Ilisa is an amazing guitar teacher and person. I've been taking lessons with her for almost a year…read moreafter I tried to teach myself to play guitar (through friends and YouTube) for about seven years. I get so much enjoyment and value out of every lesson. Ilisa's instruction is highly customized and tailored to her students' interests and goals. She has introduced me to a ton of new music and artists from around the world and in different time periods. The environment she creates is fun and relaxing. I look forward to seeing her every week. She is also very understanding and flexible when "life happens" and I sometimes need to reschedule our lesson. I highly recommend Ilisa to anyone wanting to learn a new instrument or improve/expand on what you already know. Thank you, Ilisa!

I go in with my best friend and it is amazing. The class is very nice and fun, especially with…read morepeople starting out on their guitar journey. The location is pretty convenient and Ms. Ilisa is very patient and extremely experienced. She can even teach young kids, and I've been taking lessons since 2013.

Nathan has done my guitars for decades. He is very meticulous and precise in his craft. Every…read moreguitar he's setup for me is fantastic. I really appreciate him being able to take me in on my latest guitar as he is probably semi retired now. Mahalo plenty Nate!

Nathan Ching is a very nice guy who did an excellent and professional job in adjusting the action…read moreof my tenor ukulele. He also changed my strings to Koolau Gold Low G with wound G & C strings. Uke is much more playable and sound has definitely improved with a fuller richer deeper tone. His charges were very reasonable as well.

Simply the best. Gary is the only one who I would even consider trusting with my instruments…read more He's done work on my vintage 1976 Ibanez Artist, set up my Ibanez GB10, repaired my 1960's Martin Baritone ukulele (a family heirloom I wouldn't let anyone touch except Gary) and recently set up and worked on my Kala ukulele. Excellent work. I've been a musician for 60 years, I do know what I'm talking about, and my musician friends, all of them pros, feel the same way about Gary.

I have brought my guitars to most of the repair people on the island since I moved here, and…read moresearched around quite a bit with unsatisfactory results previously. I've been playing 50+yrs and have some pretty nice vintage and new guitars. Gary does top notch work. His workshop is well set up and organized, and is probably better tooled than the other workshops where you can't see what is going on. I've been to a few backrooms to watch people at work and Gary's setup is fine. It being in his garage, which another reviewer subtracts points for, is irrelevant. What is relevant is skill, and Gary is tied with one other person on the island in my estimation, but the other person is generally hard to get a hold of and takes forever. These two are the only people on the island who I would trust with my guitars (1961 Gibson lg-1, 1962 Fender Jaguar, 1965 Fender Coronado II, 1972 Gibson SG, 2009 Godin xTSA, 2015 Gibson Hummingbird Pro, 2020 Danelectro "1959" 12 string, 2024 PRS SE20e parlor guitar). I say this not to show off -- the vintage ones became vintage from me taking care of them and playing them, not collecting. I got them relatively cheap back in the day. Gary has done fine work on all of them, and I play at least one of them every day. I would not bring them to any of the others I have tried or interviewed, and I really checked around. Let me give an example to bring things home. I have a very nice Gibson Hummingbird Pro acoustic that had a particular neck problem that I just plain would not entrust to other island luthiers and such. Basically, there is a common problem of a little buckle in the neck that was causing one string to buzz on one or two frets, I tried another luthier I had read about, and they wanted to sell me a case, a humidity controller and talked a bunch of nonsense in general about the specific problem. They really talked a good game and they wanted me to buy a bunch of stuff, lock my guitar in the case, and blah blah before they would even look at it. They understood the problem to be me. When I asked what they would do if the problem persisted after getting all the gadgets, the other luthier shop was into defretting, planing the neck and resetting it, which would have cost a small fortune. The correct solution, which I knew from another guitar, is to not worry about planing the neck and adjust the frets instead, since we are talking a miniscule buckle. I played the other guitar that had had this problem for thirty years without a problem after the fret adjustment, and have had no problems with the Gibson's playability since Gary adjusted it five or six years ago. It took a couple of tries to get it there, but Gary worked with me, and we had to close in on it because of my playing style, not because he missed anything, so he did the first adjustment conservatively since he would have to replace the fret if he went too far. The more radical steps were available if the less invasive one failed, but Gary approached the problem as only someone with skills, wisdom, and years of experience could do. I could go on about the meticulous and knowledgeable work he did on my other guitars, but suffice it to say, he is where I have taken them for the past decade and where I'll keep bringing them. He's not the cheapest, but he is the all-around best if you care about your instruments AND play them.

This is one of the top ukulele makers in Hawaii. Don't expect cheap bargains or tourist ukes to…read morebring home to the grandkids. Take the tour, and dig deep in your wallet. You will purchase something that can provide hours of beautiful music.

Great ukulele Great price Great value. I ordered a concert…read morespruce top. Very nice sound. Very beautiful looking. Easily played and set up quite nicely in Matthews shop in Hawaii. I will definitely buy an acacia solid top and body once I save up a bit. Very good quality and even better price. Billy s

An amazing music school! They are really knowledgeable and great at pricing their products. Thank…read moreyou so much for helping me out. You guys are amazing.

Me and my husband had been looking to replace his ukulele and spent quite sometime looking into…read moreaffordable options with great quality and that is exactly what we found here! Absolutely amazing experience. Owner was very patient and helpful as we figured out what we wanted and what was in our budget. Great prices with great quality. Couldn't recommend enough. So happy that we found this gem and will definitely be back in the future.

Checked out this new ukulele shop in Honolulu when I was visiting the Islands for a few weeks. It…read moreis a little hidden as it's right under Korea Times in a local area. However, the store far surpassed my expectations. The owner was super easy to work with and was very helpful. He has a lot of knowledge and can show you some easy songs to play. The shop is a little small but packed with quality ukuleles. He is also able to get any ukulele you need. The prices are the best anywhere and he'll even throw in free extra goodies. It's great to support an up and coming shop and small business.

From the owner: Rainbow Ukulele Shop is proud to be an authorized dealer for many of the top names.read more