Lehua Ukulele History

Lehua Ukulele History

Lehua Ukuleles has been in existence for over ten years. We started out tentatively with the notion that we could produce a good quality ukulele in Paracho, Mexico, which would fill a niche we observed between the cheap imported ukes and the authentic koa, high end instruments from Hawaii. This concept proved valid and we were able to launch and sustain our business for several years in this manner and we are proud to declare that there are still many of those early Lehua ukes out there sounding better and better with age and whose owners would not part with them.
But as time passed, we observed that the import invasion was affecting our business and it became apparent that we needed to make some basic changes to create something unique and attractive to the discerning ukulele player which sounded as good as the best of them and still sustain our position in the market as earlier stated.

The result, after extensive research and travel, was that we were able to find a supplier in Portugal, the home of the ukulele, to manufacture ukuleles for us with a Hawaiian design using olde worlde craftsmanship. Moreover, the first ukuleles which were carried to the Hawaiian Islands by the Portuguese fishermen were called “Braguinhos”, meaning “from Braga” a town in the north of Portugal, where the Lehua ukuleles are made today. We’ve gone full circle with our instruments and the result has been happily quite successful. We have the only Portuguese ukulele on the market today.

For those interested in a more in-depth history of the ukulele we recommend going to your favorite search engine where you will find ample websites dedicated to the subject: for example http://www.encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ukulele