I live in Berkeley, and so when I heard about Peter Hurney and Pohaku Ukuleles, I decided to make the short trip to check out his shop. I loved the experience and ended up picking up this lovely little concert uke. He calls it "Olive Martini." It has a mahogany top painted olive green (hence the name); California walnut back and sides; a rounded back like a violin (or like a Kanilea!); ebony fretboard with walnut headstock plate and cute olive green position markers; and maple neck, binding, and bridge.
I own several other very nice ukuleles, including custom models by Kamaka, Collings, Martin, and Kanilea. My new Pohaku compares very favorably to those venerable makers. It plays and sounds great! Very punchy, with clear articulation, lots of volume, and nice balance and flawless intonation up the neck. It has a 1.5" fretboard, which I like a lot as it makes fingering a bit easier and individual note articulation a bit clearer. It reminds me a bit of the difference between 1 3/4" and 1 11/16" necks on a guitar--subtle, but definitely noticeable.
The best part of the trip was meeting Peter and his wife and getting to tour his shop. He lives in a cute little Berkeley house full of curiosities--like, literally, Rube Goldberg machines of his own construction that serve up dinner forks. I'm not making that up. His ukulele shop is in the backyard, and he spent about 90 minutes with me walking through every step of his building process, which I found fascinating. He showed me a few custom art deco jobbies that he is working on which were really, really cool--who would have guessed that the deco style would fit the ukulele so well?
Anyway, I am a fan of Peter and his ukuleles. Both get a big thumbs up from this ukulele lover.
I own several other very nice ukuleles, including custom models by Kamaka, Collings, Martin, and Kanilea. My new Pohaku compares very favorably to those venerable makers. It plays and sounds great! Very punchy, with clear articulation, lots of volume, and nice balance and flawless intonation up the neck. It has a 1.5" fretboard, which I like a lot as it makes fingering a bit easier and individual note articulation a bit clearer. It reminds me a bit of the difference between 1 3/4" and 1 11/16" necks on a guitar--subtle, but definitely noticeable.
The best part of the trip was meeting Peter and his wife and getting to tour his shop. He lives in a cute little Berkeley house full of curiosities--like, literally, Rube Goldberg machines of his own construction that serve up dinner forks. I'm not making that up. His ukulele shop is in the backyard, and he spent about 90 minutes with me walking through every step of his building process, which I found fascinating. He showed me a few custom art deco jobbies that he is working on which were really, really cool--who would have guessed that the deco style would fit the ukulele so well?
Anyway, I am a fan of Peter and his ukuleles. Both get a big thumbs up from this ukulele lover.
