NUD: David Hanson Kiku

I've received the baritone size kiku that David Hanson built for me. It is a very nice instrument, from both a craftsmanship and tonal perspective. I've name it ukiku because i like the palindrome. (Hope it doesn't mean anything inappropriate in Hawaiian.)

I'll post some sound files in a week or so, after i've gotten comfortable playing a small 5 string instrument. (I'm primarily a guitar player.) Meanwhile, here are some final photos:



I see that David has posted a tenor size kiku for sale. You should seriously consider it. (Frankly, i would go for it myself, but i recently bought a size 5 guitar in addition to ukiku, and can't justify another instrument until i sell a few of those that i currently have. Anyone looking for an Ohana TK-35?)

Beautiful design and beautiful wood.

Wow! That’s a real beauty. Congratulations.

Thanks. I look forward to my playing of it reaching a level that does some justice to its craftsmanship.

Good golly, that's nice!

Awesome! Can't wait to hear it! :shaka:

I wrote a moderately long post for this thread, but was logged out (without warning) while doing so; consequently, i lost what i had written. Here goes again (with a word processor this time).

I’ve become more comfortable playing my kiku, so that now i’m willing to put myself “out there” with some sound files (bottom of this post). First, though, i want to say something about strings and chord formation.

The instrument was designed for (5th to 1st) adGBE tuning. As i said in the build thread, i decided to go with a high d Uke Logic “Hard Tension” baritone set with an additional 0.032" string for the a-string. Now that i’ve had a chance to play with this choice, i can say that i’m happy with it, with one exception. The first string (0.023") sounds a little harsh in comparison with the others. I tried tuning the 4th string (d, 0.025") up a step to compare, and found that to my ear it sounds great with the other strings. Consequently, i have contacted Uke Logic for a backup string set with the 0.023" first string replaced with a 0.025" and another 0.025" to replace my current first string.

As a guitar player, i haven’t had too much trouble adapting to the kiku, although the very short scale has taken some getting used to. I’m quite satisfied with the 5-string E and F chords, since the 6th string is not fretted on a guitar E chord and i usually play a 5-string F because a barre bothers my thumb. The G chord has caused me the most trouble. Too often i found myself putting my ring finger at the 3rd fret of the outer 5th string of the kiku. I finally decided to use my thumb on the 2nd fret of the 5th string; that has helped because it is so different from how i play G on the guitar.

Anyway, here are links to the partial sound files. It’s pretty mediocre playing because that’s my level of expertise. The first two (Jamaica Farewell in C and The Last Thing on my Mind in A) use finger patterns. The second two (Blowing in the Wind in C and a song of mine in E) are strummed. Keep in mind that i started learning to strum only a few months ago when i bought a tenor uke.

http://rlgreene.net/Kiku/JamaicaFarewell.mp3
http://rlgreene.net/Kiku/LastThingOnMyMind.mp3

http://rlgreene.net/Kiku/BlowingInTheWind.mp3
http://rlgreene.net/Kiku/SchoolLearning.mp3

Well done. Now that's what a Kiku is supposed to sound like...a little more than a uke and a little less than a guitar.