Quality 'ukuleles made with Aloha
Welcome
Honu 'Ukuleles Hand Made Made in Hawai'i Solid Koa Made to Order
No Laminates Here!!
Each Honu Ukulele is hand made, with Aloha! We craft our ukuleles from select woods such as Koa from the Big Island of Hawai'i, Mahogany, Maple, & Rosewood.
Have a special shape soundhole in mind? We can make it yours!
When you order a custom Honu 'Ukulele, you get to pick the wood, inlay colors, soundhole shape, bridge style and so much more.
Want to plug it in? We can do that too!
Electronics are available on every custom order, as well as pre-installed on some pre-made 'ukuleles
How it all began...
The actual stairs at Hilton Hawaiian village Waikiloa that started it all
For years I have had a passion for building things. Be it a website (a programmer by trade), furniture for my family and friends, or just gutting a room in my home and rennovating it to perfection. I have always loved to build, building quality ‘ukuleles is a natural evoloution of this, read on.
My wife and I are in love with Hawaii (and each other), so a few years ago I decided to learn to play the ‘ukulele prior to our next trip to Hawai’i. I imagined myself sitting on the beaches of Hawaii strumming a uke. Well on our most recent trip to Hawaii, I put aside a nice amount of money to buy myself a nice solid Koa ‘ukulele.
I picked my new ‘ukulele out a store, loved the sound, but was sure to ask if the uke was solid wood or laminate. I was assured it was solid wood. 3 days later, I dropped my precious new ‘ukulele down a stone staircase (after strumming it on the beach). My heart dropped, but what made the situation even worse was after I examined the damage, I found out that it was indeed not solid wood but a laminate soundboard. Of course I had words with the shop owner, who was also not aware it was laminate . — We went back on another trip and took this picture of those stairs!
I decided to put my passion for building to new uses. So after weeks of research on the internet, books, videos, etc, I headed to my garage wood shop (no room for a car here) with my passion and building knowledge (and obsession for perfection).
After several weeks, I finally came up for air holding the fruits of my labor, Honu Ukulele #1. It wasn’t perfect, but it had a nice deep sound. That one was solid black walnut (had some lying about my shop), it was coated with polyurethane. A little more research and Honu ‘Ukulele #2 was born. . this one even better, made from some pine paneling I found during demo while renovating our dining room, Black walnut sides and “Home Depot Maple” back. I avoided many mistakes made during the first build. 100% improvement.
After a few more practice runs, the build quality had exceeded even my expectations. I was able to finally replace that broken Hawai’i bought uke with a hand crafted solid Koa ‘ukulele, built with Aloha.
Can you order one with beautiful bindings?? Sure but not from me. Bindings hide laminate, I won’t do them.