Uke Makers: When the Wood Speaks, Ken Franklin Listens

BY E.E. BRADMAN | FROM THE FALL 2024 ISSUE OF UKULELE

It’s just a coincidence that Ukiah shares a first syllable with ukulele, but this little town two hours north of San Francisco sure does love the instrument. There’s the Ukiah Uke Fest, the Ukiah Uke Tones ensemble, and ukulele classes at the Ukiah School of Music and the Mendocino County Library. One person who’s had his fingers on many of these strings is longtime resident and uke booster Ken Franklin, whose elegant, innovative instruments have garnered attention far beyond the confines of this five-square mile community of 16,000. 

Franklin built his first guitar in 1973, and after several other adventures—ceramics, theater, choir, and mostly a couple of decades of teaching elementary school—he began building custom guitars again in 2003. When his mom passed away, her 1930s ukulele passed on to his nephew, but it needed work; after a minor restoration, Franklin saw the possibilities of the instrument and ended up making one for himself. That ukulele caught the eye of friends and inspired him to keep building instruments, spurred on by support from the ukulele community. 

“I’ve never been a great salesman, but YouTube demos from great musicians like Corey Fujimoto, Kalei Gamiao, and Mika Kane on The Ukulele Site put my instruments in the hands of players who really appreciate what I do,” says Franklin. Since then, his ukuleles have consistently elicited rave reviews, logging studio and stage time with Judy Fjell, Marcy Marxer, Tim Farrell, Steve Baughman, Alex De Grassi, and others. “I became more successful as an ukulele maker than a guitar maker,” he says, laughing. “People liked my guitars, but they really liked my ukuleles.”

Was it easy to make ukuleles after making guitars for years?
When I first started, ukulele players would say that guitar builders made heavy ukuleles. I took that to heart. I used to build fairly light guitars, but there’s a major difference between a nearly 1/8-inch guitar top and a slightly more than 1/16-inch ukulele top. I had to be more careful about how I do things. There’s not a lot of room for error inlaying a 1/32-inch rosette. 

Are the back and sides just as important as the top?
Some people say the back and sides can be pretty much anything if you have responsive top wood. I usually subscribe to that notion, but the back and sides do influence the quality and character of the instrument’s tone, too. 

Are you selective when it comes to wood?
I appreciate all kinds of wood. I have over 40 species of wood for making instruments that I’ve stored for years. Each wood adds its unique elements to the overall tonal response. 

I’m looking for dry, well-seasoned wood, generally with vertical grain and a musical response when struck. It needs to resist cracking, too, and have minimal runout. 

My back and sides are mostly hardwoods running the tonal spectrum, from glassy ebonies to ringing rosewoods to warm, woody mahoganies. My tops are usually very responsive softwoods. I’ve had the best results with Engelmann spruce, Alaskan yellow cedar, and incense cedar. 

How does your background as a musician overlap with you being a luthier?
There are some good musicians who don’t build very well and some good builders who don’t play very well. I’m in the latter category [laughs]. If you’re brilliant like Wayne Henderson, you can do both exceptionally well. My playing ability is just good enough for what I like to do, and I can hear the tones from the instruments that make fine music. That informs my building. 

What else do you listen for?
I want the ukulele to sound great all the way up the neck. A lot of ukuleles sound good in the first position, but once you get up the neck, they lose their mojo. The woods I use and the way I build make for an even response. I also want good note-to-note separation, complex overtones, and engaging sustain—but not so much sustain that you lose the fundamentals. It’s a balancing act.

Besides tone and appearance, what else do you consider as you’re building an instrument?
Playability. You want players to be able to get around the fingerboard easily without fiddling around. For that, you need an instrument that has volume and presence, even when the action is low. 

Do you mostly use woods local to Northern California?
I use a lot of local woods, but I get wood from everywhere—luthier supply houses, lumber stores, wood dealers, and friends’ logs that I’ve re-sawn. Some of my wood is very local, though. My next-door neighbor cut down a sycamore tree, and I love the figure of it, so I made a couple of ukuleles with it; a large limb from a forest red gum tree just outside my window had to be removed. The two trees were no more than 200 feet from each other. Sometime soon, I plan to build a tenor with red gum back and sides and a sycamore top. It should look marvelous. I’m crossing my fingers about how it will sound. 

How do you assess the wood as you go?
I tap and listen throughout the building process. I’m not listening for a certain frequency, but rather a quality of sound. The wood might not always give me what I’m listening for right away, but once it’s braced, I have a good idea where the build is going. 

