A buffet of woods used by Uncle Dave to construct custom ukuleles
 (in alphabetical order)

Cedar

Data from from high mountain tonewood company http://highmountaintonewood.com

Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata) is a common tree growing in wet areas throughout British Columbia.  The wood is highly prized for a great many uses because of its very high resistance to decay, inherent stability and rich colour tones.  Uses include, boat building, decking, roof shingles, building siding and tonewood!  Western Red Cedar has been used primarily as top wood for classical guitars but has recently also found favour with the steel string community.  It is said that Red Cedar has a very quick break in period so the instrument sounds as it always will very soon after completion, as opposed to spruce which can settle in over years.  Large straight trees are still common but competition for thewood from other users is always an issue.

Yellow Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) is a sporadically spaced coastal tree found at all elevations.  Unlike Western Red Cedar or the spruces Yellow Cedar rarely grows in 'stands'.  It is typically found as single trees distributed in other dominate forest types.  This wood is very aromatic and is most known for its use in Japanese Temples.  Other uses include boat building, furniture and millwork and outdoor projects.  It is also an excellent carving wood prized both by carvers and turners.  Like Red Cedar, Yellow Cedar has very high resistance to decay.  In the construction of musical instruments Yellow Cedar is most often found as backs and side of Flamenco guitars.  Because of its sporadic distribution and its high value as temple wood the best trees can be difficult to acquire.

Yellow and Spanish cedar from 1boardfoot

Koa (Acacia)

Extremely popular wood associated with Hawaiian lumber industry. Used as turning blocks for everything from pens to bowls besides stringed instruments. I have used koa grown in Australia but it does not match Hawaiian grown. Can only get expensive and will be like Brazilian rosewood someday, i.e, rare and restricted harvesting.

Fiddleback Koa

Below is curly koa fromwood supplier Steve Shaefer. Custom "Heauk Uke" Ukulele for Nancy Sur of Cerritos, California.

Mango

A common fruit tree in Hawaii. Not many wood shops are turning out mango so it is fairly pricey. The wood has a good bright tone similar to Hawaiian koa. Suppliers are Steve Shaefer of Dufur, Oregon and Crist Pung of Hilo, Hawaii.

Below is a mango Heaukulani ukulele made with mango wood from www.curlykoa.com.

Mahogany, Honduran
Botanical Name: Swietenia, macrophylla
Lumber Name: Honduran Mahogany, Brazilian Mahogany
Grows In: Throughout tropical S. America / C. America / Caribbean
and in plantations in the Far East. Fairly common wood set used in ukulele construction in hawaii because of its low price.

Heauk Uke ukulele made from Honduran mahogany

Myrtlewood: (umbellularia California). Common to California and Oregon.

This set is curly myrtle. From 1boardfoot

Padauk: I use this for bridges.  There are three species of trees that produce wood that we call padauk--Burma padauk, Andaman padauk (named for the Andaman Islands where it grows), and African padauk. All are legume family and have the Latin names of Pterocarpus macrocarpus, Pterocarpus dalbergioides, and Pterocarpus soyauxii.

Purple Heart: Peltogyne paniculata, Peltogyne pubescens, Peltogyne porphyrocardia, Peltogyne venosa and Peltogyne densiflora.Leguminosae Family. Comes from Mexico to South America as well as other areas. Very difficult to work with. Some are so hard it burns your tools and some are so fragile it snaps when you get it sanded down to just the right thickness (damn!). But it is very beautiful when finished. Expect to pay a bundle if you order this wood.

I buy my purple heart wood from luthier Kevin Murray

Rosewood, Brazilian: (Dalbergia nigra). The Ferrari or Rolls Royce of tone woods. Edromanguitars calls it the "Holy Grail." www.edromanguitars.com/wood/

To me it has strong projection, long sustain and even response. Produces a bell tone--very crisp and brilliant. On the other hand, some say it is no better than any other wood. However, we all agree that it is very expensive, more so than koa, especially old growth wood. Perhaps or because it is now listed as endangered requiring regulatory requirements the price has gone up by supply and demand economics. Most imports are new growth. Expect to pay around $250 - $300 for 1^st grade (high quality) for a set of woods. Expect to pay a very big bundle if you order this wood to make an ukulele.

These pieces of Brazilian Rosewood were shipped from Brazil and are stickered and still "drying out" in my humidity controlled room. Suppliers are Anmura and 1boardfoot.

Rosewood, Indian (dalbergia latifola): Ranges in color from red to dark brown. There are with colored streaks that range from gold to darker shades of brown. Used by many guitar players.

Sapele (Entandrophragma cylindricum)  Grows in Nigeria and along the African Ivory Coast. Sometimes called African mahogany.  This wood is red to dark reddish-brown, sometimes with a purple blend.  It has a well defined ribbon striped figure.  The grain is wavy and the texture is quite fine.  It has an aromatic odor when cut which reminds me of cedar. These boards enjoy a high golden luster.  Sapele is stronger that African or American Mahogany and also stronger than Red Oak. Accordingly, it makes a solid ukulele.

A Sapele set ready to build.

From 1boardfoot

Spruce:

used for soundboard top plates which is rated as an excellent tone wood for this purpose. Sitka spruce (Picea Stichensis), Engelmann spruce (Picea englemannii) and White Spruce (Picea glauca) and Kermodie spruce (hybrid being sold as older than European spruce, from 300 to 700 years old). All these are used in Heaukulani ukulele instruments as top plates. 

The spruce refers to a large group covering more than 40 different types. In central, northern and south-eastern Europewood sold as spruce is usually the American red fir (picea abies).

Bearclaw spruce refers to the pattern that look like bearclaw scratches. This is an Englemann spruce bearclaw sound plate. From 1board foot

Adirondack Red spruce is a high quality tone wood found in vintage collectible level guitars of a bygone era. It is expensive and can be used if you are willing to pay the price. Or you can buy a ready made Koolau ukulele model 500. See Koolau Ukulele of Kaneohe, Hawaii.

Zebrawood: (Microberlinia Brazzavillensis).  Comes from Africa and has stripes like a zebra. From supplier 1boardfoot.