OulCraft Custom Tenor Ukulele Solid Curly Myrtle Black Stain w/Hard Case #123

The absolutely unique, pristine and inspiring uke you are looking at right now is an Oulcraft Ukulele, remember the name because these Ukuleles offer something at the high end that really pushes the boundaries of what you can expect from the Ukulele. Using modern production methods these Ukuleles compete and learn from all of the hard work many of the very best Japanese and US builders have been producing throughout the last decade. When I hold these instruments I am reminded of Kanile'a, AnueNue and TODA whilst also getting a fair amount of the flavours and sensibilities of the best smaller workshop outfits like Sumi, Barron River and Pete Howlett.

When dealing with custom shop builders we like to say to them - what would you like to make? It's selfish really as we are hoping that imagination and enthusiasm will spur a builder into making something extra, extra special... This has paid off so many times with South Korea's favourite son Jungtae from OulCraft. We were discussing which woods work best for staining and mentioned our mutual love of Myrtle Beech which looks very unique and is a great medium hard wood. Tonally it has a sound like Quilted Maple but bigger and bolder like Ebony. I guess I am trying to say that it does mellow but loudly!

Jungtae sent us some pictures of a wood set from his secret top shelf stash of exotic woods and it looked positively evil! The only way we could make it better was to lean in to that and create number 123. The black stain on this Myrtle creates some gorgeous silver and even auburn tones under light. I am wondering if I have ever seen anything like this from another builder? It is an 11/10 stunner!

The fretboard is made out of Royal Blackwood which is an artificically aged Purple Heart wood popular on high end ukes and guitars right now. The Torrification process dries out the wood until mollecularly it feels decades older than it actually is. The bridge is rosewood to give it a slightly spongier, low mid heavy sound.

It sounds incredible - it's transparent, open, big, clean, clear and utterly beautiful. This custom Tenor sounds like a harp at times, and would be absolutely perfect for anyone wanting to hear how subtle changes in string pressure or strumming/picking attack in their playing effect their sound, but it's a joy just to listen to the open notes ring out long and true. If you like the bubblyness of Koa but also want just a little bit of bite and attack to your single picked notes then this Ukulele is as good as it gets. A world class instrument by Oulcraft that will no doubt turn heads every time you take it out of the case.

Spec:

Solid Figured Myrtle Top, back and sides
Trans-Black Stain
Spanish Cedar/Maple 3 ply neck with satin finish
37mm nut width, 28mm G to A string spacing
17" scale length
Bone nut and saddle
Water borne Urethane Gloss finish
Gotoh SEP-700 Tuners
Side Soundport
Royal Blackwood Fingerboard
Rosewood bridge
Curly Maple Rosette and Binding
Fan Braced
Worth CT High G strings
Supplied in TGI ABS Hard Case

Please note - no Wax based cleaning products should be used on this finish. Polish which does not contain any wax, like Lizard Spit, will work really well.