ailevin
Well-known member
My newest ukulele arrived this morning a day earlier than expected. It is the culmination of a series of surprises that began on Chistmas morning, when my wife properly shocked me with a KoAlohe KTM-00 tenor. I've discussed that instrument at length elsewhere, but it sparked my interest in the history of the KoAloha company, and I learned about the company founder, Alivn 'Pops' Okami aka Pops KoAloha aka Pops. In that week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, I learned that Pops had more or less turned over KoAloha to his sons and now had his own company, UKESA, that seemed to be a combination of custom ukulele shop and ukulele research and development laboratory. I liked the story of Pops' discovering how to build a non-koa (pine back and sides, spruce top) ukulele that sounded great. When he called it his Stradivarius I was hooked. After messaging with a few people here, I realized that Ed Fiscella, @efiscella, was a principal in UKESA and I started the process of ordering my ukulele. I wanted a quality soprano, and I also wanted something built by Pops personally. I really didn't know what I praticularly wanted customized, so I worked with Ed and Pops to get to what you see below. Ed warned me when we started that Pops modifies and experiments along the way, so it might come out slightly different from where we started. On the other hand, if I wasn't pleased with the changes that Pops made, they would be happy to buy it back at full price. From my point of view, anything that Pops wants to do to make a better ukulele is more than OK with me. It is his creativity and craftsmanship that motivated me to get this ukulele in the first place. Let me show you some pictures and I will return to the story.
As I said, it has pine sides and back, Engleman spruce top, sapele neck and headstock. The headstock is three layer sapele, ebony, maple laminate with Pops Aloha logo inlaid in abalone and Gotoh tuners. Fretboard and bridge are ebony and both are inlaid with abalone. It is 14" scale with 12 frets to the body and markers at 5, 7, 10, and 12. The front markers are full width double-depth abolone inlay. It also has fretboard side markers and a side sound port. The (laser etched?) label reads: CUSTOM MADE BY Pops KoAloha PAPALOHA HAWAII.
Considering that I ordered this January 1, I'm pleased it got here so quickly, yet Ed and Pops were apologetic about delays. Pops decided he wanted to add a mild curvature to the back and the existing jigs were not precise enough to do what he wanted to do, so there was a delay while Pops developed brand new templates and jigs. I notice a more bell shaped, Ohta-san style body compared to previous models. The curvature is very mild, almost unnoticable across the lower bout. Looking into the sound hole toward the end block, you cand see the curve on the bottom brace. Based on sound samples and Pops auditioning a similar model for me, I decided to have it initially strung with low G. I wondered it if was sacrilege to put a low G on a soprano, but I wanted the instrument to be consistent with what I am practicing on my tenor, and both Ed and Pops encouraged me to try low G. I also have a set of replacement strings in high G.
The best part of the process was the continual interaction with Ed and Pops during the build including .jpgs and now and then a .MOV as the build progressed. Not only did I feel involved, but I got to know Ed and Pops. Further, I was enjoying my ukulele before it even arrived. To give just one example, the curved back came about because of a custom ukulele that Pops was commssioned to build as a gift for Roy Sakuma (student of Ohta-san and teacher of Shimabukuro). He liked the tone with the curve, but doing it "free hand" was too much work, and this led to the newer high precision jigs. Just hearing that story and thinking about my ukulele being related to those folks, and I was floating on air.
Anyway back to NUD, my ukulele arrived. As I unboxed it, I wondered if they forgot the ukulele. It is light. I mean float away on a gentle breeze light. It weighs 354g. The Gotoh tuners are terrific. Presume the usual preamble and excuses: the strings have to settle, I have to get used to it, I don't normally play soprano, the solid wood has to open up, yada yada. I have not been able to put it down since it arrived. I keep picking it up to strum a few chords as I type this. First impression is that it doesn't feel like anything I've held beore. After a bit, I realize it has that amazing KoAloha action and it is very easy to play. That makes it feel like an extraordinarily petite version of my KoAloha tenor. But, in time I am back to the fact that it is unlike anything I have played before.
