About Me
I am a retired Family Physician having always held a strong affinity for forests & trees, wood types & wood-working in general. This started at school “shop” classes & progressed through DIY projects at home. As I gradually acquired the equipment for a wood-shop (I made my own Scandinavian work-bench from hard-rock Canadian Maple), I branched into more precise toy-making etc. My grandchildren still ride on a pine rocking-horse I made for my then 4 year-old daughter.
More recently I started lessons & playing gigs with the Shaftesbury Ukulele Band, in the Hilltop Ukulelians & in the Shroton Village Ukulele Club. On my wife’s suggestion, as a trial, I made a Tenor Ukulele. It sounded wonderful & my Ukulele playing friends started asking me where it came from, & if I could make some more. The rest as they say, is History!
I have discovered an entirely new vocation, a passion even. Right from the start I decided that I did not want to use rare & endangered tropical hardwoods for my instruments, & have been sourcing & acquiring supplies of Dorset, Wiltshire, Devonshire & Buckinghamshire hardwoods. I can make a Soprano, Piccolo or Tenor Ukulele from English Oak, Beech, Spalted Beech, Lacewood (London Plane), Sweet Chestnut, English Yew or from a small supply of up-cycled Honduras Mahogany that came from an old bed frame. I can also make right-hand or left-hand instruments with both re-entrant G tuning or Low G tuning.
It is also possible, in addition to conventional 4-string Ukuleles, to make 5-string. 6-string & 8-string instruments.
More recently I started lessons & playing gigs with the Shaftesbury Ukulele Band, in the Hilltop Ukulelians & in the Shroton Village Ukulele Club. On my wife’s suggestion, as a trial, I made a Tenor Ukulele. It sounded wonderful & my Ukulele playing friends started asking me where it came from, & if I could make some more. The rest as they say, is History!
I have discovered an entirely new vocation, a passion even. Right from the start I decided that I did not want to use rare & endangered tropical hardwoods for my instruments, & have been sourcing & acquiring supplies of Dorset, Wiltshire, Devonshire & Buckinghamshire hardwoods. I can make a Soprano, Piccolo or Tenor Ukulele from English Oak, Beech, Spalted Beech, Lacewood (London Plane), Sweet Chestnut, English Yew or from a small supply of up-cycled Honduras Mahogany that came from an old bed frame. I can also make right-hand or left-hand instruments with both re-entrant G tuning or Low G tuning.
It is also possible, in addition to conventional 4-string Ukuleles, to make 5-string. 6-string & 8-string instruments.
