From the Bench: Ten Days With the Mango Baritone Uke

This is the first entry in a build journal I should have started a long time ago. The subject: a baritone ukulele in mango and Engelmann spruce, built by hand at my bench in Eugene, Oregon, over ten days.

The baritone is the biggest of the ukulele family — tuned like the top four strings of a guitar — and it rewards good wood. This one pairs a mango body with an Engelmann spruce top. Mango is a tonewood players keep asking about lately, and for good reason: warm, clear, and every set of it looks different. No two of these will ever match.

Watch the ten-day build on YouTube

Ten days, start to finish: carving, voicing, fretting, finishing, setup. No production line, no shortcuts — one pair of hands, and every step done the way I was taught it should be done. It gets held to the same standard as everything else that leaves this shop: I don't deliver an instrument I wouldn't gig with myself.

This journal will keep following what's on the bench. In the meantime, the finished instruments are over at pnwmusic.com.