Builder/Blogger: Steve Eubanks

The Santa Cruz build really serves two purposes. These ukes are great instruments in their own right. While they don't resonate with the volume as a full-bodied acoustic ukulele, they do sound great as acoustic instruments, and are awesome in a small group where big sound isn't really necessary. But where they really shine is on stage. The acoustic pickups in these instruments are great, and when plugged in and given some moderate effects, like a little reverb, and maybe a touch of chorus, these little guys absolutely kill. The second purpose for this build was to serve as a proof of concept for the electracoustic form factor. These ukes turned out great, and the lessons I learned during the build transitioned right into the follow-up Whitney elecracoustic guitar build.

So this build started with five billets of African mahogany and spruce. I started hollowing the body by hogging out the bulkk of the material with a forstner bit in the drill press, then cleaned it up, and took it down to final thickness with the router.

Next, I resawed, glued up, and cut out the tops. There are two ash tops, two shedua, and one silky oak.

Four of the instruments got mahogany necks, and one got a maple and walnut multipiece neck, all bolt-ons with hand-shaped back plates. I ended up not loving the back plates, and future versions of these instruments got screw ferrules for the neck attachments, which look much better in my opinion. Each body got a barrel jack connected to disc-style piezo pickups which were attached to the underside of the top with adhesive.

Next up - fretboards and frets. There's one purpleheart fretboard, one birdseye maple, two North Indian rosewood, and one zebra. Each instrument got a bridge from the same wood as its fretboard, and an oil finish that really brings out the natural beauty of the wood.

Beauty shots of some of the finished instruments. These went up for sale on the CalStyle online store and sold out pretty quickly. Additional instruments will show up in the store occasionally, but you can always request a build.