Beautiful absolutely mint all solid acacia wood PONO taropatch 8 string concert size ukulele with HSC. Bought and setup by Hawaiian Music Supply. I choose this one from many they had for the dark contrasts in wood grain...most are very plain looking. HMS installed the strap buttons. Has KNA under string passive pickup with amp cable. New upgraded Worth strings. Sounds great, harmonic and chorus like .........a unique sound addition to a ukulele group.
history of the TAROPATCH Sonny D Baritone ScaleTaropatch, (the name comes from "Taropatch Fiddle" and early Hawaiian slightly derogatory name for all Ukuleles as it was used by the "Landed" Anglo Settlers to describe the instruments played by the Portuguese indentured labour as they worked the taro fields), with its 8 strings in 4 courses, is a very traditional string configuration dating back to the birth of the Ukulele itself. The idea of the extra strings is to give a more plaintive, slightly chorus like tone; and possibly to add volume. and his family were certainly fond of them and made quite a few. then picked up on them and brought them firmly to the Mainland. Initially they were only moderately successful on the Mainland as gut strings and double the tuning problems made them tricky to play. Their biggest influence on early Ukulele development though was, originally they were all what is now and a number of the more professional players of the time liked this extra size for the extra volume and so played them with only the 4 strings. This led to Martin producing a 4 string variant and the Concert scale was born.
