I met Gerald Ross at the Port Townsend Ukulele Festival many years ago and immediately fell in love with his super-tasty arrangements…and sometimes groan-worthy jokes between songs:-). The Lyric Tenor design—which puts the bridge in a particularly sweet sounding location while maintaining 14 frets to the body—combines with a potent-yet-warm sinker redwood top and rosewoody harmonic extravagance to make me smile each time I hear him.

Gerald’s great repertoire of jazz standards on uke made the name Duke almost inevitable.😬

The build process was an adventure—after completing the body, I thought it was excellent but somehow not exactly a “Duke”. After struggling with that for several days I screwed up my courage to call him and suggest that I build it again with sister cuts of both the redwood and rosewood. He admirably hid his doubts about my sanity, and you can hear him make it sing here.

Model: Lyric Tenor
Top: Sinker redwood
Back and sides: Amazon rosewood
Binding: Santos rosewood
Rosette: paua abalone
Neck: Honduran mahogany
Tuning machines: Gotoh UPTL
Fretboard: Ceylon ebony
Bridge: rosewood, bone saddle