The Ohana Story: A Small Family Business making a Big Splash in the Ukulele World

THE OHANA STORY 
Quality . Playability . Value

As an homage to the spirit of family and with a passion for music, Ohana was born. We are a small, community-oriented ukulele company best known for our commitment to quality—every instrument is individually inspected and set up before delivery to our authorized dealers around the world.

That’s because we believe that regardless of your skill level, your ukulele should be functional and immediately playable, so the places you go with it are marked by the experiences that awaken you.

Today, Ohana contributes to interesting lives everywhere, heading out to far reaches of the globe. Bands have formed. Songs have been played. Relationships have been built. Lives have been changed. And whether you are purchasing your first, next, or best ukulele, we’re here to help. Welcome to the family.

Quality, Playability, Value
Headquartered in Long Beach, CA, we at Ohana, believe in the importance of Quality, Playability, and Value. Since 2006, we have focused on making ukuleles from rich tone woods and constructions that yield the best-sounding instruments possible.

From Our Warehouse To You
We are passionate in what we do, which is why we make it our top priority to properly inspect and set up every instrument before being shipped. We believe that an instrument ought to be functional, playable, and most importantly, be able to inspire a person to continue to learn and create music.

At Ohana, we believe innovation is the key to any endeavor, tempered with an appreciation of those who paved the way for the ukulele before us. When conceptualizing a new line, we take everything into consideration— from sourcing and pairing tone woods, to the unique shape and construction of each model.

The Ohana Spirit
As a player, you deserve Quality, Playability, and Value, when purchasing a musical instrument. Thank you for choosing Ohana as part of your ukulele collection. We promise to continue to strive for excellence in our instruments and service.

Start Your Ohana Collection Today

Testimonials from Ohana owners - these instruments are getting a lot of love.

Kala Waterman Ukulele The ultimate Travel ukulele, Rain Hail or Shine

The Waterman Story
KALA Ukulele, known for several brands of high quality yet affordable instruments, has been inspired by the 1950's Maccaferri ukulele and created a new uke with a focus on the outdoor enthusiast.

 "The Waterman" is a ukulele for everyone but pays special tribute to people that live the waterman, outdoor lifestyle.

The Waterman Ukulele pays homage in part to the legendary ukulele designer, Mario Maccaferri. Inspired at the 1939 World's Fair he saw plastic as the material of the future. Mario eventually combined his skills as a luthier and his business of injection molding and invented the Maccaferi Ukulele. After being endorsed by entertainer, Arthur Godfrey, on his TV show, 9 million of the Maccaferri ukes were sold between 1949 and 1969.

The Kala Makala Waterman Soprano Uke takes the Maccaferri concept to all new heights. An affordable, innovative uke with the quality you've come to expect from Kala, the Makala Waterman plays great, sounds great, and stays in tune. From the beach to the mountains and everything in between, the Makala Waterman boasts a durable high-grade polycarbonate construction and a travel-friendly, water-resistant design that makes this uke the perfect choice no matter where you go. Comes equipped with a set of nickel-plated open-gear tuners and a set of Aqulia Super Nylgut strings. Can easily converted for left-handed players. Includes a logo backpack bag.

The Makala Waterman Series by Kala features the latest water resistant composite technology packaged in vintage design and sound. The Waterman Series is designed for playability, portability and durability, making it the ultimate outdoor/travel ukulele.

In addition to being the perfect go anywhere ukulele for the outdoor enthusiast, the materials used in the Waterman’s construction make it an excellent choice for school and community music programs where cleanliness is a consideration. The ukuleles are easy to keep clean which is advantageous in settings where instruments are being shared.

Makala Waterman ukuleles come in soprano size and include a logo backpack/carrying bag. The instruments are made of high grade polycarbonate ABS construction which is durable and weather resistant, and are complemented with nickel plated open gear tuners. Each model is strung with Aquila Super Nyglut Strings.


Features:
Water resistant
Affordable
Portable
Durable
Easy to keep clean
High grade polycarbonate construction
Nickel plated open gear tuners
Aquila Super Nylgut Strings
Logo backpack bag included

FREE UKULELE LESSON WITH EVERY PURCHASE.

As a way of thanking you for your business The Ukulele Trading Co has partnered with Honolulu based Music Instructor Jeffrey Thomas to offer you a FREE Ukulele Lesson. 

Remember to tell Jeff “Aloha” from us.

Happy Strumming
Christopher Carr
The Chief Ukulele Guy at The Ukulele Trading Co Australia

How Does This Work?

