New John Kinnard Uke!

Just took ownership of a new custom tenor uke built by John Kinnard of Fallbrook, California.

John is the luthier behind the Dell' Arte brand of Gypsy guitars and has been building guitars and stringed instruments for over 30 years. He's pretty well known over in Japan for his concert size ukes and has recently started building the tenor size for the domestic marketplace.

The specs on this uke are as follows:

Solid East Indian Rosewood back and sides
Solid Engleman Spruce top
Mahogany neck
Rosewood fingerboard and bridge
Bone nut and saddle
Peghead tuning machines

Construction:

The build on this uke is amazing and can best be summed up in one word- "Clean". I have a a tenor Collings and use that as my bench mark for what quality construction should look like- This uke is definitely in the same orbit!

Everything about it is top notch- from the selection of the woods to the attention to detail.

The neck is graphite reinforced and dovetail joined to the body.

The rosewood fretboard is bound for a classy finished look and has a radius for easy playability.

I went with just the side markers on the neck as I like the look of a clean fretboard-

14 frets to the body and the faceplate on the headstock is Honduran Rosewood.

Very light weight

Traditional nitro gloss finish

Sound-

Hard to describe in words but....warm clear tones with the ability to play very loud without the sound breaking up. Great sustain and resonance with what I would call a rosewood sparkle. Very "sweet" tone....excellent clarity while playing fingerstyle and very balanced while strumming.




Trying to post pictures....... http://www.flickr.com/photos/43422297@N08/sets/

Sound sample http://soundcloud.com/kevd0g/kinnard-rosewood-tenor-uke

That is my kind of uke! Beautiful! Congratulations!

I have this guitar by John Kinnard, and it is exquisite. I can just imagine how good his ukes are!

That is one fine looking uke! Will you post a sound sample?

I have been very impressed with the quality of ukes being produced by relatively new (to the uke at least) luthiers.

Tigeralum2001 said:

That is one fine looking uke! Will you post a sound sample?

I have been very impressed with the quality of ukes being produced by relatively new (to the uke at least) luthiers.

Click to expand...

I will try and get a sound sample posted tomorrow....

Lovely looking uke - It's gorgeous! And "clean" is the correct word. I love the look of the neck without the fret markers - I've a uke on order just now and I went for no markers on the neck either, but I wasn't too sure.. seeing yours I'm glad I made that decision! Congratulations on a beautiful new uke, can't wait to hear it!

Trying to load an MP3 sound sample with no luck. Can someone walk me through it?

The upload says its an "invalid file".

It's 7.7mb....too big a file?

Thanks for the help.

Kevdog said:

Trying to load an MP3 sound sample with no luck. Can someone walk me through it?

The upload says its an "invalid file".

It's 7.7mb....too big a file?

Thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

Figured it out.....thx

http://soundcloud.com/kevd0g/kinnard-rosewood-tenor-uke

Nice tone! I like your playing style, too!

Just an FYI-

If you're going to the San Diego Uke Festival on October 13th, John Kinnard will be showing off some of his ukes at the Buffalo Bros booth and answering questions....

I plan on being at the festival too with this Uke so hope to meet you and let you play it...

Kevdog

Hey, Kevin!

Is this the Road Trip Uke?

...because they sure look alike!

Kurt-

Yep that's her!

Nice uke. I thought that sounded like the RTU.

So is John going to make a swing through the east coast anytime soon? Any shows or festivals in our neck of the woods?