As you may imagine, I often think about shop work in musical terms. It has a rhythm to it, with repetitive yet enjoyable tasks aligning to make a beautiful product. Some days I feel like a composer in the shop, other days a jazz musician, sometimes a conductor, other days a copyist. For this instrument, I started with the quilted maple back and sides and let it lead me, piece by piece, to all the other woods that would complete it. Improvisation is not “faking it,” it is the task of drawing from years of training and experience to create something new, within an agreed upon framework. In this case, the customer wanted a scout ukulele and the rest was up to me. After I chose the back and sides, I added the Oregon spruce top from Camp Westwind and a neck from Douglas fir floorboards. The fretboard and headplate are a scrap from making my own work bench and come from salvaged beams from the Carpenter Ant stash. All these light colored woods needed some contrast, so it is wrapped up in black walnut trim. As I put it in the case after snapping these photos, it feels like putting away a song, but the best part is that it has its own songs to sing when the case is opened again.