• Solid Sitka Spruce Top
• Solid Mahogany Back & Sides
• 15” Body Width
• 25.4” scale length
• 1 3/4” nut spacing
• Cutaway Body
• Ebony binding
• Wood marquetry rosette
• Solid Headstock
• Ebony Fingerboard and Bridge
• Bone Nut and saddle
• Gloss Finish
• Includes a Hardshell Case

Our family history of making and restoring stringed instruments began 40 years ago. In addition to making instruments, we specialized in the repair and restoration of acoustic and electric guitars, mandolins, ukuleles, violins, and almost every other imaginable stringed instrument.

Then about twenty five years ago we decided to focus more on manufacturing, especially the ‘ukulele. ‘Ukuleles have been popular in Hawaii for over 100 years, however now the whole world has fallen in love with this little instrument. But now there is a demand for higher quality. Our goal from the beginning was to produce the most professional quality stringed instrument possible, regardless of the time and cost required. And so …… Ko‘olau Guitars and ‘Ukuleles were born.

Our “ponoukuleleco.com” website includes our Pono Guitars. We could have developed another website, solely devoted to our Pono guitars. but decided instead to combine the two. And there is also some information about our Pono Mandolins.

Going back in time, our production costs in Hawaii kept rising. Without compromising on our standards of high quality craftsmanship, we wanted to make a line of instruments that were more affordable. So we tried everything possible to minimize our expenses, simplify designs, and use modern high speed technology.
We decided to have Ko‘olau be our “custom” shop of guitars and ‘ukuleles, and build another line, one more readily available and more affordable… and we named it Pono.

Why the name Pono? In Hawaii the term Pono is a very respectful expression for something that is right, or done right. The complete Hawaiian definition for high quality craftsmanship is Maiau Pono. Pono guitars and ‘ukuleles are somewhat of a duplicate or clone to our Ko‘olau models. We don’t claim that our Pono models are the same level of perfection and finesse, but they are as close to Ko‘olau as anything else on the market, regardless of where they are made.