Ukulele at NAMM 2015 – Day 3

Aloha and thanks for tuning in to our coverage of ukulele at NAMM 2015. When I get back to Hawaii I will be posting many more videos including a wonderful young Kamaka artist named Kayln Aolani, a video of Craig Chee and Sarah Maisel playing two DaSilva ukuleles we just picked up, and much more. It was a fun show and the talent and professional quality in the ukulele world has never been more apparent. I’ll have that final post in this series up within a few days so check back soon.

We’ll start off today with some sound samples from Larivee. We stocked Larivee guitars for a few years so I got to touch base with old friends with the company and try their revamped ukulele line. Unfortunately their new ukes were heavier in weight compared to their previous uke line, especially in the headstock area which was chunkier here than before. I expressed to them this concern and they told me that they were planning on adjusting that and also using a lighter tuning key to achieve a better balance. We plan on picking up the line because they sound nice and have a very clean, quality construction.

Then we show a few videos from a local maker, Imua. We have seen continual growth from and this Hawaii company and we’ll be bringing more in soon for you to try.

Then we stopped by Cordoba and I was very pleased to discover what’s now my favorite affordable guitar-lele on the market. This new instrument they call the Mini is a longer 20 inch scale compared to the 17″ guitar-lele they have been offering for the past few years. Plus it has a wider 50mm nut width which I think is much more comfortable than the other 46mm nut width on their smaller guitar-lele model. In my opinion, this is far superior instrument and will come in three wood options, all of which we should have in stock in about one month. These feature a solid top and a fantastic price point. If you are considering a quality guitar-lele with a modest price tag, I put this new model as my top recommendation. They also introduced a new master series classical guitar line made in the USA and I was so impressed with it that I commissioned a run of ukuleles to this custom quality that we will most likely see in another year or so.

Next booth over from Cordoba is Kala so we decided to sample a new model from their cedar top series that has a florentine cutaway and arm bevel.Keep a look out for these to come soon to our store and website. There are a few other new models from Kala that will reach the site soon too so keep your eyes peeled for those.

Next we visited the the Chinese violin makers from Eastman that have been impressing me with their guitars for many years. The hand carved ukulele archtops they advertised as concerts were actually a soprano scale and while I don’t think they sounded as warm as the new D’angelico, they have a punchy cool vintage tone and we’ll bring in one of each for you to see! We’ll just bring some of the mahogany line from them too and see how the response is. I think the ones at NAMM would be really good if set up a little better.

Mike DaSilva showed up today with two amazing instruments for us including the first ever jumbo tenor body size that sounds and look amazing. I’ll be getting these in on wednesday.

We’ll leave today with a few videos from the master, Benny Chong. Enjoy the music and see you soon!!