Custom Oulcraft Tenor Ukulele
Ukulele Guild of Hawaii (UGH) luthier, Jungtae Kim, established his business of handcrafted ukuleles under the tutelage of world renowned UGH ukulele and guitar luthier, Takahashi Shinji of Japan’s famed T’s Ukuleles and custom line, Seilen Ukulele. Jungtae, together with his wife, Seoyoon Na, who oversees the aesthetics in design behind each build and his younger brother, Hyuntae, who manages the ideation process – the team handcrafts both base model ukuleles with a custom flair and fully handcrafted custom ukuleles out of Korea under the provenance of ‘Oulcraft’.
This progressive full body custom Oulcraft tenor ukulele was meticulously handcrafted with a simple but elegant theme in mind. Bold upper and lower bout with a slightly exaggerated large body construction give this custom tenor a deep voice and full range of tones. Remarkable attention to detail by luthier, Jungtae Kim, the lines of this instrument are very attractive and the design bears a conventional resemblance to that of a full body jumbo guitar in miniature scale, although this ukulele is only slightly larger than a typical tenor ukulele. A dark hued ‘blister’ Hawaiian Koa wood soundboard, back, and sides is the key featured wood on this handsomely themed instrument. It boasts a Spanish Cedar neck, which allows for increased structural integrity at a fraction of the weight of its more commonly employed Mahogany or Koa wood necks, an ebony wood fingerboard and bridge with an earthy dark rosewood rosette.
Extremely thin profile slotted headstock with Ebony wood veneer and gorgeous Oulcraft logo at the headstock and a thin nitrocellulose lacquer finish that yields the natural characteristics of the Hawaiian Koa wood. Professional Gotoh Stealth tuners for smooth and precise tuning.
This instrument is surprisingly light in weight and similar in projection, responsiveness, clarity and tone to a custom Kanile’a ukulele. The workmanship is impeccable and the instrument is easy to cradle and hold when being played. The instrument employs a three-fan brace system on the underside of the soundboard with a small but refined bridge footprint, enabling for optimum ‘excitement’ of the soundboard as transference of energy from the strings to the bridge to the soundboard occurs when being played. This custom Oulcraft ukulele is wonderful for both fingerpicking and strumming and has excellent clarity, sustain, and projection while offering wonderful separation from one note to the next. A highly recommended custom ukulele from one of UGH’s newest members, Jungtae Kim.
Please note that there is a thin plastic pick guard on the upper bout of this instrument. It is simply placed on to protect the instrument from strumming and there is no adhesive holding the pick guard down. If preferred, it can simply be removed with no difficulty or resistance.
Price: SOLD