Asking for Thoughts on my Kanilea satin finish

Here's another little sound grab for comparison. Kanile'a K1 Concert, satin finish, Aquila strings. Recorded raw through an iPhone.

This uke would be quite similar to the OP's apart from the big bad Aquilas.

https://app.box.com/s/u4nwai5fru6encb0dp64dtqao4wizjab

Oasis, Living Water, and Phd strings might all sound very good on a Kanile'a. All three seem well suited to solid Koa ukes in my experience.

Camsuke said:

Here's another little sound grab for comparison. Kanile'a K1 Concert, satin finish, Aquila strings. Recorded raw through an iPhone.

Click to expand...

I think that's the same one I have. Great playing and yes, there is some good volume there with the Aquilas. Thank you for sharing that.

Steedy said:

Oasis, Living Water, and Phd strings might all sound very good on a Kanile'a. All three seem well suited to solid Koa ukes in my experience.

Click to expand...

I just put on a set of Oasis GPX low g on my tenor and really like them. I use them on my classical guitars and just found out they made uke strings. But I never associated them with volume just very crystal clear tones. I will give it a shot. I just put on the Daddarios Titaniums and first impression is not much more volume than the Worth clears. I'll give them a couple days to break in and see then.

UkerDanno said:

ronin, you're weird...you like the uke, but all you do is trash it!

Click to expand...

LOL!! That is fair, UkerDanno.

But actually I've agreed to what you've said in my prior posts. The reason I bought this K1 is because I liked the tone and sustain - I also really like the look of the koa with the satin finish. I already knew gloss would have added more brightness when I bought it but I didn't expect to be so short on volume when I played it in a crowd.

As for my other gripes, it's really the fact that I think so highly of this uke (other than its volume) that I'm beside myself as to why they decided to go with such cheap tuners and bridge pins.

Anyway, great video - that Martin really booms for a concert.

Oh BTW, I prefer the Oasis Brights over their Warms. To me they sound about the same, only the Warms have more tension. Also, I like the original Oasis Low G string better than their new smooth wound Low G, which sounds a little dull to me, and doesn't squeak any less than the original. Just my two cents.

the.ronin said:

I didn't expect to be so short on volume when I played it in a crowd.

Click to expand...

I don't know about your experience level so this could be off the mark; when I play with others I can often hear their instruments better than my own because some of their instruments are facing me, my own is facing away. That isn't necessarily an indication of the relative volume of my uke(s).

Ok guys I'm close to being done making changes with my K-1 C SF.

Cosmetically, the plastic bridge pins were replaced with some cool boxwood ones with zebra wood dots. eBay seller "taisamlu" carries the same 2L/2R tuners that Kanilea uses (exact same actually, they have the same branding engraved on the back plate facing the headstock). I picked up some walnut button ones to replace the black plastic ones.

Sonically, I replaced the tusq nut and saddle with some bone ones. Man, shaping these things from guitar ones is torture on the fingers lol. Intonation is good (off by a couple cents max using a Samson CT20 clip on chromatic) all the way up the fret on each string. My G and A initially sounded a bit tinny at first, but are starting to settle. I'm not sure if the change in the G and A tones are because of 1) the bone vs tusq, 2) ever so slight (fraction of millimeters) gap in the saddle slot, or 3) they need compensation. I'm going to role with it for now and see if it continues to bother me. As far as action, I'm at about 0.03" at the 1st and 0.095" at the 12th (yea, I know, I mighta gone a little crazy sanding down the saddle). I might bring the 1st down a tad but for the most part, I'm liking the volume I'm getting at this height with no fear of fret buzz.

Pics and hopefully a sound sample if I time coming. Hopefully this will be helpful for anyone else wanting to make changes to their K-1 C SF.

I would try Koolau Gold strings

Both the KoAloha and Kanilea concerts are commonly referred to as "tone monsters"...perhaps for different reasons. Like my Martin and Kamaka sopranos, equal but different. Some prefer one, some the other, some want both.

trevorg888 said:

I would try Koolau Gold strings

Click to expand...

PhilUSAFRet said:

Both the KoAloha and Kanilea concerts are commonly referred to as "tone monsters"...perhaps for different reasons. Like my Martin and Kamaka sopranos, equal but different. Some prefer one, some the other, some want both.

Click to expand...

I actually went back to Worth clears and I'll need to make a comparison video to be sure but I think I'm getting much better volume and also better tone out of this concert. Don't know if its the bone saddle, the new setup (lowered the 1st closer to 0.023"), everything just finally settling in (I bought it new but build date was last year) - likely a combination of a lot of things. But I really like the sound now. I always liked the tone and sustain but the volume / body of the sound left a bit for me to be desired. But now it seems much better!