Kladno. This part of the Czech Republic is reknown for its tradition of musical instrument building–and a devoted coterie of serious musicians with an intense interest in Euro and American Jazz, Bluegrass and Classical music. As a young boy I was always fascinated with wood, and at 11 years old, my main hobby was building model airplanes and boats. The acquired skills for designing with accuracy, symmetry; as well as reading blueprints was gained at this early stage and proved extremely useful later in my life in building, designing and in the repairing and restoration of stringed musical instruments.

Rat Ukes are constructed to make the best use of old, distinctive, sometimes broken, ukuleles. Wooden cigar boxes are employed to become uke bodies as they are generally well constructed of fine solid woods.

We are makers of custom ukuleles. They are completely hand made to your specifications, depending on what you like. Take a look at some of the pictures here, and you’ll get a feel for what we can do for you. We don’t have a factory; everything is hand made to order by a skilled luthier. We build only custom ukuleles - no “standard” models and no popouts. We do this for about half what other ukulele makers charge for their production models of similar quality: as little as $585 depending on options for a tenor.