Kanilea Ukulele Model Comparison Willie K vs. Aldrine vs. Diamond

Check out this video of Kanilea Ukulele Model Comparison Willie K vs. Aldrine vs. Diamond

This is our Pro Series line-up: the Willie K, Aldrine, and Diamond models.

Over the years, we've had the pleasure of working with some of the best musicians in the world, such as the late Willie K and Ukulele Underground's Aldrine Guerrero. We even had the chance to design custom instruments for them based on their specific playing styles. 

Video Transcripts:

aloha kaimana suzy here in the kanila sound studio over the years we at kanila have had the opportunity to work with some of the world's best ukulele players and we've also had the opportunity to design their custom instruments to fit their specific playing style whether that's a longer scale fifth string different tuners cutaways whatever the case might be we got to build it with them for them and eventually make them available in our kanila pro series lineup and that's what we're diving into today on the breakdown [Music] as of filming this today in the middle of august 2022 we have three pro series models in our lineup the diamond super tenor the willy k super tenor and the aldrine tenor but be sure to stay in touch and subscribe to our email list so that you can hear all about new models and potentially even new pro series models as they come out the similarities that we have between these three are very small but there are some let's start with the headstock all three of these models have a slotted headstock different shapes but nonetheless still slotted all three also have ebony head plates ebony fretboards and ebony bridges with bridge pins ebony bridge pins all three models also come with gloss bodies silk necks on the back for smooth and comfortable playing and all three models have kailua beach sand logo inlays front fretboard inlays and side position markers and notice that neither of these three models have front position markers they only have side position markers to allow the inlay on each fretboard to shine and be the showcase here on the front of the body we'll look first at the willy k model or the willy k super tenor 19 inch five string i know that's a mouthful but this model seriously has it all now uncle willie k or the late uncle willie k is arguably one of hawaii's greatest musicians he played opera rock reggae hawaiian music traveling the world on tour performing with the likes of stephen tyler and willie nelson and when we were given the opportunity to design a custom instrument for uncle willie to play i mean we were floored and honored to be able to do so in order to achieve all of those different genres we needed to add a few things that we may not have been totally comfortable with at the time for instance the 19 inch scale length 2 inches longer than the traditional tenor scale length of 17 inches also the 5 string both of these were something that kanila was doing on a custom basis but never had been introduced on a model and so in order to achieve all of the sounds that uncle really wanted he needed a five string with a 19 inch scale length and with that he was able to completely wow audiences around the world and now we can dive into the little unique details that make it very very special first we have the cobra slotted headstock with the ebony headplate like i mentioned sand dots and logos with goto stealth tuners to fit that extremely thin profile one subtle detail we also have is the black tusk nut and saddle now this is a synthetic tusk material infused with graphite to make it even harder and transfer energy even better and if we find the 12th fret we'll find an inlay in sand of uncle willy kay's actual signature moving down to the rosette we have an epoxy inlay recreating the palawa or the family crest pendant that uncle willie k wore pretty much every day of his life some playable features that we have on this model include kaniles cutaway bevel kanila's bevel armrest for comfortability it also has a black front abs binding for protecting that edge against any dings or nicks a little bit of a funny story the translation of diamond into hawaiian is kaimana so this technically is the kaimana model designed by yours truly and it was the first model not to be designed by joe himself i was fortunate enough in 2014 to design this model and make it available to the public at the time the super tenor body or the wider lower bout was available in customs the cobra slotted was also available in customs never before had it been made available in a model off the shelf so i made a super tenor body with a cobra slotted headstock both comfortable and appealing to me as a player and i also really loved the idea of inlaying the kailua beach sand so that's where the logo inlays kailua beach sand the side dots and a nice line drawing of the diamond here in sand on the 12th fret allowing very fine lines to create that diamond inlay we have the black tusk graphite infused nut and saddle like the willy k and also like the willy k both bodies come in a front side and back premium grade coil the diamond uniquely has a zebra wood rosette with a black trim and finally the diamond supertenor has front and back black binding to protect those edges from any dings and add a nice frame to the front of the body lastly today we have the aldrine tenor designed for aldrine guerrero of ukulele underground and technically the first kanila sponsored artist back in 2008 even before ukulele underground was created now aldrin has carved his way with exciting and fabulous playing style and he needed something to complement that so this is what we came up with with aldrine we have a tenor body with master grade koa and eldrine also helped us design our first slotted headstock before we had thin slotted headstocks we had the traditional flat top thick slotted headstock to fit these awesome and super accurate gilbert tuners manufactured in the usa and designed to not need any lubricants and be free from corrosion for their lifetime we have ebony fittings like mentioned before we have the sand logo and here in between the slots we also have aldrin's signature similar to the willie k down near the 12th fret we have aldrin's avatar drawn by aldrine himself and we have a bird's eye maple rosette very cool very unique with a black trim and also black front binding and black back binding on this beautiful tenor and that wraps up our pro series models we have these three for now but if you stay tuned to our facebook instagram youtube and email list you'll stay in touch with what we're doing and when we release new things keep on strumming aloha

Glad you enjoyed learning about the Kanilea Ukulele Model Comparison Willie K vs. Aldrine vs. Diamond

Let us know in the comments! which model catches your eye the most?

Reprinted with Permission https://www.kanileaukulele.com/