Learning Ukulele with Curt

Archtop Ukulele Luthiers and Custom Builders and Mass Production Manufactures


Ko`olau Guitar and Ukulele Company Luthiers

Ko'olau Guitars and 'Ukuleles are professional quality, hand crafted instruments. The shop is located in Kaneohe, on the Island of Oahu, Hawaii, approximately fifteen minutes from Honolulu, at the foot of the the beautiful Ko'olau Mountains.

Stefan Sonntag Luthiers

Corresponding in size to the tenor ukulele, the Uke has a scale length of 39 cm. It is built like an acoustic archtop guitar, with parallel bracing and handcrafted arched top and back. The one-piece bridge provides a very direct transmission of string vibration to the body. The Uke is amplified by a single-coil pickup made by Coil Tec.</p

DeCava Archtop Guitars Luthiers

Luthier James R. DeCava was born and raised in Stratford, Connecticut. As a young teenager, he began playing guitar and banjo and soon realized that if something needed repair on his instruments, he had to do it himself as there were few repair people around at that time. He began meeting others with similar interests and came into contact with the well known Liberty Banjo Co. He worked for them for many years making banjos, doing repairs, and cutting-inlaying mother of pearl with intricate designs. Over the years, he has built hundreds of guitars, banjos, mandolins, and one-of-a-kind instruments. He has also become well known for building multi-string instruments.

Collings Guitars Luthiers

Bill Collings and his team of skilled luthiers build custom handmade acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, and ukuleles in Austin, Texas. Over the past 35 years, Collings Guitars has set the standard for quality, tone, and playability amidst a number of fine guitar companies and independent builders. In a low production environment, Bill Collings has created a culture that lives and breathes attention to detail. Collings’ reputation for quality construction and consistency is internationally known, and has earned the patronage of some of the world’s most accomplished artists and performers.

D’Angelico Guitars of America Luthiers

John D’Angelico was born in Little Italy, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. At only 9 years old, he became an apprentice to his grand uncle Signor Ciani, an expert violin and mandolin maker. This apprenticeship would become the basis for construction principles he later incorporated into his world-renowned archtop guitars.

Mandolins by Jonathan Mann Luthiers

A “small shop” instrument builder and currently building acoustic and electric mandolin family instruments, electric ukuleles and other random custom instruments.

A while back a customer emailed me and wanted to talk to me about building an electric steel string Uke…this worked out quite well since the electric mandolins I build are very similar in size, scale to the Ukulele. 

Koll Guitar Company Luthiers

Saul Koll grew up in southern California just north of Los Angeles in a town called Newhall. He always had an interest in how things were made and what made things work. While other kids were playing sports, Saul was in the garage taking expensive toys apart and gluing the components into new weird new contraptions. At 12 he started to play the guitar and his compulsive tendencies were then directed to learning the instrument. It was about this time that he found a book on guitar making at the library in Redondo Beach. It was Classic Guitar Construction by Irving Sloan. One of the earliest writings on the subject and as it turns out eventually very influential.(Notice how even at the beach, Saul was at the library!) Saul found the book intriguing but beyond his skills at age 12. He continued his guitar studies and school and all the usual teenage stuff.

Eastman Strings Manufactures

In 1992, Qian Ni, who had come to the United States from China to study music, founded Eastman Strings. In the beginning, he and his two musician colleagues bought instruments from Western-trained violin makers from their home town in China, but before long, they saw that a different approach was needed.

Amahi Ukuleles Manufactures

A new line of ukuleles from an establish fine instrument company.

Manufacturer/Distributor of High-Quality Ukuleles including Amahi and Snail Ukuleles. Over 40 models available with exotic woods and unique designs.

Kala Brand Music Company Manufactures

Mike Upton is the founder of Kala Brand Music Co. in northern California. Established in 2005, Kala builds 140-plus models of ukulele, including travel and bass variations.Kala and Makala brand of ukuleles.

Jazz Box Ukes Luthiers

Handmade Archtop Ukuleles designed and crafted by Toby Chennell on the south coast of England.

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Just browsing over both books, they look fantastic! I'm a guitarist and uke player for over 25 years and was thinking about writing a ukulele book but you've already written what I think are the best, most comprehensive and thorough books I've ever seen for the instrument. I just might end up buying every book you've written and I'll be giving my highest recommendation for your books to my friends and students. Thank you so much for taking the time to write such great books!Peter Rhee

Aloha, Curt, All I can say is WOW! What you have accomplished is simply incredible! All the bestGlen Hirabayashi, The Aloha Boys

Folks, if you haven't stopped by Curt's site, do so right now! ..And get his books, they are fantastic. This guy knows his stuff and is able to pass it along too.Alan Johnson Proprietor, The 4th Peg

I can highly recommend Curt's Uke books — I have four of them and they are excellent.fatveg — Portland

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Original Curtie Animation from 1987 for my first web site on a Macintosh II, 37 years ago. Man, does time fly.

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LearningUkulele.com has one of the largest collections of lessons, songs, and TABS, Luthiers, ukulele builders, ukulele festival and club information, and, ukulele links on the web. Curt has been on the ®Internet since the early 1990's and This site just never stops growing!!!

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