You can sometimes tell a uke is going to be good when you look at the name and there’s so much to fit into a title on my website! If we break it down:

Ohana - Yes, Ohana, one of the mainstays of the ukulele world for many years, famous for a family-feel to their business operations and a broad range of good quality ukuleles made in the Far East.

Custom Shop - This is a handmade instrument built at Ohana’s Californian headquarters by Brad, their head luthier. The Ohana Custom Shop, or OCS, came from the company’s desire to expand their product line to include high end, luthier-made instruments, while keeping their ethos of having the ukes represent good value for money. (I know this uke is a fair amount of money, but for a luthier made instrument, it’s extremely competitive).

USA Made - Well… yes, I think you can work that bit out.

DC - Ohana’s custom made ukuleles have various levels in terms of build and deocration and this stands for deluxe concert. In short, it’s a pretty posh one!

SEW - The rest of the tight concens what it’s made of, and that’s solid spruce for the top, and solid English walnut for the back and sides.

Wow… that’s a lot of words and we’ve only got as far as what it actually is! Ohana aren’t shrinking violets normally when it comes to ukulele design, and this instrument is no exception, with lots going on visually. There’s the smart headstock at the top with an ebony inlay that in turn displays the mother of pearl OCS logo. Down the fingerboard, a design feature that for some reason always turns my head, even though it’s fairly simple - and that’s the position markers down one side, as opposed to standard dots.

Around the body there’s rosewood binding and abalone inlays, with that inlay also appearing on the back. The spruce is a nice looking bit of wood as spruce goes, with a bit of variation it it’s grain, and the grey-brown hues of the walnut back and sides look good too, under the gloss finish.

This Ohana DC-SEW has a 35mm nut width and is fitted with Worth Brown strings, and has fantastic Gotoh geared tuners. Ohana have always placed a big emphasis on quality tuners - with even their standard made models having Grovers fitted… but these Gotoh units are really excellent and a level beyond.

It has bags of volume and an even, well balanced tone. The attack is great, almost as if the sound is bursting to get out the second you strum across the strings. The sound rings out long and true as well, with excellent sustain - sustain that’s really impressive further up the fingerboard too. With quality spruce, with a quality uke like this, while the wood’s natural brightness comes to the fore, it’s always tempered by a strength in the bass response too. This brings an impressive balance of the trebles and bass to given that even, crisp, yet full sound.

At the bottom of the page you can find some options to add extras. This Ohana Custom Shop concert has a hard case included, so you don’t need one of those - but you might consider a strap, low G or strap buttons.

There’s a video demo of this Ohana custom shop ukulele if you click additional info below.