tap tone variation
Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2020 1:04 am
I started a pair of tenor ukuleles recently, and bought western cherry for the backs and sides, and decided to try some salvage western redcedar my brother-in-law gave me for the tops. I tried a couple of nice clear1x8 boards, cut a ukelele sized piece from them, but the grain ran out badly when I first split the pieces. The first piece from the next board split okay so I cut one top from that piece, and then a second top from the next piece along the same board. My wife wanted her top to have the dark wood in the centre, and I decided to put the light wood in the centre of the second top. What is surprising to me is that the top with the dark wood in the centre has a sweeter tap tone with more sustain and complexity. They are the same thickness and from within 16 inches or so of each other on the same board, cut, sanded and glued on the same days. The only possible other difference is that the light-centre top has the grain angling toward the joint rather than parallel. On the dark centre top the grain is pretty much parallel to the join. I could have trimmed the one top so the grain in the light wood was more parallel to the join but wanted to keep as much light wood as possible. Any thoughts?