Hi,
My girlfriend used to play guitar, and she's starting to play again. She always dreamed of having a ukulele too.
I have a small experience with wood working (built a few pairs of loudspeakers, and I recently joined a woodworkers club).
Since my parents are going to California next month, I want them to bring back a good first ukulele for my GF's birthday. Soprano is my actual choice, because it's more "ukulelish" and because, well, she has small hands
I've never built a guitar, and would be very interested in trying, but for a first try, a glue-it-yourself kit seems a good idea. I have a $100 budget.
For this budget, the options I see are :
-Stewmac kit. I've heard about the not-so-good tuners, but it's just my budget (I have other things to order, so shipping is not an issue)
-I also wander how the $25 Grizzly kit does sound, adding better tuners and shipping it would still be under budget. Then, I saw the thread in this forum which suggest to remove the top and back and replace them with better ones (which implies to make another saddle). I think that the kit + tuners + top and back may be around $100, so the question is just to know which one will be better in the end.
-Other kits may be an option, but I don't want to shape the neck by myself. I can slot the holes for the frets (the wood-working club own a small CNC which is large enough for a uke fretboard !) Any sugestion ?
-Are the Kala Makala MK-S or KA-15S a good base for tweaking ? They are just $40 / $50 + shipping. How would they sound compared to previous options ? Does they need some pieces replaced (like tunners, nuts, ...) ? Could they be improved by replacing the top and back like the grizzly kit ? (well, I would have to remove finishing first)
-Or maybe I could just go for the higher priced Makala and get something better sounding than the kits. But all I can see is the $60+shipping KA-S, which is same as KA-15S with a nice binding (which is good if I don't replace the top ). I would then just buy the $25 grizzly kit just for me and play glueing it.
Many questions for just buying a kit, I know. The problem is that it's just not possible to listen to acceptable under $100 uke where I live, and I only know a few chords for ukulele anyway !
Thanks you,
John.
My girlfriend used to play guitar, and she's starting to play again. She always dreamed of having a ukulele too.
I have a small experience with wood working (built a few pairs of loudspeakers, and I recently joined a woodworkers club).
Since my parents are going to California next month, I want them to bring back a good first ukulele for my GF's birthday. Soprano is my actual choice, because it's more "ukulelish" and because, well, she has small hands
I've never built a guitar, and would be very interested in trying, but for a first try, a glue-it-yourself kit seems a good idea. I have a $100 budget.
For this budget, the options I see are :
-Stewmac kit. I've heard about the not-so-good tuners, but it's just my budget (I have other things to order, so shipping is not an issue)
-I also wander how the $25 Grizzly kit does sound, adding better tuners and shipping it would still be under budget. Then, I saw the thread in this forum which suggest to remove the top and back and replace them with better ones (which implies to make another saddle). I think that the kit + tuners + top and back may be around $100, so the question is just to know which one will be better in the end.
-Other kits may be an option, but I don't want to shape the neck by myself. I can slot the holes for the frets (the wood-working club own a small CNC which is large enough for a uke fretboard !) Any sugestion ?
-Are the Kala Makala MK-S or KA-15S a good base for tweaking ? They are just $40 / $50 + shipping. How would they sound compared to previous options ? Does they need some pieces replaced (like tunners, nuts, ...) ? Could they be improved by replacing the top and back like the grizzly kit ? (well, I would have to remove finishing first)
-Or maybe I could just go for the higher priced Makala and get something better sounding than the kits. But all I can see is the $60+shipping KA-S, which is same as KA-15S with a nice binding (which is good if I don't replace the top ). I would then just buy the $25 grizzly kit just for me and play glueing it.
Many questions for just buying a kit, I know. The problem is that it's just not possible to listen to acceptable under $100 uke where I live, and I only know a few chords for ukulele anyway !
Thanks you,
John.
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