Kanile'a 'Manako' Solid Hawaiian Curly Mango Tenor Ukulele w/Armrest #25002

The Kanile'a Manako series (Manako means Mango in Hawaiian) is the long awaited second collaboration between Kanile'a and the Southern Ukulele Store. Following the unprecendented success of the Alaskan Cedar/Mahogany SUS range of ukes; Alex from SUS and Kaimana Souza at Kanile'a began making notes on where the ukulele trends were going next, what tonewoods customers were resonating with both in store and via our youtube comparison videos as well as which of the custom shop Kanile'a models we collaborated on in 2019 had really captured peoples imagination.

The answers to almost all of these questions has been Mango wood. A Hawaiian wood with many of the favourite attributes of Koa but with hidden depths and character which make each one unique. There will always be people out there that associate Hawaiian made Ukuleles with Koa and they are spoilt for choice but, many of the staff here at SUS felt that one particular Kanile'a custom Mango model that came and left quickly last year was up there with the very best Ukuleles we had ever had here at SUS. After speccing up what was to be a special signature Ukulele for Alex; we discovered that Kanile'a had enough of this lovely figured mango to build a collection and it was decided that a whole Manako range needed to be born.

As previously mentioned, the Manako range takes influence from Kanile'a most popular premium models the Tenor in particular takes a lot of inspiration from the KSR-T but switches the wood combinations from Koa to high grade figured Mango. The Ukulele features a traditional flat top slimline slotted headstock with those tiny almost adorable Gotoh stealth tuners, a specially designed mango armrest and several unique cosmetic details such as side facing mango fret markers and a handdrawn Manako inlay in faded yellow epoxy.

WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE?

Well, please do give our video on the Manako range a listen with some headphones in and judge it for yourself... If we had to describe it; I'd say it sounds creamy and thick but highly refined too. It doesn't have the signature bite of a spruce top or the earthiness of Koa or Acacia but instead it has individual clarity between each note and an almost brandy like smoothness when you listen to chords ring out... Yes, we designed it but man - it really has lived up to our expectations and then some.

Pictures show actual instrument.

Solid Hawaiian Curly Mango body
Mango armrest
mango custom dots and K logo
UV gloss finish
south american mahogany neck with 38mm nut width
ebony fingerboard and bridge
custom manako logo (yellow dyed epoxy resin)
Gotoh stealth tuners
Traditional thin slotted headstock
Kanile'a deluxe gigbag
SUS high G Fluorocarbon strings