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Does anyone have experience making the back, sides and top of a ukulele out of curly Anigre? Have some that is too small for guitar making and was wondering how it might work on a tenor uke. It is about the same dry weight as mahogany and koa per the Wood Database site. Thanks for any information.

Ken

I am surprised no one has offered advice. I have no experience with anigre. However, in the past I have noticed posts and articles relating that people have made acoustic guitars from old shipping pallets, orange crates, and any other number of reclaimed scraps of unknown species with good results. I think you should proceed with the full expectation that you will have good results.

I'm thinking that no one has responded because few have any real world experience. I was going to respond and say that it sounds like it should be fine and that I would go for it if it were me. But since I have made exactly 1 uke in my career and have never even touched anigre, I figured I would keep my mouth shut until someone who knows speaks up. I bet others had the same thought process.

With all that said, I would go for it if it were me. Keep in mind I have only made on e uke and have no experience with anigre <G>

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

I'm currently building a soprano uke from mango... that's the extent of my uke experience. I have a set of curly anigre in the stash, but was unable to get to it tonight. If I remember correctly though, it's in the mahogany realm of density and stiffness. So should be decent for a uke. Then again, people are building ukuleles out of just about everything, including the dense rosewoods, which seems crazy to me, but what do I know? I'd say go for it, with all of the usual caveats. Have you built many ukes? I'd be interested in hearing more about your project.

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sweat the small stuff.

Perhaps post your query in the ukulele forum.

I've made decent sounding ukes from (top woods):

Yew
Mahogany
Spruce
Cedar
Koa
B grade 1.5mm birch ply
Oak

My most recent was the oak experiment - I had a piece of bar counter which seemed promising so I made a soprano camp uke from it. Turned out to sound very nice indeed.



I'm now convinced that any wood which is stiff and reasonably light can be made into a uke, so Anigre should work well.

However, one thing to consider is that topping your tenor with Anigre will give you a traditional tenor sound, with short sustain and more "plink". The fashionable trend at the moment is to play tenor ukes like small guitars, which needs a softwood top to give more sustain.

Other than that, my only advice is to make the uke as light as you dare, then take a deep breath and make it a bit lighter.