Official Luthiers Forum!

Okay, not to beat this poplar thing to death, but here is another all poplar ukulele. Bubinga and bloodwood trimmings. This one has no stain, and is simply finished in TruOil. I found this board in Home Depot (yeah, I know). but the color was beautiful, the grain was pleasing, it was perfectly quartered. And you can see in the closeup the medullary rays are (tiny) but quite nice. Poplar has almost zero chatoyance, so it looks the same from all angles. Anyway, fun to work and sounds very mellow. I always keep my eye out for that magical, (elusive) useable piece!

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Rodney Paul Adams

Right, a pedestrian oak back would not be appealing to me, either. I think I remember a transtint one like you mentioned. Here are some other nice examples of qswo:
Martin: http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i268/ ... 10back.jpg , https://guitarcollector.files.wordpress ... m_3576.jpg
Saville/Zootman: http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a53/Sl ... C_0014.jpg
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8362/8339 ... 981224.jpg
Granted, the latter two would take a lot of looking. But the Martin level is not hard to find.

I'm sure you can get poplar to look nice. The hard part is tone. As Alan Carruth might say, many many guitar woods and designs have been tried. Odds are, if something is not commonly done today, it's because it didn't improve the state-of-the-art. That's not to say it's impossible, just high risk.

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David Malicky

Nice looking Uke, Rodney... Well done! I have to admit I've always thought of Poplar as "un-poplar" but it looks really nice... kinda reminds me of Elm.

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"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” -Heraclitus of Ephesus

Before this thread, I would have said no but man there a a couple nice looking poplar ukes in this thread. Well done! I'm intrigued by the suntanned poplar images as well. I had no idea the sun could make poplar look so much nicer. I made a long neck dulcimer from poplar years ago. I tried to avoid as much of the green stuff as I could at the time. I might have to pull that one out and put it in the window to see what comes of it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Yes, it transforms poplar buying -- green is now good. Unlike those google pics, I found the whiter wood also darkened to about the color of aged spruce. I've only tried it outdoors with unfinished wood; windows and finishes might block some UV.

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David Malicky

I'd give it a try! Those ukes look pretty good as proof.

Also, even Strad used Poplar, so how bad could it be? http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?7691-Peterborough-Lake-Queen-age

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

I forgot to mention this early on --- a domestic wood that is inexpensive, readily available and regularly blanked riff and quarter sawn is Sycamore, appearance is not hit and miss like Poplar, on average its beautiful stuff. Not sure how it bends, but will be getting some soon.

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

LOVE sycamore. A little soft for a neck, but I've used it laminated with walnut. Don't see it much here, which is strange since California has it's own native variety: plantanus racemosa. The lace figure can be made to pop with a little judicious use of dye.

Quarter sawn sycamore is beautiful. My only complaint is that it doesn't have any chatoyance. As for necks, I had an email exchange with Cumpiano about sycamore for neck material; he spoke very favorably of it.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

You can find some poplar if you look around with a slight curl that should be enough to give a chatoyance. The dead on quartered poplar often has a decent ring when "thumped", but I have never tried to use it. I would imagine as long as you stay pretty well quartered you it make a nice instrument, just like sycamore does.