UkeStuff
Well-known member
Hey everyone,
I had permission to drive up to the Silver Creek International Ukulele Carnival today (with active boys that are 4 and 8, I usually need to be on hand). I had a great time--a wonderful event hosted by the Twin Harbors Ukulele Group (THUG). It's a drive from the Twin Cities (about 3 hours), but there were folks from across the US and Canada.
They had a few vendors there, and one was Bonanza Ukulele. The company has been making ukuleles for about 18 months, first out of laminate (check out Petey Mack's videos on YouTube) and they have been making solid wood ukuleles for about 3 months.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMY99CRE23s
The solid wood ukuleles are made out of sustainable hardwoods that are familiar to those of us on the continental US, such as Black Walnut and Aspen. They also had one made out of cherry...which looked beautiful.
The design of the new wood ukuleles is amazing (the top and bottom have perferling that is actually CNCed as part of the construction--and they can even laser etch a design on the face of a ukulele.
They also sell some neat ukulele "carousel" tables--I'll be buying one of those for my classroom.
I did a search for Bonanza Ukuleles before posting--but they have only been mentioned in other threads--and it is a ukulele that sounds nice (I was partial to the Apsen tenor) and economically affordable for some personalization and customization. Pricing for non-customized ukuleles (any size) was under $300. And many options can be added.
That said, they aren't going to sound like a $2000 custom, or even like my KoAloha Opio Tenor ($520). But at the price point for a customizable, American-made ukulele, it is worth a look, and a chance to own a very playable and nice solid wood instrument for not a whole lot of money (comparatively).
They were also at UWC this year.
And they still do the laminate ukuleles as Petey Mack showed last year. (Incidentally, Petey and Ukester Brown were featured guests at the SCIUC this year--wonderful teachers, players, and people).
Bonanza's website hasn't been updated to include their new wood ukuleles, but they will hopefully get to that soon, and you can always e-mail them if interested. I have a sneaky idea to get one customized for my school program, and to give it away as a prize during one of our fundraisers!
http://bonanzaukuleles.com
I had permission to drive up to the Silver Creek International Ukulele Carnival today (with active boys that are 4 and 8, I usually need to be on hand). I had a great time--a wonderful event hosted by the Twin Harbors Ukulele Group (THUG). It's a drive from the Twin Cities (about 3 hours), but there were folks from across the US and Canada.
They had a few vendors there, and one was Bonanza Ukulele. The company has been making ukuleles for about 18 months, first out of laminate (check out Petey Mack's videos on YouTube) and they have been making solid wood ukuleles for about 3 months.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMY99CRE23s
The solid wood ukuleles are made out of sustainable hardwoods that are familiar to those of us on the continental US, such as Black Walnut and Aspen. They also had one made out of cherry...which looked beautiful.
The design of the new wood ukuleles is amazing (the top and bottom have perferling that is actually CNCed as part of the construction--and they can even laser etch a design on the face of a ukulele.
They also sell some neat ukulele "carousel" tables--I'll be buying one of those for my classroom.
I did a search for Bonanza Ukuleles before posting--but they have only been mentioned in other threads--and it is a ukulele that sounds nice (I was partial to the Apsen tenor) and economically affordable for some personalization and customization. Pricing for non-customized ukuleles (any size) was under $300. And many options can be added.
That said, they aren't going to sound like a $2000 custom, or even like my KoAloha Opio Tenor ($520). But at the price point for a customizable, American-made ukulele, it is worth a look, and a chance to own a very playable and nice solid wood instrument for not a whole lot of money (comparatively).
They were also at UWC this year.
And they still do the laminate ukuleles as Petey Mack showed last year. (Incidentally, Petey and Ukester Brown were featured guests at the SCIUC this year--wonderful teachers, players, and people).
Bonanza's website hasn't been updated to include their new wood ukuleles, but they will hopefully get to that soon, and you can always e-mail them if interested. I have a sneaky idea to get one customized for my school program, and to give it away as a prize during one of our fundraisers!
http://bonanzaukuleles.com