Build Story: The Process, Makers, and Pros and Cons Behind Commissioning a Custom Ukulele

BY NICOLAS GRIZZLE | FROM THE WINTER 2025 ISSUE OF UKULELE MAGAZINE

Every ukulele tells a story. That story begins the day you take it home, and continues to grow through the music it creates. Aside from maybe a family heirloom passed down through generations, commissioning a custom-made ukulele is the only way your fingerprints will be on the story from the very beginning. But these days, there are many great ukuleles available for very decent prices. So, why would you want to commission one custom instrument versus buying several great ones? 

Having one built just for you means you can add a personal touch, like maybe a meaningful inlay or type of wood; sometimes you can also request options that are not available elsewhere, like certain sizing, wood combinations, or finishes. And there’s something about an instrument that was made just for you that can inspire you to play more often and be more creative—and bring you joy every time you even look at it.To get a closer look at the pros and cons of commissioning a custom ukulele, we spoke with Jayne Henderson of EJ Henderson Guitars & Ukuleles in Asheville, North Carolina; Aaron Keim, of Beansprout Musical Instruments in Hood River, Oregon; and Kawai Carvahlo of Coast Ukulele in Petaluma, California. We’ll take a look at the process, including choosing the right maker, how long it takes to get a custom instrument, how much it costs, and how to make sure you get just what you’re looking for. 

The Process

The process of commissioning an ukulele is different than buying one new from a store or pre-owned from a fellow player. For starters, it doesn’t exist yet, so you can’t play it to check out the feel and sound. But by finding the right maker, you can get an instrument that fits you like a bespoke outfit, and you get to pick out the details and maybe add a little personal touch that makes it completely unique to you.

Depending on the maker, getting a custom uke can take upwards of three years from initial reservation to first strum. That includes a waitlist time of maybe two years before your instrument starts taking shape, and then three months or more to make it depending on options like inlay and other special requests. The cost varies widely, too, but generally starts around $2,000.

At Beansprout, customers pay a deposit up front to get on the waitlist. Then, three months out from the start of the build, they receive an email with options for the instrument. “It’s like, ‘Here’s the menu of what I do,’ and that actually makes 99 percent of the decisions,” says Keim.

All the info is listed on the Beansprout website, giving customers a clear idea of the process, cost, options, and style before even reaching out to secure a place on the waitlist. But most people are familiar with Beansprout’s instruments even before looking on their website. “We get a lot of commissions from when we run, teach, or play at events,” says Keim, who, along with his wife and bandmate Nicole in their band the Quiet American, play Beansprout ukes and banjos.

Keim’s “menu” covers most of what customers are able to get, but special requests are taken into account. “If they want all the normal stuff and then it’s one weird thing, that’s usually fine,” says Keim. “But if we start that process and someone wants, like, seven or eight major modifications off what we do, then we have to renegotiate and maybe send them elsewhere.”

While Beansprout has a pretty set list of options, Carvahlo is open to off-the-wall ideas at Coast Ukulele. “A lot of builders slow down on commissions or narrow down what they do, and I can feel that happening for me,” says the Northern California luthier, who has been building ukes since 2020. “But when someone comes to me with a wild idea I still get excited about it.”

Carvhalo does not take deposits. “The only thing I ask for, instead of money down, is patience,” he says, noting his waitlist is currently about two years before starting work on an instrument, which can take upwards of six months to complete. “I don’t like taking any money until it’s done. So far that’s not been a problem; the ukulele community has been really wonderful.”

Once a customer is on the books with Henderson (current waitlist: 1–2 years), she will schedule a meeting to learn more about the ukulele they’re looking for. “I will at least do a Zoom meeting if I can’t meet them in person,” she says. “I love that part of it. I love to hear about the humans that want me to make them something and why they want me to make them something.”

Larger companies like Martin and Kanile’a also offer commissions. Kanile’a’s custom shop website includes several options to build a custom uke, while getting an instrument from Martin’s custom shop starts with contacting a Martin dealer or distributor who will walk through the options available (the guitar options on Martin’s custom shop website are similar to what’s available for ukuleles). Both custom shops offer handmade instruments from professional luthiers, just produced in a larger shop and maybe with more hands than a one-person company.

Another aspect of commissioning an instrument is getting to see its progress—like little sonograms of your four-stringed baby. For example, Carvahlo sends photos and videos of the process to the customer, sometimes just for updates and sometimes to help make decisions for certain steps in the build. Henderson does as well, and hosts a live social media broadcast each week where she works on an instrument. Keim will often post updates on commissions to social media, which can be exciting for a customer to see and fun for others to share in the experience.

Choose the Right Builder

The most important part of commissioning an ukulele is choosing the right builder. You should be familiar with the builder’s style and general sound of their instruments before reaching out about having a one-of-a-kind instrument built. 

“A lot of people say my ukuleles have a soul in them,” says Henderson. “I think it’s because I put so much of my energy and my self in them; they’re like little beings.” Her ukuleles can range from beautifully simple to ornately detailed, but all carry a similar aesthetic. The headstock, body shape, and artistic style, for example, all point to a singular source. And she focuses on using sustainable tonewoods from her local region whenever possible.

“Most folks that have ukuleles like to have more than one ukulele,” says Carvahlo, noting that the reason he got into building was because he himself was buying too many ukuleles. “The folks that are coming to me are usually looking for the style that I’m building and usually already have some instruments.” His ornate inlay work, for example, has garnered a lot of attention, and he often collaborates with other artists on designs. 

Keim uses locally-sourced woods from the Pacific Northwest whenever possible, sometimes literally from his own back yard as he often does his own milling. For fingerboards, he’s been using pistachio from California as a sustainable alternative hardwood to imported ebony. The lighter-colored wood has rippling segments of green, purple, and other colors, and the natural variation of the wood is quickly becoming a Beansprout signature look.

