The concept of the Bongolele was first conceived in 2014 by Daniel Ho , a six-time Grammy Award winner and a dear Friend of Ohana. Daniel’s idea was to create a percussive instrument that plays like a bongo but has the shape of a ukulele body. When he pitched the idea, Ohana quickly became interested in bringing this unique creation to life. In January 2015, the Bongolele debuted as the Ohana OH-BLM, marking it as the first of its kind: an instrument that plays as a bongo and is shaped as a ukulele.
What resulted is an instrument that combines spruce and mahogany, two of our go-to tonewoods, that yields a bright yet warm tone when played. A partition across the waist of the ukulele shaped body creates the separation necessary for the low and high tones, and doubles as a handle when playing with just your hands. The wood is multi-layered to create a thickness that ensures maximum structural integrity and best possible tone, with end blocks on each end to further strengthen the structure and stability of the instrument.
The Bongolele is constructed with the shape, dimensions, and tonewoods such that the pitch variance between the low and high tones is close to a 4th or even a 5th apart.
The Bongolele can be played standing up or sitting down, or mounted on a traditional bongo stand with a slight modification on the clamping mechanism to fit the handle — all with the same basic strokes as the traditional bongo (open tone, slap, heel-tip movement, and muted tone).
