NUD: Kala Acacia Cedar Slothead Concert

Sounds like a great uke for the money and will have to seek one out sometime to try!

The frets feel a little wider - they don't stand up taller. The difference is probably tiny, but the feel under my hand is that the fret board is not refined. It's a shame because I like the fact that the fretboard is bound and fret ends are not sticking out. Intonation is fine. I should add that the neck seems to have a radius but a very mild one. It is an easy instrument to play cleanly. I would probably like it better, as a concert with a 1.5" neck.

Eddie you'll have to try mine. I don't know if you'd like it. All of your ukes are very light. This uke reminds of me of the Pono pro classic. It's as if the Pono Pro Classic is the Poor mans Ko'olau and the Kala is the poor man's Pono Pro Classic.

So I took off the Aquila strings and put on some PhD strings. Waited for them to settle and I hated the way that they sounded. They aren't my favorite strings anyway. They sound OK on some ukes but in my view they are not my favorite fluorocarbon strings. What I hated in this case was that the uke sounded very thuddy. I ordered some Aquila Supernylguts but I don't have those yet. I thought I'd try to fix my problem with the PhD strings and put on a LaBella wound guitar G string in place of the C string. Much better. It was the C string that was making the thuddy sound.

I'm still waiting on the Aquila supernylgut which I've never tried. While I generally don't like the nylguts it came with so far they seem like a better string for this uke but I'll try the super nylguts and if I don't like those I'll try some other fluorocarbons. Maybe I'll end up with the nylguts.

other strings will also sound and feel VERY different from the ones you've put on so far...

such as any of the 12 different gauge sets of Worth Browns, Fremont Blacklines (hard and medium tension sets) and Aquila REDS...will ALL be different from any clear fluorocarbon, as well as VERY different from any other Aquila product to date.

I speak from experience here with the extensive string testing that I've done so far over the past 2 yrs, but YMMV.

FYI, the Aquila Nylgut, SuperNylgut and D'Addario Nyltech strings will have have significantly thicker diameter strings in their sets when compared to all the ones I mentioned above. I have not yet tried the Aquila LAVA strings. These Aquila (Nyl-whatever) are closer in thickness to the Martin Fluoro M6x0 sets and also the D'Addario Titanium T2 purple-cast 'nylon', J71, J88 & J87 string sets.

Oh my Gosh. That's insane. It's kind of funky though. In some parts of the site it says sold out. It also let me buy one. At that price I'd buy another.

katysax said:

Oh my Gosh. That's insane. It's kind of funky though. In some parts of the site it says sold out. It also let me buy one. At that price I'd buy another.

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Sold out now. Please report back if they are legit.

Reviews of that seller would typically drive me away at all cost.

Dang it.

So.. I ordered one of these cuz I got that criminally cheap deal on what has to be a pricing error, and I've been playing it since last wednesday.
Mine came through a weird route, but was ultimately delivered by amazon, so there was no setup. But honestly, it didn't need anything and played great out of the box, no adjustment necessary. Action is pretty comfortable, and the lower tension of the concert just makes it very easy to play.

It's humbling how good a sound this thing is putting out, not just "for the money", and after factoring in the money.. it's almost embarrassing.
I was skeptical about when Katy said she could live with it as her stranded island uke, but after playing it for a week I don't doubt it any more.
It's surprisingly loud, but not barky, and it sounds bigger than my tenors, which are not softwood tops. Also it projects up to the player very well which is not something you can always say.

The only thing I can criticize sound wise is that the sustain is shorter than my tenors which is probably just the scale length but as this is my first concert, I'm not positive.
On build, its a very clean build except for the finishing inside the slot, which is a bit rough in the small curves. I might go at it with a buffing wheel on a dremel, but frankly I'm not worried about it. One of the grover tuners wasn't quite screwed down completely, but working a screwdriver isn't rocket science. The tuners turn very smoothly btw. I'm a fan of steel on brass because its low coefficient of friction. I'm not a huge fan of the button shape, but it's just a button. If I didn't know that the sides and back were laminate, I wouldn't have guessed it from the sound. The neck is on the thick side with that slot head though, but I kinda like the solid feeling of thicker necks.

Kala's got a real winner with this one.. and it makes you reconsider your baseline of what "You get what you pay for" means today. I won't lose any sleep recommending this uke, cuz I can't see anyone being disappointed unless you just hate thick necks.

spookelele said:

Dang it.

So.. I ordered one of these cuz I got that criminally cheap deal on what has to be a pricing error, and I've been playing it since last wednesday.

