UKE SA (Pops KoAloha) Juke-A-Lele - Custom Spruce/Koa Juke Box Tenor Ukulele

Back in January this year; I had the opportunity to meet Alvin Okami, the creator of KoAloha Ukuleles. Initially I planned to spend just an hour at KoAloha but found myself learning about the history of KoAloha and the world of Ukuleles from one of the living Fathers of the modern Ukulele. 

Alvin (Pops to those that have met him) began making ukuleles in the early 90s by producing miniature ukuleles for Japanese tourists, before forming the KoAloha brand. His spirit for the unique and wonderful continues in the work his sons Paul and Alan do today at KoAloha and in his retirement years, we are absolutely delighted to be the first European dealer to stock his Pops Custom Ukuleles, also known as UkeSA.

Pops produces these masterpiece sceptre ukuleles by himself in his own corner of the KoAloha workshop in Oahu and it is a real treat to have a ukulele from the Grandfather of KoAloha, a true Hawaiian music legend and spiritually one of the people that truly embodies Aloha spirit.

Pops popularised the 5 point crown and musubi sound hole that make KoAloha iconic but he has also gained notiriety for his 3 showpiece custom Ukuleles. The Pineapple Sundae is an elaborate, blind embossed Pineapple Ukulele with added horns to resemble the stem of the pineapple, the sceptre looks like an enlarged, reversed 5 point crown and this ukulele; the rarest of all by far is the Juke-a-lele. 

The Juke-A-Lele is a modified pineapple style ukulele made of Spruce and Hawaiian koa to resemble a 1950s Jukebox. The detail, the quirkiness and the visual spectacle of this instrument is unlike anything we have had at SUS before. I have longed to have one since the first few left KoAlohas old factory in 2008. This is the first one we have ever had available to buy at Southern Ukulele Store.

What is the difference between KoAloha and UKE-SA? Well, Pops no longer builds or uses the KoAloha name but his Uke-SA models are made entirely by him as a new independant custom label and spec; it is just lovely to see him making this model again after such a long period of them being out of production. He commented when I asked that he doesn't build many of these and the only reference I could find to one out in the wild on my travels was the origingal prototype hanging up in the KoAloha factory.

These masterpiece tenor ukuleles from Pops are absolutely world class in terms of design, and sound. Each of them has some small cosmetic issues, which you have to consider as part of the character of the instrument - the Japanese principle of Wabi-sabi, where you love something more because of its flaws, needs to be born in mind as Pops is a semi-retired Octogenarian!

Here is a video about my visit to KoAloha and contains more than a few snippets of my time with Pops Okami.

Specification:
Solid Koa/Spruce top, back and sides
436mm scale length
37mm nut width
Mahogany neck
Ebony fretboard and bridge
Maple fretboard inlays
Planetary geared tuners
Uke-Reka high G clear fluorocarbon strings
52mm body depth
28mm G to A string spacing
Satin finish
NuBone nut and saddle