Ukulele Guild of Hawaii 2016

I had the great pleasure of attending the Ukulele Guild of Hawaii Show. It was really fun to meet several UU friends face-to-face and to hang out with both old and new luthier friends.

UGH president Kimo Hussey has goals to grow the show and broaden participation, so hopefully next year there will be even more folks there. Like any exhibit, it wasn't the best for truly checking out the tone of an instrument, but it was super access to talk to the luthiers and see some of their best work.

Below are some photos of UU'ers as well as a link to an album of photos from the trip.

Shawn Yacovone (Ukulele Friend), the infamous Stan, and Len Kojima


Aaron Oya and David Ingalls (Ono Ukulele)


Kevin Beddoe (Kinnard) and wife Deb, and UU Member Patchen and his wife Lynn (who live not that far from me)


Here is a link to the photos. There are a lot and many of them are not very good but what the heck. You can click through quickly:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/132994836@N07/90U157

Big alohas to Shawn, Stan, Len, Aaron, David, Kevin and Deb! (Aloha too to Patchen and Lynn, whom I do not know.) I hope the UGH show was fun. I wish I could have been there this year!

Mahalo to Ukulele Eddie for the photos!

Thanks so much for sharing. The pictures really help me feel as if I was there

mds725 said:

Big alohas to Shawn, Stan, Len, Aaron, David, Kevin and Deb! (Aloha too to Patchen and Lynn, whom I do not know.) I hope the UGH show was fun. I wish I could have been there this year!

Mahalo to Ukulele Eddie for the photos!

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Thanks Eddie for the pictures..it was a pleasure to hang with you and get to know you...
Mark.... Patchen and his wife Lynn are a great couple from the Valley in SoCal..his new collection of high end ukes up there with the best keep in touch with him...

Fabulous photos Eddie. Thanks so much for posting. Gotta drool over Kinnards and Onos LOL.

A big thank you for posting all those pictures. Great job Eddie, as someone else said it really gave me the feeling of being there.

Thanks for the pics Eddie. Maybe someday I will be able to attend!

Thanks for posting Eddie...........looks like a fun time

Great photos, thanks for posting! Kimo was getting after that one string bass!

Wow, those are awesome. The headstock with the bottle opener has me completely flabbergasted.

Thanks, now I know the full specs on my Kanile'a 2016 Platinum.

Wow ... serious eye candy! I am sure they sounded fabulous.

jddennis said:

The headstock with the bottle opener has me completely flabbergasted.

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If you dropped that much $$ on the elysium.. would you actually take a bottle to it? On the upside the tag it comes with is also a bottle opener.

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.
Did you get tempted by any of those beautiful ukuleles?
Looks like there were some very special ukuleles there, and a happy group of people.

There were lots of wonderful instruments, for sure. Some of the standouts:

- HMS had three that really impressed me: Hive spruce/rosewood tenor (can't believe this one hasn't sold yet; an absolutely gorgeous looking and sounding instrument); a stunning Moore Bettah (black/white ebony with incredible bamboo inlay) that was not for sale but if it was I might have taken out a second mortgage to buy it; and Beau Hannam Brazilian Rosewood tenor with incredible tone.

- Of course, the Kinnards were all impressive. Two of them sold at the show, the Luthier's Reserve and the sycamore.

- R.W. "Rollo" Scheurenbrand had two ukes on display that were very finely crafted.

- Ono Ukulele (David Ingalls) had two really nice instruments that will be sold by HMS. These will be featured in an upcoming Ukulele Review Podcast.

- Pat Megowan had two really nice instruments on display; the Macassar ebony was my favorite of the two. You can see Corey play both of these on a recent Ukulele Review Podcast (search You Tube).

- Jay Lichty's stuff was all really elegant and sounded great. His personal uke is a steel string archtop that was really cool

- Steve Grimes, a legend in guitars and ukes, his stuff speaks for itself. Some guy named Jake Shimabukuro recently bought one.

- Little River (Dave Sigman) had some amazing inlay and nice sounding ukes. The one with the heart-shaped sound hole was particularly nice, but I'm not comfortable enough with my own manhood to have a heart-shaped sound hole. LOL.

- Josh Rieck, definitely an up and comer to watch, has a great eye for visual design. The tone really impressed me on his instruments. One of the instruments he displayed (16" concert with torrefied spruce/sapele) is one he built for me. I won't be able to get it for a few weeks but will post a NUD when I do. The tone on it is fantastic.

Awesome photographs Eddie. Thanks heaps for sharing them.

And, after 7 years, Stan is no longer an international man of mystery. Wow.

I thought that I had UAS in check, but looking at all that eye candy has UAS revved up again. LOL.

Looking forward to the review of the Josh Rieck, especially since it's a 16" concert, which is a size I'm intrigued by.

Thanks for the photos Eddie, it's the next best thing to being there. Nice to see the elusive mm stan in a picture!

Mitch

Nice meeting you Eddie, and Dave Ingalls as well. I'm glad you got a pic of us, something I need to get better at doing. And very cool pics on the link too!

Gotta say, if anyone is wondering about a longer scale instrument, Dave's 18" should be on your list. In fact, it should be on anyone's list. Just sayin. . .