Koaloha Ukulele

Their ukuleles are only the second best thing at Koahola--the first is their people! Brian was amazing. Not only did he take the time to talk with us, he was honest in his opinions and gave us a real sense of trust in their products. He was friendly and super knowledgeable. Not only did we get a quick tour of their operations, we bought an ukulele because he really understands great service! Thank you.

This is a review of the tour, not the other services they have to offer. The tour is about 1 hour. The young man who led the tour was really cool and knowledgeable about woodworking as a whole. He let us explore also my every inch of their shop and has a answer to every question I had. I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone especially someone with an interest in woodworking or ukulele. We were giving gifts at the end by grandpa and really felt like part of the family.

Pops and Moms Koaloha just exudes so much aloha spirit and love. I got the pineapple Sunday and it's one of the most beautiful tunes I've heard on a ukulele. All the staff are just phenomenal and so dedicated!

I'd probably give Koaloha Ukulele a 4.9/5. Overall, I had a great experience with them. The -0.1 is for the lack of response for an email we sent for the tour. They also didn't really pick up their phone despite multiple calls during shop hours.Because we didn't hear back from them for our tour email, we decided to just drop by the shop. Although they couldn't give us a tour immediately that day, this tattooed employee still gave us a very short tour of the factory and explanation about how ukuleles were made. He pointed out what the job of each station was. Thank you - I appreciated it! Hopefully we can do the whole tour next time.

This review is for the Ko_aloha repair shop in Hawaii. They did an amazing job on a repair and I was so grateful. It looks brand new. They have a lifetime warranty on their koa ukuleles. Recommend.

We did an AirBnB experience here where we got to build our mini ukulele (keychain) and go back into the factory to see how ukuleles made, which was such a treat! Two of the folks there gave us an impromptu concert as well. It's a great activity for the kids/family to see a different side of Hawaii beyond the beautiful beaches. Would highly recommend as the team here is incredibly knowledgable, and ends up feeling like family.

Came in for the tour and it was great. DANIEL is an awesome tour guide. So informative and interesting! You can feel the love and passion as they all talk about their products.Tour started off with us making our own koa ukelele key chain. Sand, glue and orange oil.Walked around the factory and saw and learned about the woods.

I had an amazing day at KoAloha. I did the tour where we got to build our own soprano ukulele. Peng showed us what to do and was super friendly and helpful. The kit is very high quality and shares the same bracing and construction as the more expensive models but with pine instead of Koa. Assembling it yourself is nicely rewarding.The others in the build group had gotten the tour before I arrived, so Peng gave me a personal tour. He started by playing the world's smallest playable ukulele made by Alvin "Pops" Okami himself. Then we saw the stacks of Koa destined to become beautiful ukuleles. After touring other ukulele shops with state of the art side bending machines I was surprised to find KoAloha bend all their sides by hand with a hot pipe! The next surprise was the jig used to cut fret slots. Designed and built by Pops, it has drums with properly spaced circular blades for each size of ukulele. Old school tools and techniques make KoAloha's seem even more hand made than other ukuleles.We saw every stage of production all the way through stringing them up and putting on the (lifetime!) warranty tags. A nice treat was seeing a meticulously crafted jukebox-shaped ukulele (the "Jukulele") built by Pops. When we were done I started talking with Lloyd about various parts of production. He is really fun and friendly and clearly loves his job. He took me back in the shop for an even more detailed tour! The highlight was when he showed me the fret slot cutting jig in action.After the second tour I lamented that no tenors were available in the factory seconds showroom. Lloyd smiled and brought out the last one they had - a gem with an upgraded curly Koa top. I chided him about ambushing me with such a beautiful instrument (which I now own). And to make an amazing visit even better, just as I was leaving, Pops came rushing through. Even though he was in a hurry he asked my name, shook my hand, signed a CD for me and was gracious enough to pose for a selfie.KoAloha is only about 15 people. All skilled to do various jobs. It was a pleasure to see them all making such amazing instruments. I feel fortunate to have had such a personal experience there. I made some friends and in a small way feel like part of the KoAloha ohana.

When we originally got to the island we had planned to tour as many of the Hawaiian Big K ukulele factories as possible. On Monday we called KoAloha Ukulele company and also left messages for them on their website pages. We were disappointed to hear that the factory was still in a transition process and wasn't open for tours.But then...something magical happened. Lloyd Manamtam answered the phone and felt our passion and enthusiasm through the phone....and also the fact that we had just purchased two KoAlohas from Hawaii Music Supply with Noah Campbell and Corey Fujimoto. He opened his generous heart and asked if we can meet him at 10:30am...it was 9:45am at the time....that he would pay for parking, gave us directions and we were just kind of blown away instantly.We were met at the door by Lloyd and he instantly introduced us to the patriarch of KoAloha, the founder, the genius Alvin Okami AKA "Pops" who was working on miniature Kalihis for his latest creation which is a corridor signed made with upcycled ancient royal wood. Pops immediately stopped what he was doing and made time for us.Lloyd asked us about our earlier purchases and not wanting to tout what they had in shop on the wall, as he did not want to undercut the KoAloha resellers. When he heard our stories about how we compared stock of HMS at the time and were completely blown away by the difference in the KoAloha sound and how the instruments sung to us I could see him tearing up with pride. Lloyd loves his family, company, job...all of which seem to be intermixed with the entity KoAloha.He unabashedly took us on a complete tour of the factory from the C&C necks, to the side bending, wood thickness sander for the tops, formation of the tops and backs and explained that the original design of the sound hole was modeled after a musubi rice ball. We saw how inlays were made, how finishes were applied, the safety that the factory takes very seriously and the 20 full sized air filters that are swapped out twice a week! While touring Lloyd proudly shared the company's family values and how they take care of their employees. Employees are more productive if you let them take care of their own families...so there's no discussion about "gotta pick up kids from the doctor" or anything like that because they just let it be and actually encourage taking care of ohana. The company is also very giving. Ukuleles are constantly given to charities including orphanages and those who spread the gospel.Kennedy Taylor, the stage name for Lloyd's proud daughter, is a sponsored ukulele artist and affiliated with the Opio line. Lloyd shared hand autographed pictures and let us hold her ukuleles which was so incredibly cool. Thank you so much Kennedy for being awesome!We met Brian who was a blast with all of his jokes and his wife and child. We saw Paul...and Paul saw a little more of me than he bargained for when I was trying on one of the KoAloha shirts.We ended up acquiring two more KoAloha ukuleles including a tenor and a concert. I wish we could have just taken all of them but each one needs love and attention. The company handcrafts an average of 18 masterful ukuleles a day. Lloyd set us up with shipping the two new ukuleles to the mainland for us as we were travelling to Maui the next day.Thank you so much Lloyd and KoAloha family! Wonderful wonderful feeling....a nd they did it all without me revealing that I am one of the community leaders for Cynthia Lin's international San Francisco ukulele group. As Pops says for his new corridor sign, "KoAloha enter as a friend. Leave as Family" KoAloha Ohana!

My 10 year old daughter has been playing the ukulele for 3 years and was really interested in seeing how they are made. We happened to come across Koaloha while vacationing in Honolulu. I was told that we would have to make a reservation online at least 24 hours prior, but when I told the nice lady on the phone that we were flying home the next day, she put me on a short hold and when she returned she said that they will fit us in that day. Paul gave us a tour, and even though it wasn't a regular tour because they were fitting us in, we had a great time, learned a lot, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Everyone was so sweet and kind and you could tell that they really take pride in their work. It was an unforgettable experience for our daughter. Thank you so much to the Koaloha family for making a 10 year old so happy.