These, as the title suggests, are the first ukuleles that I’ve built.  One was built for the Ananda Living Wisdom School Luau Fundraiser Dinner.  Every year the middle/high school boys and girls go on separate service-adventure trips.  That particular year (2017) the boys went to Hong Kong, where one of the students is from, and they worked with his parents on their farm, studied with a calligraphy master, discussed philosophical studies in Chinese medicine, meditated in ancient temples and went on backpacking adventures  through the wild.  Not too shabby for a group of high schoolers!

Each student has to raise money for the trip and in addition, the students put on a number of fundraisers; one of which was a Hawaiian Luau and that’s where the ukulele comes in.  They asked me if I would build a ukulele for them to auction off.  Of course I was delighted to do so.

The mango wood used was a gift from a dear friend of mine Bajrang.  He had collected a large amount of it many years previously, but being too busy restoring classic cars (with the high school girls no less) decided to give it to me.  Yes!

The second ukulele I built for my Dad’s 64th birthday.  I had been working on it, albeit not as much as I should have been, when I realized that he and my Mom were leaving for Hawaii on his birthday at a ridiculous early hour of the morning.  With three days left, and lot more to do, I had myself some late nights in the shop.  The last night was a doozy; with only hours left I pulled an all nighter; but with a lot of meditation and the grace of the cosmos, I got it done with enough time to drive to Sacramento and deliver it to my Dad, and with only 15 minutes before Uber was to pick them up!  Oh what adventures….

Both ukes are basically of the same build; Mango back and sides, spruce top, mahogany neck, rosewood fingerboard, bridge and bridge pins, bone nut and saddle, Grover open gear tuning keys, 17″scale and a Tung oil finish.

They are tenor ukes but on soprano bodies.  The mold I used to shape the bodies was gifted to me by my high school shop teacher, Mr. Zasso my senior year.  For some strange reason my school was shutting down shop class so my senior year was the last year woodshop was going to be available.  Having already built three electric guitars in shop, Mr. Zasso thought in only natural to see if I wanted to take the mold.  I didn’t even know it was there!  It felt great finally using it after all these years.

They may look rather funny with that almost comically large soundhole, but they do sound really good.  Very crisp and clear with a great projection.

I am definitely looking forward to the next ones!