I seem to get lots of attention for Mastergrade and curly woods, but I often prefer straight grain and more humble wood sets. They all sound good, after all, and sometimes I appreciate the subtle character of the straight grain woods. This ukulele is for a player with arthritis and small hands, so I paid a little extra attention to that when carving the neck and setting up the strings. The Oregon walnut back and sides for this uke is a veneer scrap from a very old walnut log. My friend Ben Bonham built some guitars from it and gave me the rest for ukuleles. By the way, if you aren’t following Ben on Instagram you are missing out on some beautiful instruments. I paired it with a tight grained Port Orford Cedar top from the Oregon coast, old growth Douglas fir neck and spalted pistachio fretboard and headplate.

“My ukulele just arrived! It is everything I hoped it would be and more! Thank you both for your talents!
- D. J. ”