In the first installment of this epic adventure, I had shopped at a few ukulele shops in Waikiki, but when I went to Kaua’i to shop at Larry’s Music in Kapa’a, I had been unable to connect with Sam, who owns the shop. Here’s the rest of the story ….
WickedWahini posted in the earlier thread that Sam had a second shop called “Ukulele Store,” in Koloa Town, near Puipo Beach. (Thanks, Staci! That information was invaluable!) So on my way back from a 5K race at Puipo Beach on Sunday morning, I stopped at Ukulele Store (which actually also has a much smaller sign that says “Larry’s Music”) only to find a sign that said that on Sundays, the store itself was closed and its proprietors were at the Puipo Beach Sheraton. So on Sunday evening at about 6:00 p.m., on my way back to Kapa’a from Waimea Canyon and Koke’e State Park, I stopped at the Sheraton, where I found an ukulele cart in the lobby. I asked the couple at the cart if this was Larry’s Music and when they said it was, I said “I am sooooo glad to see you! I’ve been trying to shop at Larry’s all weekend but I haven’t been able to connect with Sam.” The couple turned out to be Sam’s parents! Joe, Sam’s father, works at the Koloa Town shop. I told them how I really had my heart set on playing all of Larry’s Music’s K brand ukuleles and picking one out, and how I was leaving Kaua’i on Monday evening. So Sam’s parents, bless their hearts, suggested that Joe take me back to the Ukulele Store and let me play whatever I wanted. So Joe and I went back, and he opened the store just for me, and for almost two hours, Joe let me play every ukulele I wanted, even suggesting some I might not have thought of. By the time I was finished, I had picked out a Kamaka tenor that I really liked. But I told Joe that I’d still hoped to play the ukuleles at the Kapa’a shop because each ukulele has its own voice and I wanted to be sure about the one I bought. Joe said that he had to meet Sam at the Kapa’a store on Monday morning and invited me to go there in the morning, and he even agreed to bring the Kamaka I had picked out so I could compare them to the one in the Kapa’a store! The next morning, Sam, as busy as he was (apparently his business with Kamoa ukuleles has really taken off), played the ukulele I’d selected and the three other Kamaka tenors in his shop (one of which was a $2,000 deluxe model with exquisite curly koa) and demonstrated what he does to test the various sound qualities of ukuleles. When we were done, he told me that he really liked the one I had selected from the Koloa Town shop. So I bought it and asked Sam to ship it to me in San Francisco (It turns out that shipping was about as much as it would have cost me to check a bag on the flights from Kaua’i to Oahu and from Oahu to California on Hawaiian Airlines). I still can’t believe how Joe went out of his way to let me try all the ukuleles in his shop, even though it was closed, and was nice enough to bring the ukulele I picked to the Kapa’a store so I could compare it to others!
After I got back to Oahu, I made three more stops:
Dan’s Guitars: MM Stan suggested this place and I’m glad he did (mahalos, Stan!). The shop has two walls of ukuleles. One had lower priced ukes — Kalas and flukes and such, and the other wall had higher end ukes — a used Kanile’a tenor with beautiful grain and new KoAlohas in each scale and a Kamaka concert (no Kamaka tenors, though.) The folks at Dan’s let me play for a while and then chatted with me about different ukes (he seemed to like Kanile’as). Really nice place, and the people I spoke to seemed knowledgeable.
KoAloha Factory. I showed up for the 1:00 p.m. mini-tour, which ended up lasting an hour. Everyone there was great. Nuprin’s already posted about his tour and the famous KoAloha wall of seconds, which included a twisted Brittni Paiva tenor and propotypes of Pops's Japan Relief ukulele. I took lots of pictures and will be posting them as soon as I can. I can honestly say that I would have bought a KoAloha factory second in a heartbeat if there’d been a tenor there (the closest thing was a longneck concert, which sounded exquisite but didn’t feel quite right). I also got to play Pops's famous original mini-uke, which launched the company’s ukulele business. Great experience!
Hawaiian Ukulele Company. This is a nice little shop in the Aloha Tower Shopping Center. It had a small selection of ukuleles, ranging from KoAloha to Kala to a little red ukulele made by a company I hadn’t heard of before. I liked the place so much I bought a copy of Jake Shimabukuro's “Hula Girls” soundtrack CD.
And so my adventure ended. The Kamaka I bought from Sam arrived two days after I got home and I can’t put it down (I’ll post a separate “New Uke Day” thread with photos in the next few days).
