Mahon custom ukuleles

Hi,

I came across a few gorgeous photo’s at facebook. Handmade ukes at a very decent price... and he makes an archtop! I immediatly send him a message out of curiousity and got replied quickly with a nice offer. But before I spend my precious money on something just looking beautifull on the web, I thought it would be wise to do some research. But I can only find him on facebook... no website or anything?

Is anyone familiar with Mahon Custom Ukuleles?

Is there someone who knows anything about this luthier?

After reading your post, it made it sound like this was a one man custom operation. I looked around on their Facebook page a bit and that's not the case. There is mention of "one of our luthiers" and then also mention of an instrument being made in Vietnam.
It seems Mahon is the guy who owns the company and puts his name on the instruments...but he may be importing them all. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that. There are a lot of fine instruments out there coming in from all over the place these days. Maybe these would be great, maybe not. If they offer a great return policy, maybe it's worth a chance to try.

I saw a pic of the left handed archtop uke. That thing looks amazing.

Thanks! I didn’t get that far in my research as you did.
You could be right about that. It is indeed a gorgeous archtop, and the price suggests that it is probably made in the far east. But they make them by custom order as far as I know. They have a few standard models and you can choose between ceveral options of wood, tuners, headstocks, binding etc.

Remember archtop ukes don't have a lot of volume compared to the same size "regular" uke. Especially with tenor and smaller sizes. If it's the dark arch top on Facebook, the top looks like it is on the thicker side and wouldn't resonate like it should. Couldn't find if it has a pickup or not.

I have a Chennell baritone archtop that is great for playing alone unamped. I installed a K&K pickup and can't believe the wonderful jazzy sound it produces. Toby hand carves the top and back arch where the cheaper models are pressed into shape. Not sure how much of a difference it makes, but I'm sure it makes a difference

If this is going to be your primary instrument, I suggest you go with a regular style uke.

Here's a photo of my Chennell baritone and bass.

Thanks. Stunning archtops you have there!

I wasn’t aware of the fact that archtop ukes are on the quiet side, I thought that they would have a bette rprojection like archtop guitars have. And I wasn’t quite shure about the thickness of the top either... maybe I should just pass this one, it looks really great but I don’t like to spend quite a lot of money on something I not shure of...

After looking at some pictures, and with what has been said here, is it possible that at last some these "Mahon" instruments are made by Bruce Wei in Vietnam (AKA Bruceweiart on E-Bay)?