A 30,000 Year Old Ukulele


Recently, my friend Peter Hurney, a ukulele maker in Berkeley, Califoria, showed me an amazing ukulele. He came up to me at a party and said, "Bu, you want to see a 30,000 year old uke?" Well, needless to say, my interested was peaked. Peter then showed me a ukulele he had just made. The back and sides were made out of Kauri wood, estimated to be between 30,000 and 50,000 years old (verified by carbon dating). From Peter's website, here is what he says about Kauri wood...

"The wood that I constructed this instrument out of is its real special feature. A while back I had read in a wood magazine about some Kauri wood that a crew had unearthed in a New Zealand peat bog that dated back 30,000 to 50,000 years ago. A grove of Kauri trees (which currently is a species which still grows in New Zealand) sunk in a peat bog and had preserved in a unique set of environmental conditions since before the last ice age. The wood that is being salvaged today is fully workable, sandable, bendable and finishable. The only difference I notice working with it is that it has no noticeable wood smell. After reading the article about this wood I wrote to and arranged to procure enough Kauri to build a couple of instruments with. Incidentally, the age of this wood was determined by several scientists using radio-carbon dating."

That's only part of the story of this amazing ukulele. The soundboard is made of old growth redwood. Now don't worry, no spotted owls were harmed in the making of this uke. No, this old growth redwood came from Peter's 100 year old closet, which he recently restored. The neck and peghead is made of spotted maple. This came from 'hurricane windfall' from Andrew Jackson's Tennessee estate (look on a 20 dollar bill, and there is the 9th President of the US.

Here are some pictures of this amazing ukulele...

Old growth closet redwood soundboard


Really, really old growth peat bog preserved Kauri back and sides (30,000 to 50,000 years old) and Andrew Jackson's maple for the neck and peghead


Peghead with petroglyph of ancient Hawaiian surfer dude.


Closeup of Kauri wood




Did I forget to mention how this uke sounds? Fantastic!!! In fact, it sounded so good, my wife and I bought it the night Peter showed us the uke. I'm happy to say, I have what just maybe the 'oldest' uke in the world. Forget those old Nunes and Diaz's. This uke is over 30,000 years older than those! To contact Peter Hurney of Pohaku Ukuleles, please visit his website.