Uke Makers: Ray Vincent’s Nature-Inspired Designs are a Wonder of Woodworking
BY NICOLAS GRIZZLE | FROM THE SUMMER 2026 ISSUE OF UKULELE
Ray Vincent’s ukuleles look more like something you’d find under the sea than at a local ukulele jam. But they sure do sound right at home among a school of other four-strings.
From his garage workshop in eastern Ontario, Canada, Vincent crafts ukes with shell-shaped backs made from overlapping pieces of wood. They have the appearance of a nautilus—that living fossil of a cephalopod with a chambered, spiraling shell—sliced in half, as the tops are all solid, flat wood. A floating bridge, akin to a 1920’s manouche or Selmer-style guitar, only adds to the eye-catching appearance.
I’d never seen anything like them before, and was somewhat skeptical at first that such artistic looking creations could still perform as functional instruments. But these aren’t sold in galleries or catalogs—they go for upwards of $4,500 at reputable online uke shops—and through professional demo videos I could tell they weren’t just about looks.
“The advantage of being so experimental is I have a lot of good judgment on how to achieve what I’m looking for,” says Vincent. “I still get super excited with every new idea and build.”
Vincent took a somewhat circuitous route to lutherie. A self-taught woodworker, he began by making an instrument of his own creation, a type of bowed electric dulcimer he calls the Root. “As a composer, I was working on some of my own music and wanted an instrument that had a unique sound,” he says. “I came across the golden ratio while going down a YouTube rabbit hole and thought the idea of creating a nautilus shell–shaped instrument could be really interesting for sound. I was also getting into playing ukulele at the time so I created my own version and next thing I knew I was hooked.”
I caught up with Vincent to ask about the techniques he uses to make his ukes, where he came up with the idea, and what they feel and sound like to play.
Your shell-back ukulele has a unique design. What led you to creating it?
The main thing was really the shell, and that it has this great acoustic sound already. And I thought, Well, what if you made an instrument based on that? And then the golden ratio, the Fibonacci spiral, I kind of worked all that into it as well. I did paper mache (trials) and I went through all these different ideas to try to get there. Then I figured out the wood layering on top of each other and building it out over a form. Once I figured that out, I was really happy with it and I kept going. They’re really light, because it is really just two layers of veneer connected to each other. And they have a great acoustic sound, of course.
How does the shell design affect the sound and the playability?
The shell definitely gives it, because of the roundness, a bit of an Ovation (guitar manufacturer known for its round-back guitars) sound. Sometimes people are a little worried about how that’s going to feel, but it feels good—it just might be a bit more slippery, depending on how you hold it. It’s good that way too, though, because you’re not dampening the flat surface against your body.
The sound is great. It projects really well. I’ve experimented with a lot of different woods, but koa, spruce, and western red cedar are my favorite to work with. I would say it’s a little deeper of a sound than my flat-backs, for example. And the way I do the strings over the bridge—it’s kind of a banjo-style with a tailpiece. So that also gives it a lot of projection.
With the shell-back I’m always experimenting with different soundhole types and positions, and bridge styles. I have mostly made them with floating bridges, but as we speak I’m working on a fixed one. Each ukulele is an art piece with its own voice.
What’s the process for making the shell-back ukes?
I start by cutting two identical veneer pieces for each section of the shell. Then I glue those together over a shell form I made. Because it’s two pieces glued together, they hold the shape. When I have all the sections, I shape them so they fit and look how I want. Then I glue them together using an old boat-building method, where each piece is slightly overlapping. This creates a lot of strength and stability. I use fish glue for this part for its strength and ease of cleanup.
Then it goes into the vacuum press and stays there overnight. After I take it out of the press, I leave it on the form for about a week so the glue can harden. Then I start adding veneers layer by layer around the rim, giving it more strength and something to clamp the soundboard to. There are also extra pieces where the tail block would be.
What kind of specific woodworking skills do you employ for this?
Working with the veneers has been a journey of getting the right size of each piece of the shell for strength and the right look. Think of the old Viking boats, where they overlapped the pieces at the bottom of the boat—that’s how I attach each shell piece together.
