Ohana

Ohana
Ohana was founded in 2006 by a man called Louis Wu in California, U.S.A.

Ohana is one of those companies where all of the actual instruments are made in China, (I believe by QTE Music), even though they have a California address.

Ohana have a large range of Ukuleles of all scales from Mini to Baritone plus Bass Ukes, in a large variety of solid woods. There is also models featuring 5, 6, (Lili'u and Guitalele), 8, (Taropatch) and 10, (Tiple Ukulele) string configurations, but no Banjoleles. They do a couple of colourful laminate budget ranges too, but unlike most of the other larger firms they don't market these with a different brand name.

As well as all of the standard ranges they also produce limited edition ranges usually in rare wood configurations but some are based on classic designs of the past, like the Lyon & Healy Bell, the Harmony “Vita” and some based on the designs of the early Portuguese/Hawaiian Ukulele makers.

There were a few Ohana Ukuleles with and aftermarket resonator fitted by DRC. I’m not sure if these were officially sanctioned and never appeared in the official catalogue but I have seen them on sale in a number of places and still labelled Ohana both on the headstock and on the metal plate that had been added to the front. In 2013 they introduced their own, (definitely), official resonator Ukulele without the DRC connection or the metal full front.

One branding I haven't quite managed to get to the bottom of is '''A. Louis. Ohana''' have confirmed that this is a branding that was used by them but I don't know when or why? I thought it might be an early branding, but I have only ever seen them in Germany and Holland, and quite a few years after the Ohana brand was started. Further questions to Ohana have not been answered?