Handmade ukuleles created
with a unique shell back design for a
deep sonic musical journey.
I love making ukuleles for two reasons: One, I really love playing them myself as it has become my favourite instrument to play. Two: I find the ukulele community more open minded to funky creative, artsy ideas. Between all these beautiful woods and vivid colours, I have more ideas then I could ever possibly build. Exciting!
They really are individual pieces of art.
There’s basically two ways to get one of my ukuleles.
One: is to commission me to build one for you.
Two: keep an eye on my For Sale page and see what’s coming up in my non commissioned builds.
For custom orders you can choose from:
Wood type/finish for Shell.
Neck wood.
Soundboard wood/finish, colour.
Fingerboard wood.
Scale length/size.
Concert, Tenor, Baritone
Body sizes- you can mix and match body with neck size, For example you can ask for a tenor body size with a concert neck/fingerboard(scale length.) (Fingerboard spacing).
A large baritone is wider and deeper than my regular baritone. It’s the biggest I offer in ukulele.
Themes- by this I mean if you see a ukulele here that I have made and you like the style or the artistry of it.
Let me know.
There’s also options for nut width and neck shape.
Below are my most recent builds in the order of most recent. You can click on the image and be taken to a page with more pictures, video and detailed information about that build to help give some ideas. Most of them are marked sold because they were a commission.
Tenor Ukulele
2024 SOLD
Concert Ukulele
2024 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele FB
2024 For Sale
Tenor Ukulele FB
2024 SOLD
Bariton Ukulele FB
2024 SOLD
Concert Ukulele FB
2024 SOLD
Concert Ukulele
2024 for sale
Concert Ukulele
2024 SOLD
Concert Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele FB
2024 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Concert Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Concert Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele
2023 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele
2022 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2021 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2022 SOLD
10 stringTenor Ukulele
2022 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2021 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2021 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele
2021 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2021 SOLD
Baritone Ukulele
2020 SOLD
5 string tenor Ukulele
2020 SOLD
Tenor Ukulele
2020 SOLD
offerings
Woods
I select all my woods carefully for each project. Thinking about how I want the grain to run for maximum strength to creating a symphony of wood tones and colours.
I buy most of my woods Exotic Woods, a family run business that knows me well. Sometimes they even have something put aside from me. I like one-off special pieces.
I can offer some guidance on selecting woods for your instrument. Helping you achieve the best sound and look of your sonic sound sculpture.
Parts
Jescar fret wire made of high quality materials and are long lasting, not to mention the amazing tone you will get with them.
The Mi-Si Acoustic Trio Uke system features an active, battery-free preamp designed specifically to work with the L.R. Baggs ukulele pickup
Check out there website if you want to know more. HERE.
Gotoh 510 tuners 18:1 ratio for fine tuning.
These tuners are exquisite. Found also on most high end guitars.
There smooth rotation and fine finish add so much value to any instrument.
Included in my builds are these handcrafted tuner knobs, usually made with Cocobolo.
I also include the original tuner knobs if these are not to your liking.
Are the ones I make better?
No, but they look perfect for the instrument.
Carbon Fiber neck reinforcement.
I also radius all my fingerboards. Which make playing chords easier.
When your neck is made solid with vertical grain wood and a neck reinforcement your tone and sustain will be better and the neck will last a lifetime.
Two strap buttons always included. Matching the tuner hardware.
Included is a soft padded case/bag.
This the best I have found up to this point that works with the shape of my instruments and provides good protection.
The problem with any hard case is as soon as I make a variation in scale length, depth or shape it no longer works. So . .
I also offer a handmade hard case at an extra cost. Because of my unique design and allowing people to choose different sizes and such, it’s impossible for me to
stock hard cases that would work with everything. This case offers great protection, but does have it’s limits as I am not a professional case maker.
If you want to know more about the handmade hard case check out HERE
Ukulele Community
The amazing Pete Howlett
Kalei from The Ukulele Site
Matt from World of Ukes
Testimonials
"Hi Ray,
So it’s been a week and a half that I’ve had the ukulele home and I am loving it.
“I am constantly finding small areas of detail about the woodwork that make me smile. I really like the feel of the neck and how easy it is for me to play. That bit of extra width works great and I am finding the sounds that work for me. Thank you.
