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Maui Ukulele Festival 2014

I have been to dozens of ukulele festivals and it's always nice to see performers and old friends. But we just got back from Maui's 9th annual Ukulele Festival and for the first time I decided to do a photoblog on it here. I didn't record videos because to get a sound worth publishing I would need to get a ...
11

The 2014 LFDM Custom Tenors-

Just like musicians, luthiers show their soul in what they create. Luis Feu de Mesquita (LFDM) brings his talent and experience in the classical and flamenco guitar world over to the ukulele with astounding success. He continues to refine his art and I am genuinely in awe of these four instruments. All four are different, but each one is phenomenal. ...
9

The Man, The Music, The Mic, & The Ukulele

The Man- Corey Fujimoto works (for lack of a better word) full time at The Ukulele Site. He plays most of our sound samples for the website (TheUkuleleSite.com). And he has a solo album you can learn more about here- Corey Fujimoto "Fables" The Music- Pachelbel's Canon is the name commonly given to a canon by the German Baroque composer ...
11

TODA – Incredible Japanese Builder!

Aloha friends! I have something exciting and fun to share today. We just got in a tenor from a custom luthier in Japan named TODA and it's AWESOME! This is truly one of the finest ukes I've ever played. The tone is a balance of everything you could dream of; open, full, warm, clear, true, and focused with bell like ...
2

Ko’olau Redwood/ Milo Strikes Again

Here is a look and listen to a new Ko'olau that our friend Eric ordered from us about 10 months back. He kindly awaited.I snapped a few shots after Noa built the body- We rarely will have a Ko'olau available. But we do regularly get gorgeous ones like this for customers that ordered on our website or in the store. ...
8

KoAloha Black Label

This is a rare and unique "Black Label" tenor from KoAloha. Black Labels are instruments that are made by Paul Okami. Paul is the second generation master luthier at KoAloha. Just like his father, Alvin, Paul has the artist eye and musical ear. What's interesting is that even though Paul runs the KoAloha shop and the regular line of ukes ...
9

Moore Bettah -Skull Island/ Tiki Love

The Birth of Bettah This is a striking and unique masterpiece from Moore Bettah custom builder Chuck Moore. It's a depiction of the Island as young Charles experienced it when he first washed up on shore many years ago. The mountains were flowing with lava and foreigners were commonly given to the tiki gods. Luckily, Chuck knew how to make ...
4

Maui Music

Peter Lieberman formed Maui Music when the only "k" brand was Kamaka. On december 27 2000 a fire burned down his factory forcing him to close down. He was soon back to building, but instead of running another crew and factory production, he decided to be a one man custom shop and focus on the highest quality. Both the "pre-fire" ...