In a joint effort with Mark Trostle and his incredibly talented SRT Design team, a very special

Ukulele was designed for the So Cal Viper Club Holiday Party auction.  Here is a start to finish

pictorial of this one of a kind tenor ukulele.

Koa blocks

Koa sides

One half of the uke side on the heating blanket

The side in the bending jig

The two halves

Connecting the two halves with the blocks

Spruce block

Veneered down

and then sized down to the proper lining dimensions

Bending the spruce lining

Lining bent and ready to get glued into the body

Lining clamped into the body

The body with the lining all glued in

Face and back block

Veneered down to size and perfectly book matched

Gluing the halves together

The face and back ready for the SRT design.

SRT provided me with various ideas and sketches.  One idea was to engrave the sketches down the back

After much thought, I decided to take one of the sketches

and work it into the face design

Using black palm and abalone shell to re-create the SRT sketch

This drawing had become a bit of an icon for the new Viper and was drawn by the SRT team

I got their blessing to use the design on the uke.

With the inlays complete, it was time to put the structural bracing in

The back

Once the bracing was glue in, it was time to put the body together

Back and face glued to the body

Shaping the neck by hand

Attaching the neck to the body

Getting the fretboard ready

Adding the copper side dots

Gluing the fretboard on

Gluing the top plate on

Now 2 days of hand sanding

taped off for the lacquer finish

Finally into the spray booth

The 1st of at least 10 coats of lacquer

This uke started almost 5 months ago and well over 60 hours of love and labor has been invested

in this very special ukulele.