All the best,
Peter”
“I just saw this thread and just thought I'd chime in if someone was reading. I absolutely love my Ray Vincent... I have a blue steel string baritone with a magnetic pickup and it's phenomenal. Easier playability than any other steel string instrument I've tried and even easier than the Koolau CE-1 baritone I got around the same time that was even more expensive, and nylon. They're obviously very different instruments, but I primarily play both plugged in and the Ray Vincent has definitely gotten more use. Beautiful looking, but strumming especially more popular/country/Indie music it really can do things and achieve a sound that other ukuleles just can't even if it isn't necessarily traditional for the instrument by any means.”
Sean M
“Many of you know I'm always on the lookout for a different voice in my ukes. Well this uke grabbed my attention because it was just so darned cool and unusual and the design so wildly "acoustic and sonic" that I had to take a chance. This crazy design comes from the mind and ear of Ray Vincent, also a ukulele player.
First I have to admit, I was really worried whether the "sonic" sound would live up to it's name. I mean I kind of get the shell design channeling the sound, and the volume of the body is huge compared to standard or even Super tenors. And seeing that it attracted the likes of Pete Howlette eased my worries (wonder if this is where the logo for the Revelator came from).
You got to check out his website to realize my uke is a "toned down" version compared to some others, and I'm glad of that. First how does it feel? Kind of reminds me of the round back Ovations, great for projection but tough to rest on your leg sitting down. With a strap, (comes with 2 strap buttons) the nice rounded back lays nicely against you. The high top side of the uke does look different but doesn't feel different while playing (strapped in). And the large opening near the top side is like a super side sound port. Made me wonder are the people out in front hearing any of this? My wife says "quit strumming so loud!" so I guess it's projecting. It's very well made in it's proportions, the neck is a little thicker than typical Big K models, not so much that it felt clunky, just a little beefier. Great fretboard, he uses cross sections of wood branches and even pine cones for his fret markers, and the Jescar "EVOgold" frets and copper fret side markets are right in line with the warm earth tones of the uke. Also a nice touch that Ray makes his own tuner buttons for the Gotoh 510 tuners, each set made for the woods of its uke (original buttons included as well). The tailpiece is a mini piece of artwork all by itself. Multiple types and layers of wood and a hand-hammered piece of copper that ties it all to the bottom. Best for last? The crazy Nautilus shell back, can't even imagine dreaming up such a creation let alone building it. Glad it came in a handmade case!
So yes I LOVE the looks! As for sound, the Western red cedar top makes it warm, the design makes it almost thunderous when you strum it hard. Add the low G and you have feel it rumbling against you. I want to change it to a high G to balance out the cavernous cedar topped body. But I'm going to play it for a while just because I'm a sucker for big and warm! I'll stop talking so you can enjoy the photos.”
Rhiggie -from ukulele underground forum
“The tone is warm and has a woody edge (though I suspect would brighten up with a re-entrant G, which I think I would personally prefer) and has excellent clarity. When strummed the staccato edge gives it much more of a rhythmical, bouncy sound which is spritely and enjoyable, much as you will get when strumming a resonator. What surprised me is how it turns into a different beast when fingerpicked as it has a really pleasant chimey tone to the notes that hold their volume right up the neck and tend to display more sustain too. And of course, if you play both together in chord melody style, a strum here, a picked fill there, you get a bit of both worlds. For me I think it suits melody and picking more than strumming, but I can see how the strummed tone would appeal to a more jazzy / ragtime type tune. I suspect I will get some comments from people who don't think the tone is for them (which is cool) but remember - this is not a Kamaka Tenor with the usual overtones of a trad built double bout instrument. Just like the looks, the sound here is 'different' too. Well, it had to be! Personally, I dig it!”
Baz of Got A Ukulele. Full review Here
“Topping that is more Canary wood for the fingerboard. It's fitted with 24 Evo Gold frets (a superb high end fret material) joined at the body at the 18th. That's very unusual when you consider this is still a 17 inch scale tenor. It gives it the feel of a much larger instrument (and I'm not just talking about the body) with a lot of room to play. Almost like a tenor guitar feel. The frets are polished and dressed as good as any I have any I have ever seen on an instrument as I think some followers will have seen on the sneak peek pictures I shared earlier in the week. They really are outstanding. The position markers are in somewhat unusual positions at the 3rd, 7th and 12th. I say 'unusual', yet these are positions often used on ukuleles, but the lack of a marker at the 5th and 10th at first threw me is all! But it's all about aesthetics as you get those dots added in on the side in small brass inlays! The outward dots are circular cross sections of pine branches like on the back of the body, only much smaller. What a neat idea! They look great!”
Baz from Got A Ukulele. Full review Here.
