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Ibanez positioned the UEW5 as a concert-style acoustic ukulele within its UEW series, built around the EW body format with a cutaway bout. The instrument carried an open pore natural finish across the top, back, sides, and neck — a surface treatment that leaves the wood largely uncoated rather than sealed under a high-gloss layer.
The body was constructed entirely from sapele, with sapele used for the top, back, and sides alike. The okoume neck meets a purpleheart fretboard and matching purpleheart bridge, with maple dot inlays along the board and an abalone rosette at the soundhole. The fretboard runs flat — no radius — across 19 frets, with a nut width of 35mm and a 382mm scale length. String spacing at the saddle measured 13mm. The compensated saddle was fitted as standard, and the instrument left the factory strung with Ibanez/Aquila NYLBLACK ukulele strings. Chrome open-gear tuners handled tuning duties.
Owners working on setup, saddle adjustment, or fretboard maintenance on this instrument should consult a qualified luthier or guitar technician familiar with small-bodied instruments, as the flat-radius purpleheart board and compensated saddle have specific requirements for correct intonation work.
Nothing in The Vault is for sale. These records exist so the instruments stay documented after the manufacturer moves on — and the most useful part of that record is what owners add to it.
The catalog shot showed one finish, under one light, a long time ago. Yours has been played. Photos from owners are what the next person finds when they are trying to identify a part, match a finish, or work out whether the one they just bought is really what the seller said it was.
Specs only go so far. What actually fits, what breaks first, what the factory got right and what everyone ends up changing — that lives with the people who own them, not in a datasheet. Post what you know and it stays on this page for whoever comes looking next.
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From spec questions to full builds — players who have lived this gear since 2007.
Since 2007
