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Our
company, Mele Ukulele, began its life here on the island of Maui some
20 years ago. Here in the Hawaiian Islands, where the ukulele
originated, it is a cultural icon and a symbol of the Hawaiian identity.
We strive to honor and enhance that tradition. Our goal has been to
incorporate both the best features of the greatest Hawaiian and Mainland
instruments and the latest advances in technology into a product
offering the utmost in tone, intonation and playability. At first we
worked to attain that goal by building one-of-a-kind custom instruments
for some of Hawaii's top musicians. Only the most successful were able
to afford them, though. (Mainly the ones with high-paying day gigs!)
Our production process began
to evolve, with the objective of continuing to build entirely handmade
custom-grade instruments using the same top quality materials and
workmanship BUT with prices that the working professional musician could
afford. By having some of the basic functions (and some intricate hand inlay work) performed by professional
luthiers at our overseas facility, we have been able to accomplish what
nobody else has: to offer
a gorgeous-looking, professional-quality ukulele, entirely luthier-built and with setup by a MASTER luthier, using solid top-grade tonewoods and
top-quality parts, at prices that working professional musicians (our
most loyal customers!) can afford to pay. We are even able to use the
same nitrocellulose laquers used by companies like Gibson on their
top-of-the-line guitars, rather than the tone-deadening urethanes used
by many of our peers in the industry. Prices
only slightly higher than the mass produced Chinese or Indonesian-made
models offered by most of our competitors make our Mele Ukuleles the
best value on the market!
The neck of every Mele ukulele is
hand-carved from strong, stable mahogany with a solid ebony fretboard
and individually hand levelled and crowned nickel or nickel-silver
frets. Our
tenors and baritones also offer a Mele exclusive; our proprietary
non-adjustable truss rod. Even our slimmest necks provide great sustain
and immunity from warpage, and all Mele ukes come with a lifetime
warranty against any and all defects in materials and/or workmanship. Even
the least-expensive Mele Ukulele is comparable to "custom" instruments
costing two to ten times its price. A Mele ukulele
sounds great, plays in tune, is easy and comfortable
to
play, and is strikingly good-looking. A Mele is an instrument that any
knowledgeable professional musician would be proud to own. We are grateful
to be able to say that we have achieved our most important goals. Any
professional musician in Hawaii can attest to Mele's quality and
affordability, and that makes us very happy.
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