by Peter Bos
The Ukelandia Facebook and Telegram groups have conversations about new and special ukuleles which is always a fruitful topic. Next to the well known Ukulele brands there is a market for custom ukuleles. These ukuleles are created by luthiers.
Whilst creating the Ukelandia Magazine, I came in contact with luthier, Kawai Carvalho from Coast Ukuleles. He is a very kind human being and he shared his emotional and heartwarming story of how he became a luthier with me.
Kawai was born in Hawaii, but left the Islands when he was 18 years old. He grew up around ukulele music, but he didn’t really catch the uke virus growing up. This didn’t happen until he and his partner EB had their first child and went to Hawaii for a vacation. During the holiday, he bought a Makala and fell in love with this instrument. It connected him to his Portuguese heritage and his roots back to the Island.
He brought the Makala back to California and UAS quickly struck Kawai, as his uke family expanded while he was still learning how to play it. He went to meet-ups and met a lot of native Hawaiian people who used the ukulele as a gateway back to their heritage. After acquiring about six ukuleles, Kawai became interested in a custom ukulele.
The 2020 pandemic gave him more time to get acquainted with building a custom ukulele for his collection. Custom ukuleles are priced high and as a true uke DIY’er, he decided on a simple ‘build your own’ uke kit, which has a lot of pre-made materials. Constructing this ukulele inspired him to make more. He started building his custom ukulele in his large garage only this time from scratch. I couldn’t imagine where to begin building a uke, but Kawai told me there is a lot of information online. Especially the “Ukulele Underground” which is a very supportive and helpful community with a lot of guides and approachable luthiers.
A lot of passion went to his ukulele and after he was done with his first uke, he already had new ideas for his next project. This inspired him, gave him joy and connected him to his heritage. This felt like the missing link in his life and Kawai wanted to keep building ukuleles. His partner EB supported him and gave him all the room to follow his new passion. Kawai and EB had two children, Kaipo and Nahele. EB watched the children during the pandemic, so Kawai could follow his newly found passion.
In early 2020, disaster struck as his life partner, EB suddenly passed away while pregnant with their third child. Now Kawai was on his own with his two kids and shortly after, his employer terminated his employment.. A lot of grief and stress followed, however the local and worldwide ukulele community lent him a lot of support. For instance, he had just ordered a supply of very expensive Hawaiian wood but in order to pay the rent and the bills, he reached out to return the wood to the supplier. Once they understood the reason for the return, they reimbursed him and told him to keep the wood to create a ukulele and share it with the people around him. The first ukuleles Kawai built were from his passion project and eventually gifts for friends and family.
Without his partner and a job, he wanted to keep building ukuleles and as he learned a lot from the first dozen ukuleles he built, he could now start doing it professionally.
During the interview he showed me his garage with the basic tools he used to construct his first ukuleles. These were still there next to the new heavy machinery he bought over time to work efficiently and professionally. Currently he has created about 50 ukuleles and is working on ten of them simultaneously.
All his ukes are custom made in negotiation with his clients. Some have specific wishes, others leave the design to Kawai. At the time of this interview, he was working on multiple ukuleles with the same neck, inspired by the Hawaiian islands. After a ukulele is finished and it gets played by Kawai; he tells me it truly is a magical moment as his eyes shine describing the moment. When constructing a ukulele he never knows how it will sound finished.
His favorite combination of woods is mango and spruce, but the Hawaiian Koa is a very popular wood. To all the UAS’ers reading this, Kawai has some advice: if you’re interested in custom ukuleles, you should buy one! Creating your own is costly and time consuming. The asking price of a Kawai custom build is currently around $1800 and his wait list is about a year long.Through Instagram, Kawai has shared his creations and has developed a strong following of about 2000 followers with a wonderful clientele, notwithstanding, the well known Southern Ukulele Store ordered a couple of ukuleles for their store.
In the future Kawai wants to keep making custom ukuleles for his brand Coast Ukulele. It’s his new home profession while watching the kids and homeschooling them. He isn’t looking to expand any further or hiring a lot of people to create a company. He wants to continue doing what he loves, building custom ukuleles with his heart, love and passion born during his life partnership with EB.
Follow Kawai’s journey and his creations on @coastukulele or coastukulele.com