Tony T || Amatuer Luthier shares his Bari-Uke projects

I received an email from a reader who is an amatuer luthier from West Virginia. I asked Tony if it would be okay to share with the bari-world thru Humble Baritonics. It's a bit of an impromptu guest post. Here's his message with some great photos...

Hello HumbleUker:

I just wanted to introduce myself and share a few baritone ukes I've built. I'm an amateur builder who started building ukes just a couple of years ago, and it's sort of taken off. I'm presently toward the end of a string of cigar box ukes I've built, one of which is a baritone.

The first image is a steel string baritone I built. Body is California Bay Laurel, and soundboard is torrefied Sitka Spruce. It has a MiSi electronic pickup. The sound is certainly different, and I played it as an accompaniment instrument in church for several months before COVID struck. Finish is polyurethane over shellac.

Tony T's Steel String Baritone

The second image is a baritone cigar box uke I finished less than a month ago. I used a Don Tomas large Spanish Cedar humidor as the body, removing the heavy plywood back and replacing it with Western Red Cedar, and that became the soundboard. Finish is Tru-Oil over shellac.

Tony T's Cigar Box Bari

The final image is of my current projects. The larger instrument is a baritone uke with a Kamaka-style paddle shape head. Body is Black Walnut and the soundboard sinker Western Red Cedar. The Walnut/Maple laminate neck is actually from an off-cut I saved from a guitar project I started way back in 2004. The smaller instrument in the back is a concert scale cigar box uke, made from a Davis 1886 Redwood cigar box.The neck uses Black Cherry wood I salvaged when we remodeled our home in the early 2000s.

Tony T's Works In Progress

I have another baritone uke that I'll be finishing later this Summer, but that's it for now.

Tony T, West Virginia