Entries by Kimo Ukulele

Black Tiger Myrtle Wood Tenor Ukulele

This custom tenor ukulele was ordered by my Myrtle Wood supplier.   Vince has got some great sets and you should check his site at:  www.pacificcoastwoods.net.   We’re calling this Black Tiger Stripe Myrtle. As I have said before, there is very little of this particular look available and so I am calling it rare.  As […]

Five will get you ten!

OK!  Long Beach Mike ordered a new Hula Hips Tenor Ukulele. He made specific requests regarding the wood to be used (he likes the dark look)  and we negotiated the dimensions of the instrument–notably the neck width and depth and string offset at the nut. Oh, I forgot, this is a five string. Since we were going […]

Curly Redwood, curly Maple

Okay, here’s a combination that I haven’t shown before: Curly, old growth Redwood, and spalted, curly, Big Leaf Maple.  I used curly Koa for binding and the neck is curly, big leaf maple–it is almost translucent in real life.  I think that this is an acquired taste:  the instrument is “neutral”:  equal highs and lows, […]

Tigers and Bears

Here’s a new Hula Hips, tenor ukulele custom for Ric.   He picked out this set of black, tiger stripe Myrtle wood and bear claw sitka spruce for this large body tenor.  To compliment the build I used Ebony binding, a figured Oregon Black Walnut neck and Queensland Eucalyptus burl for accents.  I’m using a […]

Airbrushed Myrtle Wood?

No, it looks airbrushed, but this is really solid Oregon Myrtle.  I’ve got a decent stash of this wood and every set has a different look.   I didn’t have a customer for this instrument but wanted to see what it would look like finished.  I used African Black Limba for the neck and India Rosewood […]

Fresh Pineapple

Non-GMO of course!  I modified my original pineapple shape to be a little more rounded and finally settled on this shape.  This custom tenor ukulele was ordered by Rob. He specifically requested this set of curly Hawaiian Koa and the rope purfling but left the rest up to me.  We finished with a vintage-style herringbone […]

Blond Gecko

So here’s an Hawaiian Tenor Ukulele made with a blond, curly Koa.  To spice it up a bit, I’ve added my “tribal gecko” laser cut to the back.  The binding is India Rosewood, the accents are Vanuatu Maidou burl, the purfling is red/yellow Maple, and the fret board and bridge are Mexican “Partridge” wood.  The […]

Hulu Hulu Tenor Ukulele

A renewed interest in my Hula Hips Ukulele.  Now the Hawaiian Ukulele pattern that I developed about 15 years ago is attracting attention.  Mark ordered this lovely instrument with specific requests: Curly Claro Walnut Northwest Red Cedar Sound Board Light Curly Koa Binding Koa Neck Guitar Style Head Stock Low “G” tuning Radiused Fret Board I […]

Bob’s Curly Koa Tenor Ukulele

Yikes!  Never too much curly Koa!  Here is a completed Hawaiian tenor ukulele with the Kauai compression curl Koa that I showed a few posts back. This heavy curl turned out to be a very difficult build but also very rewarding in many ways.  In addition to selecting this particular curly Koa, Bob made a few […]

As sweet as Mango

Believe it or not, this Mango I used in this ukulele is cut from the same board as the last two mango ukes posted.  You can see how the spalting changes dramatically in just one piece of wood.  I still like Mango for Hawaiian ukes.  It responds very well to light touch and is usually very warm […]