Does bracing have that much of an impact on tone?
The bracing that’s good for a steel-string guitar is similar to what I’ve found to be good for tenor ukuleles. X-bracing can promote the complex sound that I strive for: sustain, clarity, note separation, and lush overtones. An ukulele can sometimes sound thin and bright, but X-bracing can open that up and give you richness in the low end. Each brace in the system has a purpose and is sized and carved accordingly. As I’m bracing and carving, I’m tapping and listening, letting the wood talk to me. Most times, it’s telling me something pretty good. 

How do you begin building a custom instrument for someone?
First, I find out what kind of music they like to play. Are they predominantly a fingerstyle player or a strummer? Are they going to play in small groups or by themselves? Do they need more volume for a larger group? My ukuleles are usually pretty loud, but if I need to, I can increase the power with certain woods and bracing modifications. The power comes at a cost to sensitivity and intimacy, though. Once I know what a player wants, I can guide them to woods that I think will do the best job. 

Does the tone of your instruments change over time?
Not usually. To a significant extent, they sound the way I want them to right out of the box. Ukuleles that are overbuilt can improve over time. I try not to build those. 

What, to you, defines an “overbuilt” instrument?
An instrument that’s overbuilt has aspects that inhibit the transfer of string energy to the soundboard. It could be plates that are thicker than they need to be, tall or thick braces, or even a thick, beautiful finish. Any of those things can constrict the sound of the instrument. Many overbuilt instruments sound fine in most musical situations—they’re just not what I’m striving for, which is just enough structure to keep the instrument from collapsing and still stand the test of time. 

Do you learn a lot by experimenting?
I’ve heard it said that you can build the same instrument a hundred times or build a hundred different instruments. I don’t exactly do either, but I try to have one or more new elements on each build. You can’t just change one variable like a controlled experiment; life is too short, and all the building materials can’t be controlled anyway. But to make progress, you have to keep learning. 

Have you ever been pleasantly surprised?
I made an eight-string guitar once that was almost the size of some baritone ukuleles. I used an all-acacia wood body from a tree from San Francisco. I was skeptical of the outcome, but it had a beautiful, commanding presence, and the widest frequency range of anything I’ve built. Then there was the five-string banjo disguised as a uke that I built for banjoist and guitar player Steve Baughman. And he wanted it to be fretless, no less! I didn’t think it could work. I even experimented with a Douglas fir top. But it sounded great, almost like an old gourd banjo. 

I’m assuming you talk to other luthiers about this stuff, too. 
I have a number of luthier friends I’ve met at guitar and ukulele shows over the years. They’re always willing to share ideas, just not everything [laughs]. I’m also a member of the Northern California Association of Luthiers, though I haven’t gone to the meetings for a while. You can always get some valuable insight [at meetings] even if you’re building different instruments. And we swap wood. Then there’s my friend Link Van Cleave, a master woodworking graduate of the Krenov School in Fort Bragg. We have expertise that’s beneficial to each other.

What do you think about the future of ukuleles?
I don’t know, but I think the high-end ukulele market could be slowing down. People who want to pay $4,000 and up for an ukulele might have all the ukuleles they want. It’s still a popular instrument, but it doesn’t go well with some modern music. Carbon fiber ukuleles will probably become more popular. They’re durable, portable, weatherproof and almost bulletproof, and they’re getting better all the time. 

How do those instruments sound to you?
They’re not as sensitive as wooden instruments, but they sound good. After all, ukulele is about the music and the camaraderie. I’m the first to say that what I do isn’t for many, but I’d like to think that my ukuleles can take someone to a musical place they haven’t been before. 

What advice would you give to someone interested in building ukuleles?
There’s a heck of a lot of information on YouTube. See if there’s a luthier group in your area. Maybe there’s a local builder willing to share their expertise. Just remember that in many cases, it has taken a builder years of trial and error to get to the place they’re at. Don’t take that for granted, and don’t expect to hear all the secrets of the trade. 

Considering the lifetime of experience that goes into each instrument, what do you say to someone who considers your ukuleles too expensive?
For a while, I wanted to make high-end instruments for the developing player that weren’t too expensive. But the closer I get to the end of my building career, I think that all these years of knowledge and ability shouldn’t be worth less than anyone else’s. 

Are my ukuleles expensive? Sure, but I have about 150 hours in each one. If get $3,000 for an ukulele, that’s $20 an hour for a lot of beauty and expertise. I made $60 an hour teaching elementary students [laughs]. Should a playful, fun little instrument cost so much? Probably not. But I think my ukuleles are pretty special, and I work hard to make them that way. 

What’s most important to you these days?
I’ll be 74 this year. From here on out, family is the most important thing. I still enjoy playing music with my friends, but I’m cutting back on my community ukulele efforts, and for as long as I can, I’ll be making ukuleles that aren’t quite like anyone else’s.