He likes to use a restaurant as a metaphor. “I don’t like to use the word ‘custom’ because to some people that means they get to pick everything,” he says. “And what that ends up being is like you’re sitting down at a chef’s table, but you brought all the ingredients. And you’re telling the chef what to do. And you’re also telling them the methods, and you’re watching over their shoulder. If you’re going to go to a restaurant, you should go to that restaurant because you already like what the chef does.”

To illustrate, he adds: “We have a very folk-art aesthetic. So it would be really strange if we have, say, a photo-realistic 3D-printed pearl-shell picture of Angelina Jolie on the soundboard. It just doesn’t fit.”

Henderson agrees that being too specific can handcuff a builder and keep her from doing what she does best. It’s good to have an understanding of the builder’s style, she says, and an idea of the instrument you’re looking for before starting the process.

At some point, it boils down to personal preference. “If somebody comes to me and they want that deep, dark, shimmering Hawaiian K-maker sound, I’ll do that—but it’s still going to be within my spectrum,” says Keim. “But that’s a whole different world, and I would have to re-do everything I do to get that sound (exactly).”

What if You Don’t Like It?

It is rare, but there is the possibility that the instrument you get won’t be the perfect fit you were hoping for. This is generally avoided by choosing the right luthier, but on the off chance that it does happen, a luthier will usually either try to make any necessary modifications or just buy it back and sell it on their own, sometimes with an offer to build something else. 

“If it’s reasonably close to when they got the instrument and something isn’t right, first I’ll do anything to fix it or modify it or whatever’s going on with it,
or maybe connect with a local luthier to fix it,” says Keim, noting that this has only happened to him twice in eight years at Beansprout. “But if they don’t like it and I think their reasoning is pretty reasonable, I just buy it back.” 

“I’ve been lucky that I have not had that,” Carvahlo says when asked about unsatisfied customers. But he has experienced the even rarer case of an unsatisfied luthier, as there have been times where the finished product was not up to the standard he wanted it to be. “If anything’s wrong with the build, I don’t want to charge anyone for that,” he says, noting an instance where he sold an ukulele at cost for this reason, even though the customer was happy with it. “I don’t feel comfortable charging for something that doesn’t come out.”

Henderson has also not had an unsatisfied customer yet (knock on tonewood), but she has referred potential customers to other builders when it didn’t feel like a good fit during the initial meeting. It turns out that first meeting isn’t just for the customer to get to know the builder, but it’s also to make sure the builder feels like they’re the right fit for the customer.

Commission vs. Off-the-Shelf

For some people, it may be more important to play an ukulele before buying it. You might fall in love with one at first strum, and it may not be a style you had even considered before. But there are fewer and fewer places to be able to do that these days, especially outside of major cities. And even then, getting your hands on instruments from individual makers is difficult, as many sell direct or through specific dealers.

Some online retailers make high-quality videos with professional audio that show the exact instrument you are buying. Even though you can hear and see it, though, you still won’t get to feel it in your hands until you buy it.

But this is still more than is possible with a commissioned ukulele that has yet to even smell a sawblade on its blank-slate form. “All of this is like a massive leap in trust and you just have to believe in the builder you’re ordering from. You just have to have the faith that what comes out will be yours,” says Keim.

“I think a custom instrument can add a lot of special meaning for someone buying one,” says Henderson. “I love adding something specific to a person, or a little inlay to honor someone the person loves and wants to think about while playing.” She cites a pepper inlay after the customer’s daughter (named Pepper), a yellow tulip to honor one’s mother (it was her favorite flower), and “even a gold tooth for an oral surgeon who melted the
gold for me to use.”

Two-way Street

An instrument’s story isn’t just for the person buying the ukulele. The artist who brought it to life is also adding to their own story with each piece they create. And while it’s important to be able to support oneself through one’s art, it’s not always about business, in the end.

“You can get an instrument made in a factory that you can play for the rest of your life and it’s completely awesome,” says Keim. “Every once in a while I pick one up and I’m just like, ‘Why do I even try? This thing is $300 and it’s so good.’ Then I remember that I have to try because the thing we’re doing, the process we’re going through, the object that we make has love and meaning behind it. It is a really important thing to put in the world and keep reminding people that humans matter, and the connections we have matter, the way we do things matters, the material matters, and the life a person lives matters.”

Each Instrument Tells a Story

Part of the whole point of getting an instrument made for you is to be inspired to play that instrument and to make music. Whether it’s putting your stamp on an existing song or writing a new composition, if you’re inspired by the instrument that you’re playing it will be all the more enjoyable for you.

All the luthiers we spoke with for this article had numerous memorable instruments they’ve built, each with meaningful stories behind them. Here are just a few.

“There was a woman who had always wanted to buy one of our instruments, and she told her daughter about it, and her daughter really encouraged her, but she never she never did it. But then her daughter passed away from cancer. And she took it as her sign that she needed to get this instrument made,” says Nicole Keim, who handles many of the non-building duties at Beansprout.

“So many of my commissions have pushed me to be a better builder, especially with inlay work,” says Carvahlo. One customer wanted a turtle inlay that wasn’t too glitzy, so as not to take away from the performer. He ended up doing a tiny inlay of a sea turtle coming up for air at the 12th fret—subtle but stunning. And on the back, he did an expanded inlay of two sea turtles. Business in front, but a party on the back.

Says Henderson: “I am working on several oak ukuleles for a kindergarten class whose Quaker meeting house was founded in the 1600s, and the oak tree the ukes are from was standing then on the property. It fell recently and the community wanted to honor it. I feel so lucky to have been given some of that wood so that oak tree can live on and keep providing comfort to that community, just in a different way.”