Established in 1993 in a one car garage in Kapahulu, GString Ukulele Company is rapidly becoming an industry leader in the ukulele world. Our commitment to quality and our focus on building musical instruments rather than simply a “Hawaiian wood product” has set us apart from the competition. Derek Shimizu started building ukuleles because he wanted to play one. While pursuing his bachelors degree at University of Hawaii, he met some friends who played music. Inspired by one of his good friends, Derek put down his guitar and decided to pick up the ukulele. Being a poor college student he decided to build one of his own. The first ukulele he built was horrible.

The ukulele sounded bad, the frets were all off, the soundboard was too thick and the neck felt like a baseball bat! Ukulele became a passion because Derek loved to play music. Ukulele building became a passion because Derek was a perfectionist. What started out as a hobby soon turned into a obsession. Wanting to be different, owner Derek Shimizu wanted a name for his ukuleles that did not start with the letter “K”. In Hawaii, the most common way of tuning an ukulele is GCEA. The name GString comes from the top string of the ukulele tuning.