This Martin Beck ukulele is the 205th instrument made by celebrated ukulele builder, Martin van Humbeck. Martin hails from Vancouver Island in Canada, and while he doesn’t make many (he’s been building for 30 years), what he does make is of the absolute highest standard. In 2024 one of his instruments was the highest rated uke reviewed on Got A Ukulele - and the joint highest ever. These are serious ukuleles made by an extremely talented man.

Number 205 is made from master grade Sitka spruce for the top, which has sitka spruce X bracing. The back and sides are solid Indian Rosewood, with an Amazon rosewood fingerboard, bloodwood binding and flamed koa headplate. The soundhole decoration brings these different woods together, with inlays of bloodwood and koa paired with Paua abalone.

This Martin Beck tenor uke has a 36.5mm nut width, with bone nut and compensated saddle. It has mother of pearl position markers on the fretboard and side of the neck. It is fitted with a high G Worth Clear strings. The tuners are Gotoh SGi510 super minis with ebony buttons. It also has a 16” radius on the fretboard. It is finished with a nitrocellulose lacquer.

In some ways all of that information seems a little dry. The things it was made from. How it is put together. While there’s no denying that is looks great and plays really well, what is a ukulele’s primary function? To generate sound. That’s where this tenor uke is set apart as it’s just so well balanced, so clear, so full, so rich and so lovely that it’s hard to put into words. If I could find the words, they’d be very lovely words, honest.

At the bottom of the page you’ll find some optional extras, which are standard across all of the ukes on the site. You can ignore the hard case option as this Martin Beck ukulele comes with a nice hard case. You can opt for a low G if you want (I particularly like this one in high G… but that might just be me!) And it has one strap button fitted already (though you can have another fitted if you like.

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