Luthier Mark Roberts with Warren Buffett’s custom Coca-Cola ukulele
Portland-based luthier Mark Roberts, who builds custom ukuleles recognized for their tone and signature side sound ports, got quite a surprise in March when he received a message through his website regarding a new commission.
It was from Coca-Cola’s advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy, asking Roberts to create a ukulele to commemorate the 100-year anniversary of the iconic Coca-Cola bottle.
But that wasn’t the most surprising bit, Roberts writes via email. Next they told him “the instrument is going to Warren Buffett . . . and we need it in 28 days.” The 84-year-old Buffett, who has been playing ukulele since college, is Coca-Cola’s largest shareowner, holding $16 billion in stock. Watch Buffett play his new uke in the video below.
Advertisement
Roberts went straight to work, sourcing Carpathian spruce from Romania, old-growth Indian rosewood, reclaimed Honduran mahogany, African blackwood, and Malagasy ebony to build the tenor ukulele in about five weeks. The headstock features an American holly inlay of the Coca-Cola logo, the soundhole is shaped like a Coca-Cola bottle, and the top is coated in a “Coke red,” high-gloss lacquer finish. A red fiberglass case was custom-made to match and is inscribed with the note: “From one icon to another.”
Buffett played the ukulele at Coca-Cola’s annual shareholders meeting in April, performing the company’s classic 1971 jingle, “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke.” (Weeks later, the Mad Men finale paid tribute to the landmark TV commercial featuring that song.) A representative from Wieden+Kennedy, who surprised Buffett with the ukulele at his Berkshire Hathaway office in Omaha, Nebraska, says the billionaire was “so excited” to receive it. Roberts adds, “Weiden+Kennedy recognized that I don’t build your grandfathers’ ukuleles, and it was a good fit.”
In addition to the Coca-Cola uke, Roberts was recently commissioned by Burton Snowboards to replicate a Martin D-45 guitar neck at three-and-a-half times scale to celebrate a new Burton-Martin collaboration snowboard.
The giant guitar neck was exhibited at the SnowSports Industries America trade show, and is now on display at the Martin Guitar Museum in Nazareth, Pennsylvania.
If you learned something new here, will you leave us a tip? We're asking you to give just $2 (or whatever you can afford) to support this site.