Koa Top Ukulele vs. Spruce Top Ukulele

Comparison of the sound of two almost identical ukuleles with different materials of the sound-board.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• RISA
• ukulele

[greendog105]

He said that spruce is too soft for the back and side but I know of a good ukulele luthier that use spruce to make top back and sides, and say that it sounds good, the problem is that I dont saw any video of a whole spruce uke here in the youtube

[ukuleledotde]

@greendog105 You probably won't find a video of a whole spruce ukulele, because it is not a good choice. Neck, back and side should be a stiff frame, which doesn't absorb the vibration to give a certain sustain, while the top should be of softer or thinner wood to vibrate most and create the sound. You can take spruce for the whole body, but for back and side it needs to be thicker and have more bracings.

[ukuleledotde]

The strings are RISA-Premimum Fluorocarbon high-G

[islandboy801]

I been looking around for tabs for that song, but never found anything close to wat ur playing...SOLID...

Did you for out the medley all your own? nice...

I got to find a way to learn that, lol.

[ukuleledotde]

@islandboy801 Sorry, don't have tabs for it. Arranged and learned by listening.

[rspektorfan]

what song are you playing here???

[ukuleledotde]

@rspektorfan Michelle (Beatles)

[ukuleledotde]

@curlykoa: It's true that koa is an endemic Hawaiian wood and the ukulele used in this video is made of Hawaiian koa!

However, you wrote "Koa is not acacia", which is not really correct. The botanic name is "koa acacia". Therefore it is better to say: Koa is acacia, but not every acacia is koa!

[CheezeyWeezey]

The Spruce sounds mellower with more of a midrange.

[piddlefish]

too amazed by the playing to make a comparison - what an ingenious method of showing off 2 ukuleles! great job man.

[HOTELalamar]

what kind of ukulele used

[popitn2nd]

What brand are these ukes? Who makes them? Are these available in US?

[ohmysparticus]

wow fuck the comparisons I want a how to video for how you play Michelle on the uke!!! Great job!

[Maysey1]

Great video, I personally like the tone from the spruce, but that could be because I've mostly played acoustic guitars with either cedar or spruce. I have recently begun a journey of building my first tenor ukulele and decided to go with a spruce top, I've already thickness sanded it down to about 0.0800 or I'm sure of this...half ways between 1/16" and 2/16". Someone handed me a homemade uke that was around 2/16 and it was dead, my soprano martins are 0.08, but that's mahogany.

[ImperialistRunningDo]

No question but the koa wood is FAR more attractive, visually. But how does it change the sound? I'm using some fairly expensive earphones, but I don't think I'm catching half of it. Besides, I'm not as much of a musician as you are.

How do YOU describe the difference in tone?

Koa is an acacia. While one of the fastest-growing trees in Hawai'i, it still takes 20 or more years to produce a tree large enough for tone wood. Good koa wood is hard to find and expensive; someday we will reforest.