The free lesson will take place over Skype. You will need a webcam and a microphone on your Desktop computer so you can communicate with Jeffrey. 

Or use your Laptop, Tablet or IPad.  They are perfect as they have inbuilt microphone and camera.  

How Do I Organise A Time For A Lesson?

Simply contact Jeffery and tell him that Ukulele Trading Co sent you.  You have 60 days to organise a lesson.  

What Time Of Day Is The Lesson?

Jeffrey lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. He has a handful of Australian students already and schedules an entire day to Aussie students each week. He is accustomed to the time-zone difference, so it's no issue finding a suitable time for the lesson 

Who Is The Ukulele Instructor?

Jeffrey Thomas has been teaching guitar, bass and ukulele for over 24 years.

He lives in Honolulu, the home of the ukulele! Jeffrey has a bunch of regular ukulele students from Australia.   Jeffrey prepares all notations before each lesson and can cater for anyone - beginners to advanced players.

How Long Is The Lesson?

Your free lesson will last 30mins. If you wish to continue lessons with Jeffrey,

you are welcome to speak with him

What Is Skype?

Skype is a free software application that allows users to make voice calls over the Internet.  

Simply Download Skype and sign up for a free account. 

Skype is becoming the new classroom for private music lessons. You will be pleasantly surprised at how easy the Skype lesson is. All you need is a webcam and a mic, Your Tablet or  IPad is perfect.  

Demo Kala UBASS-FM-FSEW and Kalas New Metal Round Wound Bass Strings KA-BASS-4

Demo Kala UBASS-FM-FSEW with Kalas New Metal Round Wound Bass Strings KA-BASS-4

New stock arrived today and amongst the regular stuff I got the new to Australia Kala UBASS with the new Kala Round wound Metal Strings for that more traditional Bass sound.

What a fantastic piece of Kit, the nylon core metal round-wound strings brings the UBASS to life. 

Easy on the fingers, and now with a nice punchy tone that is way way louder than the Polyurethane strings.

Regular Bass players will feel much more "at home" with this new UBASS and its Round-wound metal strings.


The Tuner is built in, the German Brand Shadow pre-amp is built in, and nice flamed mahogany body wood. 

And 'Nice' is quite the understatement as the pictures do not do justice to how good this wood looks.

2017 Australian pricing is $915 with gigbag with Setup and includes Postage to your door in Australia.

Hit me up with a message and I can do better for you to hook you up with one.

I love to haggle, Have you seen a price from someone else here in Australia on a Stocked Item ... I will have a crack at seeing if I can do better.

The Strings are available as sets to retrofit your UBASS, they are $72.95 incl postage. Code: KA-BASS-4 and I have those in-stock too.

DESCRIPTION
The Exotic Mahogany Acoustic-Electric was introduced in 2012 and has quickly become Kala's best-selling U-Bass. 

Capturing the same upright bass sound as the Solid Mahogany U-Bass, look no further for enormous low end.

Exotic Mahogany back and sides with a Mahogany neck.  Featuring a well fretted Rosewood fingerboard and bridge.

SO EASY TO PLAY; EVEN FOR NON BASS PLAYERS
Made with a diminutive 21" scale for EASY playing regardless of your hand size, heck any tiny handed Donald  could whizz around this fretboard with ease.  16 chunky profile quality nickle steel frets.

Custom Die-Cast Tuners and the star of the Show the NEW Kala UBASS Round-wound metal strings with Nylon core.

Custom Kala and Road Toad logo inlays, electronic system with an active EQ and built-in tuner.

Includes a Deluxe Custom U-BASS Embroidered Logo Gig Bag

And if you Travel around this Big Brown land by Plane the UBASS meets most airline carry-on requirements.

SPECS
TOP: Exotic Mahogany
BACK & SIDES: Exotic Mahogany
BINDING: Black
FINISH: Satin
NECK: Mahogany
FINGERBOARD: Rosewood
BRIDGE: Rosewood
NUT: GraphTech TUSQ®
SADDLE: Composite
TUNERS: Custom Hipshot Ultralite™
HEADSTOCK: Standard UBASS
STRINGS: Kala Round Wounds nylon Core Metal Wound.
ELECTRONICS: Shadow® U-Bass NFX
SHORT SCALE: 20.375 in
OVERALL LENGTH: 29.375 in
INCLUDES: Deluxe Padded Bag


MEASUREMENTS
Scale Length: 20.375 inches, Overall Instrument Length: 29.375 inches, Body Length: 14 inches, Number of frets: 16, Width at upper bout: 7.75 inches, Width at lower bout: 10.25 inches, Width at waist: 6.625 inches, Body Depth: 3.25 inches, Fingerboard width at nut: 1.75 inches, Fingerboard width at neck/body joint: 2.213 inches

CK-28 Concert Size "Vintage Manuel Nunes' Style Solid Mahogany Ukulele.

