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 […]
One of my favorite clients named this new instrument the Frankenuke Super Tenor Ukulele. I am thinking this is a creative name for a creative instrument. Now I feel like the Young (or maybe Old) Frankenstein of ukuleles. The Build I have a lot of unmatched “pieces parts” and leftovers. You can’t throw away exotic […]
Here’s a custom request from back east–a Six String Redwood Baritone Ukulele. The top wood is the feature on this instrument. Personally picked out by the client, this is an exceptional piece of old growth California Redwood. It is my understanding that almost all of this type of wood is salvaged from previously cut stump […]
This new Tenor Bearclaw and Koa Pineapple Ukulele shipped out yesterday. This is the second instrument for Ken who actually provided the Koa wood for this build. Originally he wanted a concert ukulele, thinking that the wood set gave me would only support an instrument of that size. I gave him the option, though, of […]
I have another good match for the Ancient Spruce tops–dark and curly Oregon Myrtle. This is the Ancient Spruce and Curly Myrtle Super Tenor Ukulele. I’m glad that John requested this combination of woods because I was in la-la land about how best to display the next set of ancient spruce wood. Previously I used […]
It’s really nice to have friends in low places. Last year, I received from a client and good friend several sets of Asian black and white ebony–sometimes called “moon ebony”. Anxious to give it a go, I created this Black and White Swiss Moon Ukulele. It’s a super tenor. The wood story I heard that […]
Here’s a recent project that was some time in the making–Carol’s Music Box Baritone Ukulele. I know that Carol would love to have had an ukulele where every piece of wood was a different and exotic (I’m going to make one of those by the way) but she settled on this figured, blond and highly […]
