Entries by Kimo Ukulele

Keali’i Koa Super Tenor Ukulele

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 […]

Frankenuke Super Tenor Ukulele

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 […]

Six String Redwood Baritone Ukulele

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 […]

Tenor Bearclaw and Koa Pineapple Ukulele

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 […]

Ancient Spruce and Myrtle Super Tenor Ukulele

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 […]

Black and White Swiss Moon Ukulele

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 […]

Carol’s Music Box Baritone Ukulele

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 […]

India Rosewood and Redwood Baritone

With this post, I’m actually caught up on posting my backlog of completed instruments.  This is an India Rosewood and Redwood Baritone ukulele now in the hands of Canadian Alan. Wood Story Late last year and continuing into this year there has been a growing trend for ukuleles built with traditional acoustic instrument woods.  This, […]

Five String Super Tenor Ukulele

A rare (well maybe not that rare) alternative string combination is this new Five String Super Tenor Ukulele. The project started as a standard build, the only request being a wider than average neck.  The  Koa back and sides were first selected and then a very highly figured Alaskan, bear claw spruce top was added […]

Moon Bear Super Tenor

    Delivered late last year is this Moon Bear Super Tenor ukulele. The woods selected for this build are compression Koa for back and sides and Canadian Bear Claw sitka spruce for the top.  It’s hard to get a good picture of bear claw tops I’ve found, but I succeeded with these pictures. In […]