Ohana Custom Shop DT-RCW Tenor Ukulele - REVIEW

Another ukulele this week I have been seriously looking forward to writing about. This is the Ohana Custom Shop DT-RCW Tenor.

Much like I did of the Kala brand, for some years I have been saying that Ohana really needed a re-invention as their model line up was starting to look a bit tired in the face of the new competition coming through. Kala addressed that with models like the Revelators and Contours and to be fair to Ohana, they seriously excited me in 2023 when I learned about their new California based custom shop (and was lucky to look at the dreamy DTK-2 Deluxe Tenor). That Custom shop is continuing under their luthier Brad Kahabka who is still making fully California made instruments. Southern Ukulele Store have had a few more in (and more to come!) and I'm delighted they lent me this one. In fact this was one of the first prototypes of that new Custom Shop.

SUMMARY VIDEO REVIEW

That Deluxe I looked at was like no other Ohana I had come across before, and, in fact was one of the nicest ukuleles I think i've ever played. This time we have a change of woods, but this time more local with a choice of Californian sourced tone-woods. Naturally we are talking all solid tone wood and this uses Californian redwood for the two piece top and Californian claro walnut for the back and sides. I think this is actually the first redwood ukulele I have reviewed, though I have played a couple. It's a revered tonewood for instruments on account of it's cedar like warmth (despite NOT being a cedar) yet with more response, and lower weight. Oh, and it looks utterly beautiful too. I believe the combo of redwood with walnut is another classic pairing and recall hearing of high end mandolins using that mix. The grain on the top is tight, straight and finished in a wonderful warm colour. The back is a thing of beauty with a pale section of sap wood square in the middle for more detail interest. The whole thing looks extremely classy and grown up.

The bridge is an ebony pin bridge with wonderful carving, tapers and finishing. It looks like the pins are ebony and they are tipped with abalone dots. It's always nice to see a bridge that is just a little different in shape. Sitting in that is a bone saddle and spacing clocks in at 44mm.

Decoration wise things get a little blingy but certainly not over the top. There appear to be wooden binding strips to the top and back with abalone purfling strips, trimmed in black to both also. The sound hole gets the same. It's all nicely done and not too gaudy and pairs well with the wood of the body to my eyes. It has a nice walnut inlaid tail stripe too. The body is then hand glossed and this has been done very well to without a single flaw, run or pool. It's like a mirror.

Inside is of interest to people who stare in sound holes. It's very tidy indeed of course. The braces are drilled through in geometric shapes and the kerfing is a kind of concertina strip of wood that looks very clever.

The neck is made from mahogany and is a beautifully carved largely from single piece with an angular heel and attractive veloute stopper at the nut end. That heel is trimmed with some stacked capping topped in walnut which looks just great. The profile is certainly to my taste too as is the comfortable 38mm nut with 30mm G to A. I 'believe' that the necks on these also contain a carbon fibre rod for long term stability. Oh, and it's satin, so full marks for that too!

That is topped with an ebony fingerboard with a nice carved shape at the end that matches the headstock. It's in good condition, but you can see the tooling marks here and there if such things bother you. It appears to be bound in something black which hides the 19 frets joined at the 14th. They are all dressed impeccably.  It has attractive offset mother of pearly position markers on the face at the 5th, 7th, 10th, double 12th and 15th. These don't wrap around, but you do get small white side dots as well.

Beyond the bone nut is a curved top headstock which appears to be faced in what could be more walnut. The Ohana logo is inlaid in pearl at the top right. I prefer this simpler finish to the last Ohana custom I looked at which had what I considered to be an ugly black inlay piece. Simple is better!

For the tuners we have Gotoh open gears which are a wonderful set of Japanese tuners on a par with the more commonly seen Grover. Excellent.

 

Finishing things off on this one are a set of D'Addario EJ87T strings on one to three with a wound low G. You also get a wonderful tweed finished hard case with an Ohana name plate. And the price on this example is £1,799. I was actually expecting this to be a touch more for a California made luthier instrument so whilst it's a wedge of cash, I can see the value. You can't actually buy this one as it has sold, but it's good to look at the standard of these unique instruments as there are likely to be more coming into the UK in other styles as I say above.

So all rather lovely so far with a great build and finish. It's nice and light to hold at only 640g and balances extremely well.  Volume and sustain are both extremely good, particularly the sustain which goes on and on and on and.... It's incredibly lively!

Tone wise I am told that redwood has some of the woody warmth of cedar but with a bit more attack. And there is certainly warmth here with a very rich warm sound that has bags of depth and range. This is how I like my tenors to sound with a woody edge but still one that is very clear. I would say though that when strummed I would personally lose the low G but that is just personal opinion. I just feel this is warm enough as it is! Still, it's got bags of character.

Fingerpicked, I can honestly say this is one of the nicest sounding ukuleles I've played this way. It's gorgeously pretty in tone with bags of interest and of course the great sustain allows it to be extremely expressive. I'm really blown away by the individual notes in this style showing that this isn't just a classy grown up instrument in looks alone.

Ohana have some real talent on their hands in their Custom Shop and it's a delight to see. This one is a fine, fine instrument with classy looks and a great tone. More of this sort of thing please Ohana!

https://ohanacustomshop.com/

https://www.southernukulelestore.co.uk/

UKULELE SPECS ROUNDUP

Model: Ohana Custom DT-RCW

Scale: Tenor

Body: Solid Californian redwood top, solid Californian claro walnut back and sides
Bridge: Ebony, pin bridge

Saddle: Bone

Spacing at saddle: 44mm

Finish: Gloss

Neck: Mahogany

Fingerboard: Ebony

Frets: 19, 14 to body

Nut: Bone

Nut width: 38mm, 30mm G to A

Tuners: Gotoh open gears

Strings: D'Addario EJ87T

Extras: Hard case

Weight: 640g

Country of origin: USA
Price: £1,799

UKULELE PROS

Very classy, grown up looks

Excellent build and finish

Wonderfully playable neck

Great volume

Superb sustain

Rich, extremely pretty tone

UKULELE CONS

I got nothin'...

UKULELE SCORES

Looks - 9.5 out of 10

Fit and finish - 9.5 out of 10

Sound - 9.5 out of 10

Value for money - 9.5 out of 10

OVERALL UKULELE SCORE - 9.5 out of 10

UKULELE VIDEO REVIEW

© Barry Maz

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