Big Island Uli-C Solid Cedar/Mango Electro Acoustic Concert Ukulele SUS Exclusive (w/MiSi) #230196

This Ukulele has had a MISI Pickup added professionally by Southern Ukulele Store - The MiSI comes at no extra cost on this instrument but would normally add an additional £179 to the cost of the order. Meaning, you can hit the stage on day one!

Uli has a few meanings in Hawaiian but our favourite translates to 'the deepest part of the colour'. The Hawaiians traditionally used it to describe the ocean as well as fruit and striking objects that deserved to be acknowledged for their depth of colour. It felt like the right word to describe the Uli series Ukuleles from Big Island which is our first SUS designed exclusive model with them.

Back in Jan 2020 before the world turned upside down for a while, Alex and Phil had the pleasure of travelling and meeting with Big Island at the NAMM show. They showed off a new range of beautifully stained mango Ukuleles with decorative flower soundhole rosettes. We absolutely loved how those Ukuleles looked and sounded but felt that with a few tweaks they could become more practical for our playing customers. We knew they would be good but the first small batch of these Ukuleles have exceeded even our wildest expectations. Truly, the Uli is an instrument fit for a King or Queen.

The top wood is a lovely straight grained Cedar inspired by the popularity and flexibility of our popular Kanile'a SUS model, which had always been especially popular with Concert and Tenor players. Cedar is warm but expressive, its not a traditional Ukulele wood but it is definitely one of the most popular woods in the Ukulele world because of its slightly louder and open nature and its a great fit here with the mellower, darker sounding Mango back and sides.

The back and sides are stained Solid Hawaiian Mango. Technically, the colour used is blue but mango takes stain in its own way, and displays the colour of blue stain a light ocean turquoise colour... The various different darker patches of the wood stain to a different degree and you will notice small, slightly more complex patches have an almost royal blue effect. You might call that effect 'Uli'?

Cedar and Mango together offers players something unique. An honest sounding ukulele that somehow retains hidden depths and secrets. It comes in a gigbag and really does challenge the current big name brands at this price point with something you will want to play every time you look at it. I am excited for this Ukulele, can you tell? I have been using the Tenor version as my main ukulele for most of the last year, it's just the best!

Spec:
Solid Cedar Top
Solid Hawaiian Mango Back and Sides With Green/Blue Stain
Honu Headstock
Gloss finish
Mahogany neck, gloss finish
Closed back geared tuners with Snakewood buttons
35mm nut width, with 28mm G to A string spacing
15'' Scale length
Bone nut and saddle
Indian Rosewood fingerboard and bridge
Clear Fluorocarbon High G strings
Padded Bag Included
MiSi Pickup installed at SUS

The introduction of a Concert to this series is relatively new but I have included videos discussing the concept and demonstrating the Tenor model below...