'Historic Recreation' 
'Time Traveller Special'
'The Son of'
'Homage to the great Lutheirs of the past'

Great ways to describe Ohana Ukuleles very fine, all solid mahogany wood 'Manuel Nunes' Style CK-28 Concert ukulele.

$495 RRP In Australia
Includes;
FREE Hardcase,
FREE Tuner,
FREE Set-up
FREE Postage in Australia.

As per normal I bundle all my ukes with a full set-up with your choice of; either Low or High G 
and Right or Left handed. And YES you can tell the difference between an 'Off the Shelf Factory uke' and one that has undergone a proper setup. They just play and sound nicer!

The CK-28 Limited Edition Concert Ukulele is a crackingly good instrument.  As sweet a tone and great Playability as you will ever find.  And those Ultra Hip Retro Looks are fantastic, this Ukulele is really Rocking that centre racing stripe and rope binding.  Rope binding is time consuming and difficult to make and fit, but I'm glad they did.

And it is made fully of Solid Mahogany too boot.

A STAR SELLER OF MINE.  WHY?Because the CK-28 is one Seriously Good Quality Concert Ukulele, it comes with a really good Hardcase,  plus I include a FREE Tuner and FREE Setup and well ... because it's an Ohana Ukulele and players know that Ohana is synonymous with 'Quality' 

 "I play lots of different ukuleles every week; what with Personal Shoppers getting Demos and doing Ukulele Setups everyday. 

The Ohana CK-28 is becoming a favourite of mine, they are so damn sweet sounding, and they play great."   CHEERS CC

ABOUT 
The 'Figure 8' or 'Peanut' body shape is a true classic, it is the closest relative of the Portuguese instruments brought to the Hawaiian islands.

Manuel Nunes is where ukulele making in Hawaii all started, Nunes was at "Ground Zero" the Pioneer. Manuel Nunes crafted ukuleles for more than 40 years and they are legendary instruments amongst ukulele enthusiasts.

History tells that Samuel Kamaka and Nunes own son, Leonardo, were apprentices and continued making quality ukuleles.  In 1998, the Ukulele Hall of Fame inducted Manuel Nunes  into their honorees.

SOUNDS
One of the LOUDEST little ukuleles around, the top back and side are 'vintage style' ultra thin and made of high grade stiff mahogany, perfect for extracting every ounce of volume.

Modern ukes err on conservative and generally have thicker tops, backs and sides. All well and good for "easy manufacture", but thick wood tops kill volume and tone.

Crafting a thin wood top is harder and more time consuming, you have to get them "just right". But the returns in Volume, Tone, Weight and Sound are HUGE.

Also note that unlike modern ukuleles where the fretboard extends over the top of the ukulele (and restricts volume and tone)  the CK-28 fretboard is completely flush with the body edge,  this leaves ALL of the top to vibrate, helping to shape the tone of the instrument.  Another vintage style feature that is hard to implement in production, but well worth the time invested to get it to work.

WELL DONE CREATING THIS UKULELE
Louis Wu of Ohana Music has come up with a fantastic homage to the 'original' ukulele, made in the traditional Portuguese / Hawaiian style.

The Ohana team gathered together great examples of vintage ukuleles made by Manuel Nunes, and the team set about working out what made these old timers sound so damn sweet.

Prototypes were made and lots of players tried out the Prototypes providing feedback to the design/engineering team.  It was a long journey from concept to production ... all the time and effort involved by all those prototype Luthiers, test pilot players and Production Engineers has paid off in spades with the Nunes Series.

SUMMARY
If you are serious about your ukulele playing and uke collecting then a 'Peanut' body style Concert is a must have for you.

This Concert has such a pleasing warm tone and easy playability that you soon realise that the old master Luthiers really were onto something good!

SPECS
Premium Solid Mahogany top, back and sides
Friction tuning heads
Rosewood fingerboard and bridge
Vintage Nunes Style Rope Binding
Bone nut and saddle
14 frets Aquila Nylgut strings (or Worth)
Limited edition
Vintage re-issue
Nunes/Dias style body shape
Solid Premium Mahogany top, back & sides
Rope binding
Vintage finish
Gotoh tuners

CK-28 Concert Size "Nunes' Style
Solid Mahogany Ukulele.

