OHANA CUSTOM - 130+ piece Multi Wood JIGSAW PUZZLE Tenor Ukulele

We are in awe of this Ohana custom 130+ piece jigsaw puzzle tenor ukulele. 

Brad Kahabka is a protege. A luthier with an incredible background in fine art and military mechanics, whilst that is not usually the recipe we expect when talking about this historical greats of ukulele luthiery; it certainly helps and Brad is at the forefront of a new wave of master builders coming out of California right now. Backed by Louis Wu' the man that created Ohana ukuleles; Brad's Ukuleles are built in a state of the art Long Beach, Californian workshop and bare the name Ohana. The unprecedented access Brad has to modern building methods and select tonewoods is matched only by Brad's imagination, patience, love for his craft and his fine art background.

Long before we had the pleasure of spending the day with Brad at the Ohana custom shop in January 2024; we were fans of his work and the first wave of Ohana customs that came to Southern Ukulele Store last summer gained lofty 9.5/10 ratings from known ukulele review site Gotaukulele. Brad can build a ukulele that will feel, sound and emote unlike anything else on the planet.

We've often spoken about the point at which a musical instrument ceases to be just a means to produce colourful noise and begins to be functional art and there is no denying these one off pieces from Ohana in the USA are worthy of plaudits and will go on to inspire production instruments that imitate his designs in the years to come. The puzzle ukulele is understandably a completely unique concept with a sound, look, feel and style that would be impossible to repeat. The highly figured spruce top is gorgeous and does a great job to project with confidence the colour and warmth that the multi wood top produces around it as it reverberates. 

Brad spent some time training under Peter Marreiros of Cornerstone Ukuleles and as such, tunes each ukulele individually, taking time to move bracing as the instrument settles so that ultimately the final product is a ukulele that is optimised and on point immediately. Each spruce brace is riveted to reduce weight and increase resonance and the sum of this ukuleles parts makes for the mellowest, fullest and richest tenor ukulele you can imagine. It sounds smooth and medicinal on the ears; if I had to narrow it down I would have to say it leans more tonally towards maple, myrtle and mango than the conventional mahogany and koa end of things.

This ukulele is called the puzzle because well... its quite literally a jigsaw puzzle. I urge you to check out the video above where Brad shows us first hand how he went about creating this instrument but lets just admire the sum of this Ukuleles parts (literally).

The jigsaw on the back, sides, head and back plates are made from mixtures of CNC cut pieces; The backbone is solid Oregan myrtle with interlocking pieces of padauk, purple heart, myrtle, claro walnut, koa, spalted maple, pear and ebony. In all, I counted over 118 complete pieces and at least another 16 small pieces make up the back and sides of this ukulele. The smaller details also add so much to the feel of this instrument with the fingerboard 'dots' being replaced by a falling cluster of jigsaw pieces bookended in abalone.

The heelcap is a jigsaw puzzle, the bottom of this ukulele is its own tiny jigsaw motifs that lives independently of the rest of the instrument. The internal seam of the ukulele is puzzle pieced together... that kind of detail you wouldn't even notice the first 100 times you look at this ukulele in depth. Honestly, its just an incredible piece of art. Someone should have done this years ago, it's so obvious but so crazy at the same time. Did I mention the soundhole? Probably not, well that's shaped like a jigsaw puzzle too and the instrument even comes with the missing piece of the puzzle that I lovingly collected from the wood bin at Brad's custom shop in Longbeach, CA when we visited.

The neck on this ukulele is made of maple, has a slim depth but a wide 38mm nut width. Quite simply, if I live to see another 30000 ukuleles in my lifetime, I know I won't see anything like this. The jewel in someone's collection.

Specification 
Ohana PB-PUZZLE 
Solid figured spruce top
Multi-wood back and sides - Oregan myrtle with padauk, purple heart, myrtle, claro walnut, Hawaiian koa, spalted maple and ebony
Abalone rosette shaped around jigsaw puzzle design 
Abalone front, back and trim bindings/purflings
Madagascan ebony fingerboard
Macassar ebony bridge
Indian rosewood bindings
Birdseye maple neck
Bone nut and saddle
Ebony, mother of pearl heel cap
Multi wood puzzle piece end graft
17'' tenor scale
Polyurethane gloss body with satin neck
675mm total length
310mm body length
38mm nut width - 30mm string spacing at nut
Comes in an olive tweed woodshell hardcase

There are too many features to list all of them here. Basically, no matter how many times I look at this uke I notice something new!