Tercet Concert Ukulele

This is my latest version of my Tercet ukulele, which I used to call the Fat Triangle, which pretty much sums up the shape of the thing.  It seems to me to be one of the basic shapes for a stringed instrument with a neck.  A balalaika, for example, is a trinagle shape--but without the bulging curves.

I make ukuleles of many different shapes, working from the idea that almost any body shape can produce a good sound, and yet I have found that this particular shape always seems to yield real good volume and sustain, and a sweet tone.  So sweet that I felt I should give it a sweet name, like the "Tercet."

The top and bottom of this one are made of Elm, a heritage wood in my part of the world, plentiful in times past before the Dutch Elm Disease blight came through the USA in the mid-twentieth century.  The wood I used came from timbers in a decrepit old barn probably about 150 years old when it was taken down recently--built in a time when farmers made barns out of wood readily available from local forests.

The top and back have been stained dark to highlight 

 

the prominent grain pattern in the wood.  The other parts of the uke are made from Black Walnut, giving the instrument an overall dark color scheme.

Like all my ukuleles (with rare exceptions), this one is made entirely of reclaimed wood from the local area--Mid-Michigan, USA.

I have ukuleles for sale at the showroom of 2nd Chance Wood Co., in Durand, MI (see their Facebook page); at Owosso Guitar, Owosso, MI; and on Etsy at "Dave's Extravagant Ukuleles."  Other models, custom made or in stock, are available from me directly.  Email raberdavid@yahoo.com or call/text (989) 292-5155.
 

Classic Bell Ukulele

 The Bell Ukulele was introduced by the Lyon and Healy Co. in the mid-1920s during the "first wave" of the uke's popularity in the US, a time when different companies were vying for sales with some new and different body styles.

I had no idea the bell shape, new and innovative for the ukulele at the time, was based on a shape of another small stringed instrument from "back in the day" in Old Europe--way back in the day, like four centuries back.  Looking thru a book on old stringed instruments, I found almost this exact same shape used for a five-string "cittern" from about 1600.

So it appears Lyon and Healy stole this shape from the history books--which is fine, because what would the world of design be like if it wasn't for borrowing (or stealing) from those who came before us?  And it would sure be shame if this lovely shape had been lost in history and never brought back to be used again.

I call this ukulele the "Classic" Bell both because it has become a classic design of the 20th Century, and because I went directly back to older classic as well to delineate the shape of my version of the Bell Uke (but it's not that much different from the Lyon and Healy version either).

This one has an almost monochrome light-light color scheme, with a Birdseye Maple top/back, a Maple fretboard, and the other parts of Maple as well.  The fretboard, by the way, is made from a strip of old Maple tongue-and-groove flooring, I believe from an old commercial building, or maybe it was a gymnasium.