This was a one off instrument, which has now been sold.

This is a handmade tenor ukulele from Canada, produced by the much-vaunted luthier, Martin van Humbeck. Martin makes ukuleles in his workshop on Vancouver Island, and I’ve been lucky enough to have several of these fantastic ukes to World of Ukes over recent years. The sound they produce is spectactular, and this spruce and mango tenor uke is no exception.

There’s a lot of visual flair demonstrated in this Beck ukulele build, which I will come to… but first to the sound. I want to say ‘articulate’ when describing it, because each not sounds out so clearly. You’d expect brightness from spruce and you get it, and yet the immediacy of the response to picking a note is slightly softended somehow, almost like it’s a piano hammer. I know, I know… a slightly odd description but that’s what it put me in mind of. Strummed and there’s a beautiful chime, always with some sprucey zing, but with body to back it up, complexity in the harmonics and a big boost of volume when you need it. It rings and rings too, with great sustain.

This one, the Martin van Humbeck tenor ukulele #192, is made from master grade Englemann spruce, paired with solid spalted maple on the back and sides. It has a 36.5mm nut width, with generous string spacing to make the radiussed freboard (made from ebony) feel spacious and easy to navigate. The nut and saddle are bone, with Jescar EVO Gold frets and fabulous Gotoh 510i super mini geared tuners, with gold finish and ebony buttons.

This Martin Beck ukulele is supplied with a dark green tweed effect hard case, and is finished in gloss with tru-oil, and has a mahogany neck, reinforced with carbon fibre, and is fitted with Worth Clears. It’s high G as standard, but kindly Martin includes a Fremont low G in the case if you want to experiement. This model has sitka spruce X bracing.

On then, to the myriad aesthetic features of this brilliant instrument. It has deep red Brazilian bloodwood binding (actually, calling it ‘deep red’ was superflous as with ‘bloodwood’ you get the idea!), with a Macassar ebony, Paua abalone and bloodwood soundhoke rosette. The headstock (faced with ebony) has a mother of pearl logo with a Celtic Triquetra design, fantastically executed in mother of pearl and abalone. The tail graft is ebony, bridge pins are bloodwood and finally (phew… I want to stop typing and start playing again), there’s Martin’s signature side sound port too.

Yes, this uke is a lot of money, but when you count up not just the hours taken to make it but the years of learning, developing designs and acquiring the expertise to produce an instrument like this, you can start to understand why. It’s a tricky one… with materials and transport having increased in recent years, and the fact that Martin realised that in the past, his hourly rate was minute, they have gone up in price… but still, the opportunity to own a ukulele that is one of a small number, entirely handmade and built with love and mastery of the craft of instrument making? It’s hard to put a price on that.

This uke comes with a (spare low G), a hard case and a fitted strap button. If you’d like me to fit the low G, or want to add a strap, these options are available below, if you scroll down.

For a video demo of this uke in action, click additional info below.