Ukulele Low G Tuning Explained: Re-entrant Tuning Vs Linear Tuning.

Re-Entrant Tuning Vs Linear Tuning.

TWO TYPES OF TUNING Ukuleles are for the most part played in either of two* different tuning; Re-Entrant Tuning Vs Linear Tuning. For those of you familiar with 5 String Banjo you would already be aware of  a Re-entrant tuned instrument.  For those with a Guitar background your ears will be attuned to its Linear tuning.

I'm going to generalise that if you have had previous experience playing guitar you will find the Ukulele Low G Linear tuning feels more natural.  If you come to ukulele from a Banjo background you will feel more at home with the standard Ukulele Re-entrant tuning.  

* (If you include 'Open' tuning there are 3 types of tuning, but that is a whole other kettle of fish for another day.)

The Ukulele Trading Co Australia always has an extensive range of Low G ukulele strings in stock.  CLICK HERE to check out the range.

WHY USE DIFFERENT TUNING?
Each type of tuning adds its own sonic stamp to pieces of music.  Some songs suit that old school High G Re-entrant tuning.  For example Dixie, Ragtime, Banjo tunes, old time music from the 1920's through to 1940's.  If you play more modern JAZZ, ROCK, POP, BLUES or METAL try out Low G tuning.  Songs from these genres were in most cases written and played on guitar or piano.  As such these songs suit Linear Low G tuning. 

Ukulele Re-entrant Tuning Vs linear Tuning

HIGH G TUNING EXPLAINED

Refer to the Diagram to the Left and imagine you are sitting at a piano keyboard, low notes to the left, and higher notes to the right.  

The C string on your ukulele is the same pitch as Middle C key on a piano.  Your High G note on the open G string is pitched above middle C, on the keyboard the High G note is to the right or the C note.

When plucking the notes of the open strings from the bottom of your ukulele to the top i.e. A E C G.  Listen as each note gets lower in pitch, the A is your starting note, the E is lower, the C lower again.  Then when you play the G string you can hear that it has a higher pitched note than your C string.  We say it RE-ENTERED the octave above the pitch of the middle C. 

The Re-entrant tuning is why the ukulele sounds so jingly jangly and happy.  When you strum down you hit a high note G and when you strum up you hit a high note A.  Your two thicker low pitched strings, the C and E, are in the middle.



LOW G TUNING EXPLAINED  
Refer to the diagram above and imagine you are sitting at a piano keyboard, with middle C key right in front of you. Remember that the middle C key is the same pitch as your ukulele C string.  A Low G string is pitched BELOW middle C, i.e. to the left of the middle C note. An open G string low G note is LOWER than your C String by 5 Semitones (frets).  That means you now have EXTRA note range on your ukulele. High G Re-entrant tuned ukuleles have a 13 note range, Vs Low G tuning with a 16 note range.  You also now have 2 Bass strings, more on that in a bit.

SUMMARY A Low G string is lower in pitch than your C string.  A High G string is higher in pitch then your C string.

CAN I FIT A LOW G STRING TO MY UKULELE MYSELF?
Yes of course you can.  DIY fitting a Low G String is is quite a straight forward and easy to do. Simply remove your High G string and replace it with a Low G String.  When you change your High G string over to a Low G you will see that the string is thicker.  Some Low G strings are wound strings, some are non wound.  Most Ukulele nuts can accommodate either a low or high G string in the nut string slot.  

In the rare event that the Low G string will not fit the existing G string slot you can take your ukulele to a guitar shop and they will use a small thin Nut Slot File to widen the slot.  Or if you are feeling handy take a bit of wet and dry sandpaper and fold it over in half and use that as a makeshift Nut Slot file to widen the slot a smidgen.

TUNING UP
If you try to tune a Low G string up to High G the result is usually .... PING ... strings snapping.   The most common problem I see is people try and tune their new low G string up to the same pitch as their High G.  You need to tune your Low G string 1 octave below the regular High G note. Don't worry you wont need a piano to tune it, your Chromatic ukulele Tuner will be able to do it.  

After fitting the String, start winding up the slack, turning the tuning machine and increasing string tension.  As you do occasionally pluck the open G string and your Chromatic tuner will keep showing you the notes increasing.  It will for example scroll through A A# B C C# D D# etc until you hit a G note.  Pluck this G and Compare it to your C string.    

