About 25 years ago, Joe Souza had the opportunity to apprentice under the master luthier Peter Bermudez, one of Hawaii’s most revered ukulele builders. In 1998, Souza and his wife, Kristen, founded Kanile’a Ukulele, and their modest home-based operation produced only a handful…
By popular demand, the Goodtime banjo company has announced the addition of a banjo ukulele to its catalog. The new American-made concert-scale instrument, which will begin shipping in March, features an 11-inch violin maple rim, maple neck, and a floating…
This year, Northern California’s Kala Brand Music Company is celebrating its 10th anniversary in the ukulele business. Founded by Mike Upton in 2005, Kala has quickly become one of the most important and innovative uke manufacturers in the industry. We connected with Upton…
Last summer, Lanikai Ukuleles unveiled its Makau Series of instruments. Each uke in the line is handmade in downtown Honolulu, Hawaii, with all-solid koa backs and sides, rosewood fingerboards, Honduran mahogany necks, and abalone headstock inlays. The latest addition to…
Advertisement
By Ken Hughes | From the Spring 2015 issue of Ukulele Spending some quality time with a good uke is always a joy. And when that uke also happens to be made of desirable woods and comes at a very…
By Ken Hughes Like a handful of other storied, American instrument manufacturers, Gretsch participated in the first uke boom nearly a century ago, and the fact that the company is still around to take part in the current surge in…
The idea started with having an instrument for the maker’s four-year-old daughter and turned into a concert-sized ukulele that’s collecting design awards. Made from an new bio-based composite material called Ekoa, the Blackbird Clara is an innovative new ukulele from…
Advertisement
Let us be the first to say, the Seagull Merlin—it is not a ukulele. It’s not even an instrument that really existed before Seagull invented what it calls the “strummable dulcimer,” but it’s so charming and user-friendly that ukulele players…
