In the 1920’s, Honolulu luthier Sam Kamaka was experimenting to create a more mellow-sounding ukulele. He decided to eliminate the instrument’s waist, thus increasing both the soundboard surface and the resonant cavity inside the body. While he was working on it, a friend came into the shop and commented, “That’s shaped just like a pineapple!”  The pineapple industry was a huge contributor to Hawaii’s GDP at that time, so Sam decided to exploit the similarity by getting another friend to paint the body to look like a pineapple. That original pineapple ukulele is in the Kamaka collection to this day, and has been appraised as “priceless”.

The pineapple shape caught on, and continues to be built by many manufacturers to this day – sometimes painted to resemble other fruits such as the watermelon or the kiwi.

Sam Kamaka started building ukuleles in 1915, and the company is still owned and run by the family (going into the fourth generation). Many of the best-known ukulele players play Kamakas, including Jake Shimabukuro, George Harrison, Brittni Paiva, and Eddie Vedder. And it’s always tickled my fancy that among the Kamaka family first names are two Freds and a Casey!