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Hi, as a starting amateur builder, I am trying to limit the amount of wood I will be turning into firewood. I have acces to a lot of sides (unmatched) and was wondering if the rosewood/spruce or mahogany/spruce combinations could be used for ukes and would give a good instrument.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Both work fine for tenors and baritones, especially if the players is looking to play melodic runs rather than strumming (especially complex strumming, triple strokes etc).

I find that spruce tops on sopranos and concerts sound too brash and jangly, though some like the sound.

And don't forget that all mahogany is a long tradition for ukes, so those mahogany scraps are tops as well. However, rosewood is usually far too dense to make a good top.

Thank you. Is rosewood back and mahogany top any good?

I've never seen one, but I can't think of any reason why it shouldn't be good.

If you've not built with hardwood tops before, the secret is lightness - hardwoods are denser than softwoods, so the top needs to be appreciably thinner. I don't know anyone who has built a hardwood uke top (baritones excepted perhaps) which is thicker than 2mm, and for sopranos 1.6 mm is the thinnest I've heard of.

My (unscientific) approach is to concentrate on the long-grain stiffness of the top, thinning it until I get a flex along the grain which seems "about right". Cross-grain the top might feel alarmingly flexible to a guitar builder, but this is what bracing takes care of.

And of course you need bracing as light as possible, to allow a hardwood top to work. Make the bracing very thin (for extra stiffness, go taller rather than wider to keep the bracing mass down). X bracing is overkill except for baritones - ladder for sopranos, fan for concerts and tenors.

My first tenor ukulele, which turned out very nice , and fairly loud , was all honduras mahogany, with top thinned to .075 and only two fan braces along with bridge plate. The second tenor is a very dense wood, granadillo, for b&s, with a mahogany top using three fan braces. Also sounds good but not as loud as first, and noticeably heavier. Very playable just wish more volume.
Ed

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Thanks for your hindsight, Ed.

I will see which of my projects turns to firewood...

Got any good blueprints?

donsplans

New username, same ole Pat Macaluso!

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Pat

keep in mind that with ukulele's its more about the building style/technique then it is about which woods you use.

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We have been selling a lot of sitka, red cedar and yellow cedar for ukulele... more and more every year. Alaskawoods.com/shop

The conventional woods used in the past . are still viable today/As brent says players and uke builders are exploring a whole bunch of new woods and combinations. One of my favorites is WRC and tamarind.

My current tenor uke build is WRC top with Tzalam back and sides. Tzalam also known as Mayan walnut but not a true walnut. Sides bent nicely.
Ed