You will be able to hear if you are getting it right.  When plucking the notes of the open strings from the bottom of your ukulele to the top i.e. A E C G.  Listen and hear that each note gets lower in pitch, the A is your starting note, the E is lower, the C lower again, and the G string even lower again.  When you play the Low G string you can hear that it has a lower pitched note than your C string.   Congratulations you have now put your ukulele in  LINEAR Tuning. 

MUSIC THEORY ASIDE WHAT IS THE ADVANTAGE

With a Low G you effectively have 2 BASS Strings, the regular C string and now a Low G string.  Soprano Concert and Tenor ukuleles can be Tuned Low G with out you having to learn anything new.  All your existing skills and knowledge is transferable. 

CHORDS All the Chord shapes you know and love stay the same, there are no new fingerings to learn. But your chords will sound much fuller, your chords will have that BIG Bass sound.

SCALES Normally in Re-entrant tuning you only use the C E and A strings to play scales.  Now you can use your Low G string playing scales.  Your lowest note used to be the C note on the open C string.  Now the lowest note your ukulele can play is the G note of the open G string.  Those are the extra notes I mentioned earlier.  You have increased the range of your ukulele.  ALL the strings are now available to you.

AC/DC Back In Black Ukulele Riff

RIFFS  Rock Riffs now sound "Proper".  All of those kick Arse Rock Riffs now sound authentic. AC/DC, BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN would totally approve.


CLICK HERE to Buy Low G Tuned Ukulele Strings

TENOR LOW G RED ukulele Strings a revolutionary string compound from Aquila Corde Amonchi

AQ-88U  $14.95 Including Postage in Australia
TENOR LOW G.
Set of 4 strings GCEA
RED SERIES®

BONUS
FREE Postage in Australia
FREE Online Ukulele Lesson

Changing over from Standard Re-entrant Ukulele Tuning with its High G string to a Low G ukulele tuning is quite straight forward and easy to do.  There are no new chords to learn, your scales stay the same, and the low g Strings are no harder on your fingers.

ALL ukuleles can be tuned low G, no 'special' ukulele is needed.

What you get with Low G is more notes to play as the lowest note on your uke is now an octave below the standard high g. Imagine a piano keyboard, your high g is pitched above middle C, now with a low g you are pitched below middle C

You also be a much fuller Bass tone from your ukulele, and BEST OF ALL those wonderful Rock Single note riffs now sound authentic.

Aquila's revolutionary new approach — unique to Aquila — changes the specific weight of the material, increasing it progressively to leave the gauge almost unchanged.

A unique feeling and a strong, consistent sound. Until now, it was necessary to increase the gauge of a string for it to produce a lower-pitched note. But increasing the string’s diameter also increases internal dampening. That makes the string less bright, less responsive and more muffled; the thicker the string, the duller the sound.

The result is amazing: instruments sound brighter, more powerful and more responsive through the entire range of the fret board. The strings also maintain their intonation better, because thicker strings need to be fretted harder, pulling them further out of tune.

RED SERIES® sets provide superior performance over traditional strings for musicians who love bright sounds and powerful voicing across the full scale of the instrument.

You never heard a sound like this before, simply because before it did not exist.

WHY ARE THERE DIFFERENT SHADES OF RED? 
In the manufacturing process of our Red Series strings we use different percentages of metal powder to optimise each string’s performance within the set. Because of this, the colour varies slightly with each string in a set of Reds.

LOW G TUNING
Density is in fact the secret of quality sound in a low string and Aquila are happy to announce that they managed to overcome this difficult technological challenge (tried by many others but without success).

Now, with Aquilas RED SERIES® strings you can finally tune your ukulele to Low G with the certainty of powerful sound quality and a superior intonation across the frets that is fully integrated with that of the upper treble strings.

MAIN FEATURES
The technical solution adopted was firstly to make the Nylgut elastic and then add  red copper powder in order to increase the density to about twice that of standard white Nylgut.

• Color: red-brown
• Surface: slightly rough; this texture has eliminated the squeak that sometime occurs with the Nylgut strings.
• Elasticity/Elongation: consistent with white Nylgut!
• Performances: better than the first elastic version! They do not break under tension providing rapid, stable tuning!
• Intonation: accurate past the 12th fret
• Pressing the string firmly down on the frets does not cause the note to sharpen.
• It is  not necessary to file the nut slot wider to accommodate our RED SERIES® string.
• Density: about twice than standard white Nylgut.