About 15 years ago I began to merge these passions and became a luthier. I build guitars, both acoustic and resophonic, ukuleles, and some special stringed instruments of my own design.

Palm Tree ukuleles are built in our Colorado Springs music store, Tejon Street Music. We model our ukes after the classic designs of the 1920’s – 1940’s, an era we feel represents one of the “golden ages” of the ukulele.

A custom ukulele is a ukulele that specially built for a customer, a ukulele that suit the customer. As a ukulele builder we believe that a custom ukulele is not just our — builder– responsibilty, but also a customer’s responsibilty. Our responsibility is to keep the ukulele as perfect as possible as customers specifications, and also a guarantee if it needed. Customer’s responsibility is to choose the specifications such as woods, specification, appearance such as inlays, rosette, binding etc which suits them as a player.

Matthew has been building along side his father since the year 2000. Building on a 40 year legacy of guitar making, they began building Ukuleles in 2012 and have fallen in love with the instrument, the people and the process.

It all began on blazing 110 degree Arizona day... The project's Kickstarter funding goal was not reached on Tue, April 3 2018 8:15 PM EDT Hi, I'm Dallin and I'm the founder of Phoenix Ukulele and I designed and painstakingly developed our first carbon fiber ukulele. The inspiration for this new design came from a few different places. Firstly, I already own and operate Anilo Carbon, a small business making carbon fiber rings and plates. Secondly, I studied aerospace engineering in college and we learned all about cutting edge composite materials such as carbon fiber.

I know that carbon fiber instruments already exist, but having worked with carbon fiber so much I knew that the incredibly high prices of the instruments on the market could be dropped. I don't mean that anyone is ripping you off. On the contrary high end carbon fiber instruments are worth the cost. However, the same tone and quality that a $1,500 ukulele produces can be replicated at a much lower cost by cutting out some eccentric features. This is why we design our ukuleles with a wooden neck and fretboard. We want the sound of carbon fiber for the resonating chamber and soundboard and can reduce the overall cost by using some wooden parts to form a wood/carbon hybrid.

Guitars, ukuleles and mandolin family instruments all feature a unique bracing system (a modified fan/radial design) which produces a bright tone and even response. Each instrument is built using solid wood construction, employing a variety of tone-woods and spruce or cedar tops, and features a glued dovetail joint connecting neck to body (including Ukuleles).

Pohaku instruments have won numerous awards in woodshow competitions in Hawaii and on the mainland. A nice page of <a href="http://www.pohakuukulele.com/pages/technical.html" target="_blank">Tech Tips</a>.

#####Island Jazz & Island Jazz Cutaway##### <img class="top" src="//curtsheller.com/csp/app/assets/images/uke_images/PoMahina_d-hole.jpg" alt="" width="56" height="75" align="top" />Django Rheinhardt. Striking curly koa back and sides, spruce top, ebony fingerboard, ebony peg head overlay, bound top and back with grained ivoroid, Po Mahina inlay in peg head, abalone position markers at 3,5,7,10,12,15 and abalone inlay around small oval sound hole. Slightly longer scale than regular models.

Here is what the Kitakis familay says about a Pono vs. their higher end Ko'olau, and I whole heartily agree.

". . . And our Pono workers have the same meticulous and conscientious attitude that we have in Hawaii. We consider our Pono and Ko'olau ukuleles similar to the duo level auto makers such as Toyota/Lexus, Nissan/Infinity, and Honda/Acura. Both are made by the same manufacturer, but made in various locations around the world, and both are very high quality."

> I've owned five or six Pono ukuleles in the past before I got my first Ko'olau and we opened our Funky Frets music store. These are amazing instruments for the cost. - Curt Sheller

<p class="text-sm text-grey">The original Andy Powers Instruments workshop is closed. Andy has continued pursuing the creation of fine new instruments at a new shop at the Taylor Guitars facility. You may want to visit taylorguitars.com to check out what he’s up to now. eMail: andy@andypowersinstruments.com</p>

The faith of Pukana La Ukulele is to break through all limits so that people can play freely. Every day is a brand new day for Pukana La. Therefore, we are free to create a new self and enjoy in it. We dare to dream, and we are capable of realizing it.

Tom Russell is one-man shop, share a journey in building one-of-a-kind ukuleles. The name "Pau Hana Ukuleles" reflects the easy going nature of the ukulele. "Pau Hana", meaning "done work" or "after work" in Hawaiian, evokes the relaxing feeling when playing the ukulele after a trying day.