Sorry for the long post, but I mostly wanted to give props to Sam and especially his parents for being so pleasant to deal with and for going above and beyond the call of duty to help me find the ukulele of my dreams. Mahalo for reading!
WickedWahini posted in the earlier thread that Sam had a second shop called “Ukulele Store,” in Koloa Town, near Puipo Beach. (Thanks, Staci! That information was invaluable!) So on my way back from a 5K race at Puipo Beach on Sunday morning, I stopped at Ukulele Store (which actually also has a much smaller sign that says “Larry’s Music”) only to find a sign that said that on Sundays, the store itself was closed and its proprietors were at the Puipo Beach Sheraton. So on Sunday evening at about 6:00 p.m., on my way back to Kapa’a from Waimea Canyon and Koke’e State Park, I stopped at the Sheraton, where I found an ukulele cart in the lobby. I asked the couple at the cart if this was Larry’s Music and when they said it was, I said “I am sooooo glad to see you! I’ve been trying to shop at Larry’s all weekend but I haven’t been able to connect with Sam.” The couple turned out to be Sam’s parents! Joe, Sam’s father, works at the Koloa Town shop. I told them how I really had my heart set on playing all of Larry’s Music’s K brand ukuleles and picking one out, and how I was leaving Kaua’i on Monday evening. So Sam’s parents, bless their hearts, suggested that Joe take me back to the Ukulele Store and let me play whatever I wanted. So Joe and I went back, and he opened the store just for me, and for almost two hours, Joe let me play every ukulele I wanted, even suggesting some I might not have thought of. By the time I was finished, I had picked out a Kamaka tenor that I really liked. But I told Joe that I’d still hoped to play the ukuleles at the Kapa’a shop because each ukulele has its own voice and I wanted to be sure about the one I bought. Joe said that he had to meet Sam at the Kapa’a store on Monday morning and invited me to go there in the morning, and he even agreed to bring the Kamaka I had picked out so I could compare them to the one in the Kapa’a store! The next morning, Sam, as busy as he was (apparently his business with Kamoa ukuleles has really taken off), played the ukulele I’d selected and the three other Kamaka tenors in his shop (one of which was a $2,000 deluxe model with exquisite curly koa) and demonstrated what he does to test the various sound qualities of ukuleles. When we were done, he told me that he really liked the one I had selected from the Koloa Town shop. So I bought it and asked Sam to ship it to me in San Francisco (It turns out that shipping was about as much as it would have cost me to check a bag on the flights from Kaua’i to Oahu and from Oahu to California on Hawaiian Airlines). I still can’t believe how Joe went out of his way to let me try all the ukuleles in his shop, even though it was closed, and was nice enough to bring the ukulele I picked to the Kapa’a store so I could compare it to others!
After I got back to Oahu, I made three more stops:
Dan’s Guitars: MM Stan suggested this place and I’m glad he did (mahalos, Stan!). The shop has two walls of ukuleles. One had lower priced ukes — Kalas and flukes and such, and the other wall had higher end ukes — a used Kanile’a tenor with beautiful grain and new KoAlohas in each scale and a Kamaka concert (no Kamaka tenors, though.) The folks at Dan’s let me play for a while and then chatted with me about different ukes (he seemed to like Kanile’as). Really nice place, and the people I spoke to seemed knowledgeable.
KoAloha Factory. I showed up for the 1:00 p.m. mini-tour, which ended up lasting an hour. Everyone there was great. Nuprin’s already posted about his tour and the famous KoAloha wall of seconds, which included a twisted Brittni Paiva tenor and propotypes of Pops's Japan Relief ukulele. I took lots of pictures and will be posting them as soon as I can. I can honestly say that I would have bought a KoAloha factory second in a heartbeat if there’d been a tenor there (the closest thing was a longneck concert, which sounded exquisite but didn’t feel quite right). I also got to play Pops's famous original mini-uke, which launched the company’s ukulele business. Great experience!
Hawaiian Ukulele Company. This is a nice little shop in the Aloha Tower Shopping Center. It had a small selection of ukuleles, ranging from KoAloha to Kala to a little red ukulele made by a company I hadn’t heard of before. I liked the place so much I bought a copy of Jake Shimabukuro's “Hula Girls” soundtrack CD.
And so my adventure ended. The Kamaka I bought from Sam arrived two days after I got home and I can’t put it down (I’ll post a separate “New Uke Day” thread with photos in the next few days).
Sorry for the long post, but I mostly wanted to give props to Sam and especially his parents for being so pleasant to deal with and for going above and beyond the call of duty to help me find the ukulele of my dreams. Mahalo for reading!
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