One of the trickiest parts I had to figure out is where the shell attaches to the neck, which I call the “side panel.” Cutting and shaping all the different angles and parts to fit snuggly to the shell takes some time to get it perfect. I’m using files, my Dremel, and patience to shape the side panel. The better your joints and connection points fit, the better the sound travels through the instrument; everything fitting just right is so important.
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Tell me about the other ukes you make.
I started with the shell a long time ago. But then I started doing some flat-back versions, which kind of mimic the shell. The shell is obviously a lot more work—like, way more work—so it’s nice having both because then I can have two different price points. The flat-back is pretty close to a standard ukulele. And I put a volume knob in the center because it’s electric-acoustic. I’ve done acoustic versions of it as well.
What kind of pickups do you use?
I use Artec undersaddle passive pickups, but I’ll also install MiSi active pickups if somebody wants them. If it’s a custom piece, I’ll put whatever they want in there.
Is the floating bridge on the flat-backs as well?
I’ve done it on the flat-backs, but they’re usually string-through.
You mentioned the Ovation style and the floating bridge. In guitars that brings to mind a focused sound with a little more midrange, is that what you find happens with your ukes?
Yeah, exactly. It gets a lot more focus. Like anything, some people might like that, some people might not. It definitely has a unique sound. If it looks different, you’d want to have it have its own sound. But at the same time, it’s not so different that as a ukulele player you wouldn’t be able to enjoy it or be able to get into it the same way. The body size feels the same, really.
What sizes do you make?
I offer the shell-back in concert, tenor, baritone, and ukulele-bass sizes. I’ve never actually done a soprano shell-back, I think it would be too small. The flat-back is available in all those sizes plus soprano. For custom builds, I have done different combinations of body and scale length, and I have done some more unusual instruments with different string counts, fan frets, and other experimental ideas.
What are some of the details you like to add as your own personal style?
On the headstock, I do a crosscut of a pine cone. The pine cone is set in epoxy and then sliced and inlaid. The visual effect is stunning and I love that it’s something in nature. That’s become a thing that I do now with all of them in the headstock. For the tuners, I make my own wooden pegs. And on the inlay on the fretboard, I do a crosscut of a branch on the third, seventh, and 12th frets.
How did you get started in lutherie and what was your woodworking experience before that?
When I was younger, I did like to build things and was in wood shop. I built an electric guitar when I was maybe 18, just the body. Then when I was living in the city, I couldn’t really do that stuff anymore but I was a musician in bands and stuff. It was actually later on that I felt like I wanted to make something again.
I wanted to make something unique and special. So I started just for myself. I started working on some ideas and then I wanted to make better versions of them. Eventually I realized I loved doing this more than making music. Then my friends wanted me to make them one. And then, as they say, I got the bug, and I just kept wanting to build more and more. I loved it and I still love it, and I still feel excited for the next build. There’s so much more to learn.
When you said you were playing in bands, were you playing guitar?
Yeah. But, the first instrument I ever played was ukulele. I never played it in bands or anything. But when we had jam nights, I would always pick it up a lot. So it was always there.
I’m curious about the golden ratio aspect of your ukes. What drew you to that concept?
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I was working on my music, and I came across 432 tuning and all these alternate tunings on YouTube. And that’s when I also came across the Fibonacci spiral and the golden ratio and how that’s everywhere in nature. I’m not really a math person—I like to just get in there and experiment by hand rather than write everything out mathematically—but it still intrigued me. I thought, Well, this sounds pretty important, like it’s well worth making an instrument based on it.
And the inside of your instruments, are they chambered like a nautilus?
No, it’s just one cavity. The way I thought of it was that I make the bridge land right over top of where the center part would be. I thought of the sound pushing its way out around the chamber, so that’s why I do the soundholes at the top.
The soundholes are kind of small in comparison to a standard instrument. How does that affect the tone and volume?
The soundholes are smaller, but if you add them up, they would equal one big one. And I usually do them at the top because in my mind, the sound would start from the center and move outward in that spiral. And that’s closer to the player, so it would be louder to them also.
What type of music or what piece of an ensemble would your shell-back ukes really be most suited for, in your mind?
I think someone who wants to do more of the lead kind of pieces, and be able to punch through the other sounds. Just because it is sort of more distinct, it would come out through the other instruments.
