is from a reclaimed street tree here is Southern California and the walnut is root stock from Oregon.
The top is made of Shamel Ash (aka Evergreen ash), a tropical ash from Mexico that is used for landscaping in So. Cal.The dark markings are probably why Taylor rejected this piece, but I really like it.
The Taylor Guitar company calls this wood "Urban Ash" and has used it for backs and sides calling it similar in sound to the "old mahogany".
I figured that if it sounded like mahogany, it should work as a soundboard as well. I guessed right. It has a nice clear sound that projects very well.
Taylor just started using it for soundboards as well.
Click here to see what Taylor Guitar has to say about Shamel Ash.
The accent woods are very interesting piece of brown Mallee burl.
The neck is Honduran Mahogany with a carbon bar for reinforcement.
The binding is pomelle bubinga.
We also added a MiSi uke trio pickup.
The fingerboard and bridge are Black East African Egony.
The rosette is a mosaic of Claro walnut.
Tuners are black Gotoh interplanetary tuners.
The back and sides are curly Claro walnut. Claro walnut is native to a small area in Northern California and Oregon and is kind of rare. However, it is also used as rootstock in the English walnut orchards in Oregon, so when the farmers recycle their orchards, the Claro walnut becomes available.
This set came from Vince at Pacific Coast Woods.
As always this uke has a sound side port that allows the player to hear the same sound as the audience.
The sides are pretty crazy.
The customer decided to go with a high G string, so all the strings are custom high carbon fluorocarbon string.
