Aloha friends. First off, mahalo to everyone that participated in this contest. I apologize for any imperfections involved in the setup. Honestly we just don’t have the time to really run a contest tightly and properly. But we did what we had to to make sure the popular vote was correct. With that said, our winner was Michael Horn. On …
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In Loving Memory of Chino Montero – One of Hawaii’s Finest Musicians
A salute to one of the finest musicians ever~ A good friend of ours passed away today. My dad was especially close with him and so I asked him to share some of his thoughts. For many years Chino has been a part of our life here at Ko’olau Pono Guitar and Ukulele. Just three days ago he was here ...
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New Kala USA Made Banjo Ukes!
A new custom shop in Petaluma California Kala has taken it to the next level. We know them for their imported ukes, which are an excellent value, but now they have a full blown 100% USA production with boutique level quality. Eventually, we’ll get regular ukes from their California shop, but first in are these two banjo ukes. One is …
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Ukulele at NAMM 2014- Part 4
Uke News from NAMM – Part 4 That’s it for now folks. I’ll post more and answer questions in the weeks to come. Thanks for visiting and for your support and friendship. Aloha~ andrew Learn more about Paul & Gaku here www.uketet.com
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Ukulele at NAMM 2014- Part 3
Uke News from NAMM – Part 3 Here’s a look at some of the ukes and uke related products at NAMM 2014. This first one shows Nobu and Hitomi from Takumi. On the right is Yusuke Kawakami. He’s an amazing builder located in Canada. We bought a really cool 8 string concert from Yusuke at the show. It resembles the …
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Ukulele at NAMM 2014 -Part 2
Uke News from NAMM - Part 2 In part 1 covering ukulele at NAMM 2014 seen HERE we showed some pics from our favorite ukulele makers. This year we attempted sound samples in spite of the chaotic atmosphere that goes on here. To do this I used a Sound Devices 722 field recorder and a pair of Schoeps CMC6 mics ...
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Ukulele at NAMM 2014- Part 1
Uke News from NAMM – Day 1 This year I’ll be posting a blog each day of the NAMM, or at least that’s my plan. Corey arrives tonight and we have scheduled recording with many of the manufacturers before the show starts to give high quality sound samples. Today I will just share photos and reviews of the ukes that …
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New from Ko’olau Guitars
We are about to go off to NAMM and from friday-sunday I'll be shooting videos with Corey. So today I tested my travel recording rig on this Ko'olau guitar. A new smaller body and and shorter scale guitar from Noa and Ryan. The sound blew me away. This smaller guitar is as good as it gets, in my opinion! This ...
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Pono TE & BE – the 2014 NAMM Pre Show
Pono's TE Options - Choose your Wood, Finish & Pickup In the summer of last year we showed you this new model that would be coming from Pono. It is a solid chambered body tenor and we compared it with other similiar options on the market at this article- Pono Solid Body-Review & Compare. That one was an Acacia model with ...
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Blackbird’s “Clara”
Clara- The 1st Plant Fiber based Composite Concert Ukulele Blackbird is a small group of luthiers in San Francisco doing some really cool things with alternative resources. For a few years now we have carried the carbon fiber tenors when available. They are different from traditional ukes because they are not made of wood but of carbon fiber. This makes ...