Great luthiers?

The Moa

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Hi,
Does someone of you happen to know a great luthier for custom ukuleles?
 
In the UK I can think of Tinguitar and KM ukulele, Andy's ukes and Ken Timms. These are good builders and all round nice people. There are other big names but for some their ego and ethos overshadows their work.
 
It would be helpful to know

1) Where you live
2) What kind of uke are you looking for
3) What's your budget

There are tons of builders in the US and UK, not so many in other places. Prices of course wary hugely, as do building styles.
 
It would be helpful to know

1) Where you live
2) What kind of uke are you looking for
3) What's your budget

There are tons of builders in the US and UK, not so many in other places. Prices of course wary hugely, as do building styles.

I live in Finland so Europe is the easiest for me.
I'm looking for a tenor scale ukulele mainly for jazz and latin/Spanish style playing in the range of 500-1500 euros.
 
In the UK I can think of Tinguitar and KM ukulele, Andy's ukes and Ken Timms. These are good builders and all round nice people. There are other big names but for some their ego and ethos overshadows their work.

Thanks I'll check them! Don't know if KM or Ken Timms are building at the moment though.
 
I live in Finland so Europe is the easiest for me.
I'm looking for a tenor scale ukulele mainly for jazz and latin/Spanish style playing in the range of 500-1500 euros.

Ah, a fellow Finn! May I direct you to a local luthier? I very recently commissioned a soprano from Lottonen Guitars: http://lottonen.com/fi/laulu/
I can easily vouch for his competence. He's fixed a couple of my more expensive ukes previously, one of which was a vintage Martin, and did an excellent job. I've also seen and tried a few ukes he's made and they are excellent quality. Of course, when he delivers the soprano I ordered I will post some pictures but that will take a few months until it's ready.

There have been other good suggestions already here. Ken Timms mainly does sopranos and they're also really hard to get since he always auctions them on eBay. Barry Maz at Got a Ukulele has recently said very good things about KM ukuleles. You might want to ask Kevin Mulcock himself if he's taking any orders in. Rob Collins at Tinguitar is supposedly another excellent builder.

Brüko is a nice suggestion as well and probably the most affordable one you'll come across. You might want to check out some videos and reviews about them because they have a very distinctive sound to them. Ziegenspeck ukes you can buy straight from Thomann.

Another interesting one is Antica Ukuleleria in Italy (https://www.anticaukuleleria.com/). I believe you can order straight from them, they might have some in stock, and you can also sometimes find their models on Gute Ukulele (https://gute-ukulele.de/ website is in German but Google Translate works fine).
 
I'd second Tom Ziegenspeck in Germany. Very good builder.
 
Ah, a fellow Finn! May I direct you to a local luthier? I very recently commissioned a soprano from Lottonen Guitars: http://lottonen.com/fi/laulu/
I can easily vouch for his competence. He's fixed a couple of my more expensive ukes previously, one of which was a vintage Martin, and did an excellent job. I've also seen and tried a few ukes he's made and they are excellent quality. Of course, when he delivers the soprano I ordered I will post some pictures but that will take a few months until it's ready.

There have been other good suggestions already here. Ken Timms mainly does sopranos and they're also really hard to get since he always auctions them on eBay. Barry Maz at Got a Ukulele has recently said very good things about KM ukuleles. You might want to ask Kevin Mulcock himself if he's taking any orders in. Rob Collins at Tinguitar is supposedly another excellent builder.

Brüko is a nice suggestion as well and probably the most affordable one you'll come across. You might want to check out some videos and reviews about them because they have a very distinctive sound to them. Ziegenspeck ukes you can buy straight from Thomann.

Another interesting one is Antica Ukuleleria in Italy (https://www.anticaukuleleria.com/). I believe you can order straight from them, they might have some in stock, and you can also sometimes find their models on Gute Ukulele (https://gute-ukulele.de/ website is in German but Google Translate works fine).

Oh great! I'll check the Lottonen Guitars!

Thanks for the suggestions.

I was already familiar with Antica Ukuleleria. The ukes look and sound amazing and Marco just added a new, easy way to order customized instruments. Although I really do like the sound of these instruments, they seem to be very bright sounding as the body of his tenor is a little more smaller than with most tenors. Also he uses kind of bright woods. Does anyone know if some of these tone woods has a mellower, warmer character? Cypress, pearwood, cherry, maple? I'd really like to go with a spruce top, but it would need an earthier back and sides with it for the sound I'm looking for.
 
Ah, a fellow Finn! May I direct you to a local luthier? I very recently commissioned a soprano from Lottonen Guitars: http://lottonen.com/fi/laulu/
I can easily vouch for his competence. He's fixed a couple of my more expensive ukes previously, one of which was a vintage Martin, and did an excellent job. I've also seen and tried a few ukes he's made and they are excellent quality. Of course, when he delivers the soprano I ordered I will post some pictures but that will take a few months until it's ready.

There have been other good suggestions already here. Ken Timms mainly does sopranos and they're also really hard to get since he always auctions them on eBay. Barry Maz at Got a Ukulele has recently said very good things about KM ukuleles. You might want to ask Kevin Mulcock himself if he's taking any orders in. Rob Collins at Tinguitar is supposedly another excellent builder.

Brüko is a nice suggestion as well and probably the most affordable one you'll come across. You might want to check out some videos and reviews about them because they have a very distinctive sound to them. Ziegenspeck ukes you can buy straight from Thomann.

Another interesting one is Antica Ukuleleria in Italy (https://www.anticaukuleleria.com/). I believe you can order straight from them, they might have some in stock, and you can also sometimes find their models on Gute Ukulele (https://gute-ukulele.de/ website is in German but Google Translate works fine).

Kevin Mulcock is a terrific builder, but I believe he has a limited selection of instruments he offers. Either a standard soprano (mine is excellent), or he bought the plans and jigs for Pete Howlett's "boat paddle" family of ukuleles. Which Barry recently reviewed the concert, I believe.
 
Two more British luthiers that I've been tempted to try are Liam Kirby of Wunderkammer Musical Instruments and Paul Bernard of Wildcat Ukulele. I've not tried either, but have considered commissioning from both.
 
If you are in Finland, there’s an Englishman living and making ukuleles there, I think. He built a very nice tenor for Herman Vandecauter. He is a very accomplished player and knows his instruments. Look into Shane Heighway. https://www.facebook.com/shane.heighway1
 
There is also (in the UK) Pete Howlett who lives and works in North Wales. His instruments are fabulous.
 
Two more British luthiers that I've been tempted to try are Liam Kirby of Wunderkammer Musical Instruments and Paul Bernard of Wildcat Ukulele. I've not tried either, but have considered commissioning from both.

I've actually talked to Paul about if he still makes custom ukes. He responded that at the moment he mainly builds his predesigned models, unless something unusual comes across.
 
Yeah I have heard so much good about him and some of the other UK luthiers mentioned here seem to have studied under him.
 
There is also (in the UK) Pete Howlett who lives and works in North Wales. His instruments are fabulous.

He's not taking commissions anymore I don't think and is now doing those thin, sort of batch electro type looking ukuleles. He's also very tricky to work with and isn't really open to ideas, questions or suggestions so tread carefully
 
Yeah, I don't think Pete Howlett has taken commissions for quite some time. However, loads of people have worked with him or even under him. I believe Kevin Mulcock was trained by Pete and he also bought the rights to some designs of Pete.
 
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