Kanileʻa is pleased to announce two beautiful and dramatic new additions to our 2024 instrument lineup, the ʻIlikai and the Pōhaku. Made from solid Flamed Maple and Quilted Maple, these two new instruments are available in all scale lengths and are sure to turn heads with their looks and their tone.
ʻIlikai
The ʻIlikai model takes its name from the Hawaiian word for “Horizon” and is inspired by the beautiful sunset skies in Hawaiʻi. The stain transitions from a bright red to a deep blue, picking up the sweeping flames of the maple tonewood to create a vivid, stunning instrument unlike anything Kanileʻa has made before.
The position markers and logo are made from stained teal poplar, bringing that distinctive ocean color tone all the way up the neck to the headstock.
Marvelous Maple
While solid Hawaiian Koa is the perfect tonewood for ʻukulele, Maple offers a tone which is truly different and compelling on these instruments. A dense tonewood, it tends to have a brighter tone than koa, with a distinctive punch and compression on the low end. Used as tonewood by luthiers for hundreds of years, we are proud to make our first Maple Kanileʻa.