This was my second attempt at a Tenor ukulele (see Here for the first). It was built to be raffled to raise money for the #SaveOurVenues campaign, which fundraises to protect grassroots music venues at risk of imminent closure due to the pandemic. I previously raffled this Strat for the cause but I wanted to offer something with a lower entry price, and an instrument that might appeal to a wider audience.
The ukulele is a great all-round instrument. It’s fun for beginners and professional musicians alike. It’s the perfect travel and songwriting companion and I personally think it has such a joyful sound an easy playability that inspires creativity.
This particular ukulele is a hardwood ply construction topped with Sapele veneer, with a curved back to give it extra resonance and extensive internal bracing for resilience. It features a rosewood tie-bar bridge and 18-fret rosewood fingerboard on a Sapele neck.
The finish is Rustins danish oil, of which a few coats were applied in fairly quick succession with buffing between coats. I like this particular oil a lot, having found other brands of Danish oil to produce an unsatisfactory finish that never fully cured, the result being a sticky surface texture that was not at all pleasant to touch and certainly not suitable for the finishing of a neck. It just goes to show that no two products alike in name are necessarily so in performance.
