The Ukulele Review video podcast showcased the "The Voice of the Luthier", a charity effort organized by Luthiers for a Cause, which sought to demonstrate how six world-class builders bring their own aesthetics and voicing to nearly identical sets of wood, sourced from legendary one-of-a-kind trees. The idea for the project came about to help answer the question about how the woods used and the builder each contribute to the final tone of an acoustic instrument.
The woods selected for the project are extremely rare. The body wood is from "The Tree", a one-of-a-kind, uniquely figured Honduran mahogany giant that laid in a ravine for almost 20 years before it was re-discovered. No other Honduran mahogany tree like it has ever been discovered. The soundboard is from Lucky Strike redwood, which is sourced from a storm-felled redwood which straddled a small ravine when it fell. A section of the tree the air-dried over many years, yielding redwood that has a much higher stiffness-to-weight ratio than is typically found in redwood. As a result, this redwood is said to provide the best attributes of both redwood and spruce.
These prized instruments will be auctioned by The Ukulele Site (https://theukulelesite.com) beginning in December. All proceeds will go to The Ukulele Kids Club, who provides ukuleles and music therapy to kids dealing with serious medical problems. Over 4,100 ukuleles have been placed in the hands of children at more than 200 hospitals who work with board-certified music therapists.
You can learn more about the luthiers and the woods used, buy LFAC merchandise and even donate straight to UKC on the Luthiers for a Cause website (www.luthiersforacause.org). Every $40 puts a ukulele in the hands of a child in need of the healing power of music for life.