Yes, we are all about the sound and playability, but the woods have to make sense together too. In this case, I had fun starting with the dark, streaky Koa, adding a simple cedar top, dressing it up with maple binding and bird’s foot purfling and tying it together with the neck woods. I love how it all works together but doesn’t “perfectly” match. The best part about the sound of this instrument is the high dgbe stringing, which still has the low end but allows for banjo style picking.

The Cedar is from the Carpenter Ant Stash in Portland, the Koa is from an estate sale in Colorado, the Pistachio is from California orchards and the Spanish Cedar is from a retired luthier.

I’ll be donating to https://savinghawaiisforests.org for this build and so should all of you.