Pineapple Ukes, Ukulele Amp: eBay Window Shopping

I don’t remember seeing a baritone pineapple ukulele before. And I definitely haven’t seen a 5 string baritone pineapple ukulele with the fifth tuning peg being bang in the middle of the headstock. Kamaka, being the originators of the pineapple, are keeping it more old school with the HP-1 soprano pineapple. Classiest of all is this Mike DaSilva pineapple.

These Aloha ‘Oe tube amps look fabulous. Ideal for a uker. But they do have a hefty price tag of $1,500 (mostly, I would guess, to cover the cost of bikini models). However, they do make an interesting proposition: “If you use the amp in a short video and post it on YouTube we’ll refund your Paypal account $300.” Seems like a great way to spread the word about your product – and I would expect a lot of ukulele companies would get plenty of takers for much less than a $300 refund.

Wallet busting uke of the week: Ludwig Crown banjo ukulele only £4,500 (or about $7,500 in funny money). But if I could choose any uke around, I’d go with this Kahiko ‘Concert Flyer’. Check out the koa on that one.

As if Kala’s slimline ukulele wasn’t gimmicky enough already, they’ve now put a compass in the headstock.

Mahalo are synonymous with cheap, basher ukuleles, so it’s always disconcerting when they come out with something posher like the solid cedar ULTD3.

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5 Comments

  1. J-Hob August 21st, 2009 9:11 pm

    The dolphin tuners still give away that it’s a mahalo though, surely they could have put something better on a uke at this price?

  2. ronhale August 21st, 2009 10:32 pm

    An interesting bari I just this past week stumbled upon on the Ukulele World site is the new (Aug. ’09), BK-70RB by Ohana.
    Solid spruce top with composite round back. If you haven’t come across it yet, take a good look.

    Never really paid too much attention to baris until I discovered the uke group, Waste of Aces, while doing a search on “ukuleles” on CDBaby during your vacation, & bought their 3 cds. A lot of good bari work (not just, of course).

    And now that you’ve returned, lives can get back to normal.

  3. Ukulelia August 22nd, 2009 5:30 am

    Compass in the headstock? Kind of makes it the Red Ryder BB Gun of ukes (“you’ll strum your eye out, kid”)

  4. Phredd August 22nd, 2009 12:27 pm

    In keeping with the Aloha ‘Oe tube amps idea of rebating $300 for YouTube exposure I have now sent an invoice to ovation ukuleles for $30,000.

  5. Woodshed August 22nd, 2009 3:18 pm

    J-Hob: Good spot.

    ronhale: Thanks for the heads up on the Ohana. The round-back thing always makes me think of Bon Jovi and other hair rock bands doing acoustic.

    Ukulelia: Ah, cultural differences. I have no idea what you’re talking about!

    Phredd: Worth every penny I’d say.

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