It’s the end of 2018 and this is the last instrument to ship. Even after 10 years doing this, I still need to re-learn the lessons of my past over and over again as I progress. In education, we call this a spiral curriculum; revisiting a concept repeatedly but addressing it with new wisdom each time. In this case, the customer picked out his pistachio and cedar from woodfromthewest.com. I had a catastrophic accident when routing for binding that destroyed the back. You would think by now that this wouldn’t happen to me, but sometimes wood has a mind of its own and it doesn’t get along with rhe router. I had to scramble to pick a new back for the customer and get back on track. I heard Gordon in my head with a common lesson from my early days: “it’s better to do it right first than have to back up and do it twice.” Regardless, it was time to double down and deliver my best work, no matter what happened along the way.

In the end, I am pleased to deliver a tenor uke with good volume, rich tonality and a unique look. Made from materials I believe in with a minimum of environmental impact. Produced in my own space with hand tools and machines I have carefully collected. Destined for a musical life that I can never imagine. What a great way to spend a year.