It is mango season–it’s always mango season! Here’s the latest instrument to clear the shop. This is the Sweet Mango Tenor Ukulele. I keep thinking that the reconstituted stone rosette is apricot in color but I think it’s actually mango. They are pretty close in color anyway. It’s just not screaming orange. For some reason […]
Tired of the same old Koa thing? Here’s a new build that I’m pretty excited about. This is a Quilt Maple Super Tenor Ukulele. No stain, just natural–it’s all about the wood! Maple has long been used as the back and side material of choice in jazz quitars and bowed instruments. Taylor Guitars recently introduced […]
No, not again!!! I had to make another Frankenuke. I’m calling this one the Son of Frankenuke Tenor Ukulele, it being the offspring of the Frankenuke Super Tenor Ukulele. Some time ago a luthier-to-the-stars made some guitars with split sound boards of spruce and cedar. I thought this was very cool since the seam was […]
I totally forgot that I delivered the Blue Bear Super Tenor Ukulele to Hale Ukulele this February. BTW: Shout out for Hale Ukulele’s grand re-opening the week of July 4th–Yippee! Ric is the only game in town south of Huntington Beach and stocks most all of your uke needs. This year I am determined to […]
Walt always comes up with some combination of woods that I’ve never used. Here’s his Pier Piling Super Tenor Ukulele. The Sound Board According to Walt, the sound board for this instrument used to be pier pilings for a navy fuel dock in San Diego bay. The pier was constructed around 1920 so we’re […]
Okay gang! Here’s one for the books. This is the Teredo Worm Concert Ukulele custom. The sound board is a heavily damaged piece of Alaskan Sitka Spruce–no need for a sound hole here. There are a couple of guitars floating around the world with this look; but, to my knowledge, this is the first ukulele–a long […]
Hale Ukulele in San Diego has been closed, as are most businesses presently, because of the virus situation. I talked to Ric the other day and we decided that it might be a good idea to let you know that he really stocked-up well just before he had to close: Pono, Islander, Kala, Koaloha, Pepe […]
I guess I hit upon a favorable combination of woods because it seems that people can’t get enough of the ancient spruce and ambrosia maple combination. This is the latest build using this combination of woods–the Tribal Turtle Super Tenor Ukulele. The Wood Story The top is 3000 year old sitka spruce from Alaska […]
The last “my” ukulele went to good friend Steve. So, I replaced it with My ‘I’iwi Super Tenor Ukulele. This one will stay. I actually kinda fumbled through this build. The ‘I’iwi Bird inlay by Craig Lavin is the first part of the build. I didn’t know what I was going to use it one […]
My daughter ordered the Keali’i Koa Super Tenor Ukulele. She said to just make it nice and left the rest to me. Hmmmmm! For this build I decided to go back to some basics with a plain Koa look. Well, I guess that this Koa is not that plain looking. Some of the world’s best […]