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Seems almost like a bait-and-switch. I'd be chuffed too. The reviews for that 3rd-party seller were mostly negative across the board, and very low number of reviews IIRC.

Why is the BUYER penalized for the pricing errors? Shouldn't the seller or Newegg just eat it, since you bought it 'as advertised'?

Glad that there is a silver lining and you like the uke so much. If it makes you happy, then that is good. Not sure I'd want to keep it since the lingering feeling of they way it went would nag at me every time I think about or play that instrument would eventually just make me angry.

In the words of Dr. David Banner, "Please don't make me angry, you wont like me when I'm angry!"

Booli said:

Seems almost like a bait-and-switch. I'd be chuffed too. The reviews for that 3rd-party seller were mostly negative across the board, and very low number of reviews IIRC.

Why is the BUYER penalized for the pricing errors? Shouldn't the seller or Newegg just eat it, since you bought it 'as advertised'?

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I'm confused here. It doesn't sound like spookelele got penalized. Unless I'm misreading something.

I will say I'm super jealous of the price if it came through.

I'm still playing mine - and I paid the full price. I am still really enjoying it. It's making me think about trying some more Kalas - they are cheap enough. The thing is that I've gotten to a place where I don't like my ukes too plain. It's why I sold the Martin T1K and C1K and will eventually sell the Opio. For a long time the style of manufacturers was to sell unfinished models with no bling for reasonable prices. I kind of think it is fun to have some bling. I like a gloss finish and binding and the look of a slot head. The uke still has to play well too. The Kala doesn't sound the same as my more expensive ukes, but I'm liking it.

Its a pretty good uke. And it's possible the shiny newness is distorting my appreciation.
Still I can't see someone being disappointed by this uke, although the back on Katy's is sexier than mine, which is more classic acacia striping and not so curled.

I collected the 5 string tenor version of this ukulele from the Southern Ukulele Store today, had it fitted with Worth Browns and a Fremont Squeakless, and it's meeting my expectations in the sound department, as well as looking smarter than I expected it to. I'll write a more comprehensive review when I've had it a bit longer, but it gets my recommendation so far.

I've got the Kala LaSalle (KA-ATP) tenor and it's just a winner throughout. I liked it so much that I jotted a note to Kala's owner saying I appreciate the instrument so much!

It's true the inside routes of the slothead are a bit unfinished (I've done woodwork; these are to some extent smoothed). But I don't dig in there much, so it doesn't matter. Katy's back is nicer than mine.

I really admire the cedar top: not so much for looks but for what it does tonally for a tenor.

I hate Aquilas, so I'd never buy any for this. I've got Savage strings, which do very well. Bell tones, for my instrument.

Obviously it's a mistake to compare a factory made piece to a builder piece; a bit like comparing a Martin D-15 to an Olson.

I do wonder if Kala has just struck on a sweet spot with this cedar/laminate line.
It seems to outclass the price point by alot.

If anyone has a tenor version of this and wants to trade for a concert version, let me know.

spookelele said:

I do wonder if Kala has just struck on a sweet spot with this cedar/laminate line.
It seems to outclass the price point by alot.

If anyone has a tenor version of this and wants to trade for a concert version, let me know.

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I like my tenor so much, I've been mulling over picking up a concert as well!

I've played a tenor and baritone of the cedar/acacia and they are all very nice instruments. The other Kala I've played lately that has mightily impressed me is the solid spruce/ovangkol.

Great comments above. I've got a spare set of Worth browns. . . so you put some of these on your tenor?

Captain America said:

Great comments above. I've got a spare set of Worth browns. . . so you put some of these on your tenor?

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I put some Worth Browns on my 5 string version of your "La Salle", as I wanted a full sound (hence the 5 string option) but was after something more mellow than the punchy aquillas (since I'll mostly be strumming mine with someone else playing lead over the top) - and I'm loving the way the cedar sounds with them. There's a (very poor quality - sorry) clip of me trying the new strings and uke out strumming a new song http://youtu.be/K-8tGzS0Myk

katysax said:

I've played a tenor and baritone of the cedar/acacia and they are all very nice instruments. The other Kala I've played lately that has mightily impressed me is the solid spruce/ovangkol.

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One of my students just received a spruce ovangkol to start lessons with me and it is a very nice high quality instrument. The spruce top was excellent tight grain and the build quality was excellent. It was shipped directly from kala and was setup pretty well. The binding was done very cleanly and the headstock inlay was very pretty and cleanly done.