Custom Instruments

Base Price:

Soprano: $1200

Concert: $1400

Tenor: $1500

Baritone: $1600

Guilele: $1700

Upgrades (Descriptions below):

Headstock:

Veneer: $50-$450

Slotted: Rounded: $250 Squared: $350

Radius Fretboard: $250

Bevels:

Arm Rest: $150

Rib Rest: $150

Soft Full Body Bevel 3/8”: $500/per side

Heavy Full Body Bevel 3/4”: $1000/per side

Binding: $250/per side

Rosette: $100-$450

Sculpt-away: $300-$1000

Side Sound Port: $150 Three dot side sound port: $150

Custom Wood Inlay: $250-$1200

Tuners: Waverlys: $100 (standard headstock) Gilberts: $200 (slotted headstock) Schertler: $100 (slotted headstock) PegHead: $100 Gotoh $100-200 (standard or slotted). Other tuners available upon request.

Pick Guards: $100-$250

Pickups: K&K $150, LR Baggs 5.0: $200,

Mi-Si $150.

Woods:

House wood options: These combinations have no extra charge added.

West coast Model: A more traditional look with great sound and using local woods. Rich browns and blacks of walnut mix well with the red and gold color of the salvaged redwood. A pick guard upgrade is a good option here to help protect the softer redwood. Walnut sourced from California is used for back and sides. Reclaimed redwood for the soundboards was salvaged ourselves during a friends cabin remodel!

Plant Model: Get an exotic look well rounded sound with sustainable poplar wood. We have sourced poplar wood with a large color variation. Colors such as yellow, purple, reds, whites and blacks all blend together in some of our poplar stash. We like to make accents with wood that complements the poplar in places such as fret markers or upgrades like our arm bevel, or simple rosette.

Other woods available at no extra charge: Salvaged cedar (found in construction site waste pile), Cherry, Sapele, myrtle, maple, spruce, various wood scrapped by our furniture making friends (please inquire).

Wood upgrades:

Koa: $100-$500

Figured Claro Walnut: $100-$200

Reclaimed Claro Walnut: $100 (reclaimed from Tahoe cabin counter top) Salvaged Curly

Redwood: $75 (this wood is very old and dense)

Ziricote back and sides: $150-$250

Rosewood back and sides: $150-$250

Cocobolo back and sides: $200-$300

Soundboards: options inquire for price. Salvaged cedar, sinker redwood, bear claw spruce, engelmann spruce, koa, mango, walnut and more.

Upgrade descriptions:

Headstock Veneer: This is a piece of wood glued to the top of the headstock. While mostly decorative, we believe this strengthens and neck to headstock bend, it also makes a nicer nut slot.

Slotted Headstock: Allows for side mounted tuners which put more down pressure on nut from strings.

Radius fret board: We put a 12 ft. radius on the fret board. This blends with the natural curve of your finger, and makes it a little easier to play bar chords. Traditionally ukuleles have a flat fret board, which some people argue is easier for finger picking.

Bevels: We can do a series of different bevels around the body to make the edge of the instrument round and more comfortable to play.

Arm rest bevel: placed on the soundboard side where your strumming arm rest. Rib rest bevel: placed on the back of instrument where it hits your ribs.

Soft full body bevel: a smaller round over around the whole body leaving no Square edges. This feature also allows us to build up and stiffen the rim which we feel allows the instrument to have more projection. Similar to a regular speaker, which has a metal rim, with thin material attached to it.

Heavy full body bevel: A full 3/4” round over around the body giving maximum comfort. This feature also allows us to build up and stiffen the rim, which we feel allows the instrument to have more projection. Similar to a regular speaker, which has a metal rim, with thin material attached to it.

Side sound Port: This is a great feature that helps open up the instrument and project sound directly to the person playing instead of out to the audience. This may benice if you want to practice quietly, or if you are playing with people and desire to hear yourself better. We typically do these round, but can also ovalize them or make them asymmetrical.

Sculpted cutaway: Similar to a cut-away, but we do this with an extended heal block, allowing us to actually sculpt into the instrument to fit your hand and make it easier to play up the neck, next to the body.

Rosette: The rosette is used for decoration and to strengthen the sound hole. This Makes the sound hole the one of the strongest parts of the sound board, instead of the weakest. Our simple rosette is just a solid piece of wood inlayed around the sound hole. For more complex rosettes, the possibilities are endless, so please inquire.

At Tyde Music we strive for excellence in comfort, style, and performance of our instruments. Our artistic approach to wood selection and creation helps us achieve this. We have developed many things to help the musician play longer and have better sound. Each instrument is equipped with advanced bracing selected for the desired sound or woods being used. Typically we do a modified fan bracing system with an asymmetrical pattern and floating center brace, then use tap tones to tune each brace. We feel this allows us to get the most out of our treble and bass sounds while achieving maximum resonance. Building musical instruments is our passion and we would love to work with you on your next instrument. 

-TYDE