The sound is not what I expected. I expected it to be loud and I was concerned if it would be over trebley or harsh. The volume is good, the sustain is great, and the tone is mellow and gorgeous. With the smaller scale and smaller body it does bring out more of the treble, but the midrange is full bodied and the strings are well balanced, though the low G does sound thinner in tone than a low G on my concert or tenor ukuleles. Sound-wise it really is a petite version of my tenor--it has the signature KoAloha sound with a different equalizer setting. I don't have experience with spruce top ukuleles, but I am definitely a fan of this one. The articulation is very nice and I like the supplied flourocarbon strings. I notice the lower string tension at this scale. It plays very in-tune up the fretboard and the notes ring out nicely all the way to the top. The harmonics ring out too, even the pesky 5th fret harmonics.
So first impression is Wow!. Now I need a little time to try it out and compare it more carefully with my other instruments.
As I said, it has pine sides and back, Engleman spruce top, sapele neck and headstock. The headstock is three layer sapele, ebony, maple laminate with Pops Aloha logo inlaid in abalone and Gotoh tuners. Fretboard and bridge are ebony and both are inlaid with abalone. It is 14" scale with 12 frets to the body and markers at 5, 7, 10, and 12. The front markers are full width double-depth abolone inlay. It also has fretboard side markers and a side sound port. The (laser etched?) label reads: CUSTOM MADE BY Pops KoAloha PAPALOHA HAWAII.
Considering that I ordered this January 1, I'm pleased it got here so quickly, yet Ed and Pops were apologetic about delays. Pops decided he wanted to add a mild curvature to the back and the existing jigs were not precise enough to do what he wanted to do, so there was a delay while Pops developed brand new templates and jigs. I notice a more bell shaped, Ohta-san style body compared to previous models. The curvature is very mild, almost unnoticable across the lower bout. Looking into the sound hole toward the end block, you cand see the curve on the bottom brace. Based on sound samples and Pops auditioning a similar model for me, I decided to have it initially strung with low G. I wondered it if was sacrilege to put a low G on a soprano, but I wanted the instrument to be consistent with what I am practicing on my tenor, and both Ed and Pops encouraged me to try low G. I also have a set of replacement strings in high G.
The best part of the process was the continual interaction with Ed and Pops during the build including .jpgs and now and then a .MOV as the build progressed. Not only did I feel involved, but I got to know Ed and Pops. Further, I was enjoying my ukulele before it even arrived. To give just one example, the curved back came about because of a custom ukulele that Pops was commssioned to build as a gift for Roy Sakuma (student of Ohta-san and teacher of Shimabukuro). He liked the tone with the curve, but doing it "free hand" was too much work, and this led to the newer high precision jigs. Just hearing that story and thinking about my ukulele being related to those folks, and I was floating on air.
Anyway back to NUD, my ukulele arrived. As I unboxed it, I wondered if they forgot the ukulele. It is light. I mean float away on a gentle breeze light. It weighs 354g. The Gotoh tuners are terrific. Presume the usual preamble and excuses: the strings have to settle, I have to get used to it, I don't normally play soprano, the solid wood has to open up, yada yada. I have not been able to put it down since it arrived. I keep picking it up to strum a few chords as I type this. First impression is that it doesn't feel like anything I've held beore. After a bit, I realize it has that amazing KoAloha action and it is very easy to play. That makes it feel like an extraordinarily petite version of my KoAloha tenor. But, in time I am back to the fact that it is unlike anything I have played before.
The sound is not what I expected. I expected it to be loud and I was concerned if it would be over trebley or harsh. The volume is good, the sustain is great, and the tone is mellow and gorgeous. With the smaller scale and smaller body it does bring out more of the treble, but the midrange is full bodied and the strings are well balanced, though the low G does sound thinner in tone than a low G on my concert or tenor ukuleles. Sound-wise it really is a petite version of my tenor--it has the signature KoAloha sound with a different equalizer setting. I don't have experience with spruce top ukuleles, but I am definitely a fan of this one. The articulation is very nice and I like the supplied flourocarbon strings. I notice the lower string tension at this scale. It plays very in-tune up the fretboard and the notes ring out nicely all the way to the top. The harmonics ring out too, even the pesky 5th fret harmonics.
So first impression is Wow!. Now I need a little time to try it out and compare it more carefully with my other instruments.
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