I wrote up a couple of new Pop's (of KoAloha fame) ukes I recently got and mentioned that he was building me a custom Pineapple Sunday. Pop's Pineapple Sundays have a great reputation, and rightfully so, similar in sound to the Sceptre with a little more bottom, maybe because of the larger body, it has good volume and a very balanced voice with tons of sustain! The setup on it is great, close without buzzing, so comfortable to play. And I said it includes a "FIRST", at least for the Pineapple Sunday. I asked Pops for a side sound port, and to use his creative skills to design something for me. He said he had to first see if it was structurally possible with the PS body shape. Finally he send me a prototype and asked if I liked it. I told him I LOVED it, please do it! I also mentioned in my other NUD's that I love how Pop's uses sequential "slices" of Koa so the top and back are almost mirror images, and the Koa on this uke is so nice, having it on the front and back makes it twice as nice. The Koa has such great grains and curl I opted not take away from it with the pineapple embossing typically used. The sides are a 1 piece strip of Koa. In addition to the sound port, Pop's added some other nice touches or accents of ebony, around the sound hole and the side sound port. And I love his ebony logo PS which I believe stands for Pop's Specialties, but on mine it's "Pineapple Sunday"! And while talking about the headstock note the mahogany/ebony/"crazy maple" layers. Classy I think. And I love Pop's fret markers which he calls "Tapa Cloth", his creation using Koa and ebony, a nice change from the typical fret dots. And with the tenor scale and the smaller body I found it still fits nice and snug in many of the concert hardshell cases with generous overall interior lengths of 25 1/2"+.
Now I have to tell a "to strange to be a coincidence" story. I saw a concert Pono in my local Craig's List in a Oahu concert hardshell case (a case several people said was a good fit for the Pineapple Sunday), so I bought it for the case as my PS was already in the mail... without a case. While I was picking it up the seller happened to mention that he and his son were on Oahu last week to visit his sister and while he was there he went to the KoAloha Factory Tour. I asked if he saw Pop's while on the tour and he said he did, that he was busily working at his workbench, and he said he snapped a few pics. I told him Pop's was working on my custom Pineapple Sunday and wouldn't it be crazy... Long story short when I got the pics, the body my Pineapple Sunday was right on top of a stack of uke parts on the bench where Pop's was working (I could tell because of the stripe of sapwood on the side right at the edge of my side sound port). How cool is that, tell me these pics weren't destined to find their way to me! Cool story... way cooler uke!
Now I have to tell a "to strange to be a coincidence" story. I saw a concert Pono in my local Craig's List in a Oahu concert hardshell case (a case several people said was a good fit for the Pineapple Sunday), so I bought it for the case as my PS was already in the mail... without a case. While I was picking it up the seller happened to mention that he and his son were on Oahu last week to visit his sister and while he was there he went to the KoAloha Factory Tour. I asked if he saw Pop's while on the tour and he said he did, that he was busily working at his workbench, and he said he snapped a few pics. I told him Pop's was working on my custom Pineapple Sunday and wouldn't it be crazy... Long story short when I got the pics, the body my Pineapple Sunday was right on top of a stack of uke parts on the bench where Pop's was working (I could tell because of the stripe of sapwood on the side right at the edge of my side sound port). How cool is that, tell me these pics weren't destined to find their way to me! Cool story... way cooler uke!
