Shimo Ukuleles

While there are obviously still lots of ukulele players to cover, today I will touch on an uke luthier.

Shimo Takahiro runs Shimo Guitars. He graduated from a well-known luthier school in Arizona. He makes guitars and ukuleles, some of which are used by well-known Japanese players like Takagi Boo (mentioned in a previous post) and Iwao (subject of a soon-to-be post). As far as I can make out, he makes custom instruments.

I have heard several of his ukuleles being played and they pretty pleasant little instruments to listen to. Iwao makes it a point for fans to know that he uses Shimo ukuleles. If you would like to hear what some of his ukuleles and guitars sound like, visit his website (link above) and click on the link to the Sound Library. You can listen to the various examples by clicking on whatever picture strikes your fancy.

Speaking of fancy, some of his work is pretty fanciful. He has come up with some pretty crazy designs, as well as some excellent ones. Anyone interested can look at his site (much of which is in English, incidentally) and enjoy having a look.

I would hesitate to guess what one of his handmade beauties would cost, but I imagine they would run at least $1,000 if not considerably more (I've seen one of his guitars going for $14,000). But, from what I have seen of them, they are probably worth much more than what you pay for them.